If you've got pocket gophers....

HomeBrew2 · May 1, 2007

Again, thanks to Charlz for the quantative data about his setup!

Alas, from my experience, wives are MUCH easier to get rid of than pocket gophers.

I expect to buy a cheap tree and plant it in an active gopher run to see if I can blow it clean out of the ground ... I also expect most of those that I come into contact with will consider that just another folly of mine.

When I hit the lotto, I plan to pour as much bottled ox and propane into a known run that has unplugged holes as I can get to.

anojones · May 2, 2007

Hey California- what kind of baskets do you use for your trees? I was thinking of making a chicken wire lined hole for future trees (as the gophers got about half of mine)- but the chicken wire was a pain to use. Rather than blow them up- I think I'm gonna hire a local kid to trap and pay him by the gopher.

California · May 2, 2007

anojones said:
Hey California- what kind of baskets do you use for your trees? I was thinking of making a chicken wire lined hole...

Nurseries here stock the baskets. The mesh on those is about 3/8". (They come flat, shaped like a square envelope.) I also make baskets out of 'found' material when available. Chicken wire, foundation-vent screen, etc.

Dad used to put poisoned-grain gopher bait in their runs when he planted.

charlz · May 2, 2007

Mrs3RRL said:
So, you don't have to plug all the other gopher holes in that tunnel before you do it, you just do it one at a time?

The pocket gophers are the ones that never come out of the ground... and they plug all their holes, just leave mounds of dirt all over the place for mower blades etc. to hit.

They use these types of devices on ground hogs etc. but you probably need something that would put the gas out faster (the larger torch set) otherwise most would probably just leak out the open holes.

Charles

charlz · May 2, 2007

California said:
I first saw this and thought I gotta try it.

Then, thinking some more about it - Nearly every hole I dig for a new tree finds a gopher run. This technique would blast the new trees out of the ground. I use mesh baskets to give the new tree a shield against gophers but they aren't blastproof. I can see my wife screaming 'I told you so!!!...' as the new trees come raining down all around us.

Local gopher folklore: I'm near where Luther Burbank (plant geneticist) started his experimental farm. The gophers were so bad he gave up here and moved a few miles to Santa Rosa. Then he donated that first parcel to the cemetery district.

I don't know that you would blast trees out.... dirt and sod for sure

There are some pics and videos on those sites I linked to which give you an idea of the size of the detonations.

Charles

charlz · May 2, 2007

tallyho8 said:
We don't have gophers in South Louisiana but I would sure like to try this on some of our armadillos.

How big is an armadillo burrow? Do they make tunnels all over like gophers or just dig a short burrow? If it is pretty big around I dunno if I'd want to be anywhere near that much gas

They say it is the concussion that kills them gophers and the destruction of their burrow is just an added benefit.

Charles

ScottOkla · May 3, 2007

Gophers killed almost all of the pecan seedlings I had on our future home site. In the first fall after we moved in, I trapped 108 of them off of about 8 acres. The following year (2006) I only got about 35. I only have an isolated few left near the house, and nothing seems to catch these 3 or 4. The propane sounds promising, but maybe overkill for the few I have left. I expect to have to trap 10-12 every year from here on.

A few notes:

In my opinion, the wooden box trap made by a guy in Henrietta (sp?), Oklahoma is by far the best. The others were modestly successful for me, but that box trap (Gopher Getter?) let me really start making progress. I did not think it would work well when I first saw it, but I was wrong. They are sold at a variety of places here in the Tulsa area. I got mine at Atwoods. Atwoods now has a poor Chinese imitation of this trap on their shelves also.

I have recently dug up individual tunnels (from killed trees) that were over 100 feet long with no side tunnels until I got to the edge of my property line. I don't know how well the propane would work in this situation. Those gophers are nearly impossible to totally eradicate unless you kill out all of your gopher-edible vegetation for a while.

My wife laughs at me a lot, as you might guess, but at least we now have living seedlings.

tallyho8 · May 3, 2007

charlz said:
How big is an armadillo burrow? Do they make tunnels all over like gophers or just dig a short burrow? If it is pretty big around I dunno if I'd want to be anywhere near that much gas They say it is the concussion that kills them gophers and the destruction of their burrow is just an added benefit.Charles

An armadillo burrow is usually about 6" in diameter and the few I have tested with smoke bombs usually have 2 or 3 entrances about 20' apart. I have tried to fill a burrow with water from a hose with no success even running it all night long. When these "armored diggers" curl up in a ball they are almost as tough as a cannon ball and I don't know if the blast would kill them or just shoot them out of the holes.

charlz · May 4, 2007

tallyho8 said:
An armadillo burrow is usually about 6" in diameter and the few I have tested with smoke bombs usually have 2 or 3 entrances about 20' apart. I have tried to fill a burrow with water from a hose with no success even running it all night long. When these "armored diggers" curl up in a ball they are almost as tough as a cannon ball and I don't know if the blast would kill them or just shoot them out of the holes.

Hmm cannonballs? While that might be fun I dunno about explaining the new hole in the garage/house

Charles

charlz · May 4, 2007

ScottOkla said:
Gophers killed almost all of the pecan seedlings I had on our future home site. In the first fall after we moved in, I trapped 108 of them off of about 8 acres. The following year (2006) I only got about 35. I only have an isolated few left near the house, and nothing seems to catch these 3 or 4. The propane sounds promising, but maybe overkill for the few I have left. I expect to have to trap 10-12 every year from here on.

If you already have a torch and a propane take it wouldn't take too long to rig something up. Getting some rocket igniters or some other ignition source might take a little longer depending on what is available around you.

Of course you are blowing things up underground so waterlines etc. might restrict where you want to do it.

ScottOkla said:
A few notes:

In my opinion, the wooden box trap made by a guy in Henrietta (sp?), Oklahoma is by far the best. The others were modestly successful for me, but that box trap (Gopher Getter?) let me really start making progress. I did not think it would work well when I first saw it, but I was wrong. They are sold at a variety of places here in the Tulsa area. I got mine at Atwoods. Atwoods now has a poor Chinese imitation of this trap on their shelves also.

Sounds like the same ones I have. The thing that got frustrating for me was the 'trap smart' ones. Seemed like the only ones I caught were the young ones. This means you are constantly going to have the problem.

ScottOkla said:
I have recently dug up individual tunnels (from killed trees) that were over 100 feet long with no side tunnels until I got to the edge of my property line. I don't know how well the propane would work in this situation. Those gophers are nearly impossible to totally eradicate unless you kill out all of your gopher-edible vegetation for a while.

I had the best luck with the ones that were in the process of making those long runs. The first morning I went out early while they were still active. The plan was they would be somewhere in that long tunnel digging so almost a sure kill if you blew up the entire tunnel system. I picked a spot a little back from the freshest mounds and started blasting in both directions.