NationStates Jolt Archive

Varmint troubles! Anyone have any expertise on the topic? Any advice related to the extermination of pocket gophers, moles, ground squirrels, birds (they're in the walls) or rats would be much appreciated.

I have a little expertise myself, and can handle little infestations, but I could really use some advice on how to deal with the swarm of refugees that our current spell of dry weather has driven to seek asylum on my family's property. My owl having gone awol on me, I am now absolutely beset by all manner of pests, esp. gophers, who are threatening several valued fruit trees that I wish to keep healthy and producing. (Before I get "get a blog!", please understand that I'm mentioning the specifics of the problem to indemnify myself against the 'animal-rights' nonsense that surfaces occasionally online - it probably won't work, but the point is that these infestiations are no joke, and buying the gophers a bus ticket back to Minnesota isn't an option).

I've been using these so far:

http://www.drillspot.com/pimages/1664/166487_300.jpg

because they were what Home Depot had. They work well enough when the stars align and the gopher triggers them just perfectly, but I have to set each of them at least two or three times before I get a hit, and the way the pincers have been consistently missing any vital organ means I'm basically recreating the Katyn Massacre every morning (pellet to the back of the head), which I don't like.

So, what do you all use to control pests? If you don't have pocket gophers, what do you have in your part of the world, and how do people there deal with them?

Poll on the way. :)

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The gophers are terrible this year.

When I was younger, we'd plug away at them with 22s.

But, living within city limits, this is no longer possible. So I've been snaring them.

mix some rat poison with some hamster pellets.....





wait....you don't have pets do you?

mix some rat poison with some hamster pellets.....


wait....you don't have pets do you?I think someone was doing this...because we've been finding dead gophers...and dead birds lately.

I just don't want to find someone's dead cat or dog please.

Making an aggressive move on them by the means of thermonuclear weaponry from orbiting entities placed there for this specific purpose.

Rumor has it that this is, in fact, the only way to banish any doubt.

get a cat. they love to chase down and kill pests.

my inlaws got a humane catch and release trap that seems to be working for them pretty well. ....not so good for skunks since you cant really get close enough to release them ...

I think someone was doing this...because we've been finding dead gophers...and dead birds lately.

I just don't want to find someone's dead cat or dog please.

bury the poison and cover it with rocks? the gophers dig tunnels. They'll get it and not the pets?


:gas: Though murphy might say otherwise....

The gophers are terrible this year.

When I was younger, we'd plug away at them with 22s.

But, living within city limits, this is no longer possible. So I've been snaring them.

This is the worst year I've seen in the seven that I've been at my current residence. Pretty crazy.

mix some rat poison with some hamster pellets.....

wait....you don't have pets do you?

Nope, no pets. I've seen stychnine-treated grain recommended, but apparently grain isn't a gopher's usual diet, and if they only consume enough to get sick, they don't usually touch the grain again (makes sense). There's also the risk of poisioning basically anything else in the area, so I'm on the fence about poison.

I would suggest a cat... but they won't take out the gophers... or the birds in the walls...

My grandparents got live traps for gophers on their land and then drove them far away (I think they got dumped off in forests or some land that wasn't being used for agriculture).