I thought you guys would get a kick out of this...
Last week I set a gopher trap in my vineyard. The next afternoon, I decided to check the trap.
I uncovered the hole and I could see one tunnel was slightly back-filled and the other side was open. That's unusual because if they don't trip the trap and they back-fill the hole, its usually packed solid with dirt. I pulled the chain on both traps and removed them and sure enough....no gopher.
Well...I was kneeling on the ground at the time...when suddenly my left knee broke through a tunnel. So I thought, "I'll put a trap in that tunnel". I reached into the tunnel to start clearing some dirt when suddenly I felt like I had gotten stuck by a needle. I yanked my hand out of the tunnel and darned if a gopher didn't come with it. The little bugger had clamped onto my finger but I had reacted so quickly that he never got a good hold of it. He came out with my hand and plopped onto the ground in front of me. For a second I was looking at him and he was looking at me...I grabbed a probe that I had made out of rebar and used for finding tunnels...and I rammed it through him. That didn't do him in so I clobbered him with a brick!
I've trapped a lot of gophers and never dreamed I'd get bit. I think what happened was when my knee went through the tunnel it trapped him where he had nowhere to go.
There is no record of a gopher ever transmitting rabies to a human and its extremely rare that they would have rabies. So all I had to do was get a tetanus shot.
From what I read, gophers can bite through bone and even concrete so I was lucky.
Anyway....its almost laughable now and I thought y'all might find it an interesting story.
Last week I set a gopher trap in my vineyard. The next afternoon, I decided to check the trap.
I uncovered the hole and I could see one tunnel was slightly back-filled and the other side was open. That's unusual because if they don't trip the trap and they back-fill the hole, its usually packed solid with dirt. I pulled the chain on both traps and removed them and sure enough....no gopher.
Well...I was kneeling on the ground at the time...when suddenly my left knee broke through a tunnel. So I thought, "I'll put a trap in that tunnel". I reached into the tunnel to start clearing some dirt when suddenly I felt like I had gotten stuck by a needle. I yanked my hand out of the tunnel and darned if a gopher didn't come with it. The little bugger had clamped onto my finger but I had reacted so quickly that he never got a good hold of it. He came out with my hand and plopped onto the ground in front of me. For a second I was looking at him and he was looking at me...I grabbed a probe that I had made out of rebar and used for finding tunnels...and I rammed it through him. That didn't do him in so I clobbered him with a brick!
I've trapped a lot of gophers and never dreamed I'd get bit. I think what happened was when my knee went through the tunnel it trapped him where he had nowhere to go.
There is no record of a gopher ever transmitting rabies to a human and its extremely rare that they would have rabies. So all I had to do was get a tetanus shot.
From what I read, gophers can bite through bone and even concrete so I was lucky.
Anyway....its almost laughable now and I thought y'all might find it an interesting story.
