Bees in our bonnets

[WVBill]

Larry:

Scruffy's method with the gasoline down the hole will work - I've used it.
But let me emphasize - use a VERY long pole to ignite the gas.
Gasoline fumes pool and spread out along the ground much farther than you might imagine - especially if the air is calm.
My pole wasn't long enough and although I didn't get burned (to this day I don't know how I escaped), the sensation of standing in the middle of what was essentially a gasoline explosion - if only for an instant - was not one I want to repeat or want anyone else to experience.

Bill

 

[Harv]

Guess I'll toss in my two cents --

I'm as fascinated with burning and blowing up things as the next guy /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif, but I keep flashing back on an episode from about 40 years ago which has stuck in my mind.

Up at our family's mountain cabin we joined our neighbor in burning a stack of pine needles and brush (ironically in the name of fire prevention). Not a big deal -- a common event in that area. The fire wasn't all that big nor did it last very long. We probably spent more time dowsing the area afterwards than we did with the actual burning.

The shocker came the following morning when we discovered a number of blackened circles a foot or so in diameter with smoke rising from them, as much as a hundred feet from where the main fire had been. This was my first exposure to underground fires. We were in a heavily wooded area with plenty of dried grasses and other combustibles around, so we spent a very uneasy day locating the burn circles and saturating the entire area with water as best we could. It was several days before we started to relax and feel sure that we got it all.

I guess the caution here is to be careful about what kind of soil you are dealing with when using the crispy critter technique. Fire can be a scary thing, especially when it's sneaking around underground where you can't see it.

 

[RobertN]

Harv,
A 12-gauge and lowbase #8's woulda fixed that problem easily, and from a little distance...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[RobertN]

Bird,
That is just the old west Cowboy "Kill anything that interferes with the herd" philosophy of the west.

Let's see, exterminate the prairie dogs, rattle snakes, coyotes, wolves, and anything else that might harm, or eat the forage, of the almighty livestock.

That's where that "kill em all" thing came from...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif