If you've got pocket gophers....

charlz · Apr 30, 2007

I highly recommend the 'propane' method of elimination. I have been messing around with traps, flooding, gas bombs, getting the county to use poison etc. for two years with little success. After hearing about the 'Rodenator' (Remedies for Gophers - How to get rid of Groundhogs!) and 'Varmit Getter' (Varmit Getter) devices and seeing their prices I messed around with making my own propane device. I got sidetracked for a while and then decided to call one of the companies that will come out and propane the little bastards for you. They wanted $110/hr and figured it would take 2.5 - 3.5 hours to do my little 4.5 acre place. Naturally this put me back to making my own device. Which I did using my own torch set and some misc. junk I had laying around.

The results are unbelievable, I spent one morning working the whole place and then following up the next two mornings. Most of the places showed no activity the next two mornings. One corner of my hay field that was highly infested took all three mornings. Between the gophers digging it up and me blowing it up the whole area is shredded and has a soft feeling to it when you walk on it.

If you have the $$ and a big enough problem it is probably worth it to buy one of these devices. I don't know if rental stores would ever carry something like this but man that sure would be nice for people with pocket gopher problems.

For anybody who wants to make one and maybe blow themselves up:

I took a small round block of wood about 2.5 inches in diameter and about 3 inches long, it is actually cut from a tree I took out. The diameter makes it a snug fit in the gopher holes I had. I found a 4' piece of rubber hose and drilled a hole through the wood that I could just barely shove the hose through.

You use and oxy/acetylene set and substitute your BBQ propane tank for the acetylene. For an ignition device I used model rocket igniters, about $1 each at the hobby store. One of those electric 'spark' type igniters from a BBQ would probably be best and cheapest. I tried the push button one but it would not work over 20' of the solid phone wire (like what is in the walls in your house). So over about an inch from the hose hole I drilled a second hold and feed through a 20' piece of the solid telephone wire and put insulated alligator clips on the end.

I started out using my cutting torch (I have the smaller version) and slipping the tubing over the cutting head. This turned out to be pretty slow as the gas does not come out that fast. I then took the head off the torch and using another piece of tubing as a coupler, I hooked the torch body right to the hose going through the block.

So the process is:

Find the gopher mound and dig down till you get a clear tunnel opening

Place an igniter on the alligator clips, (I bent it back towards the block so it would not go into the dirt when you put the block in the whole)

Place the block in the hole and cover with dirt, tamp it a bit so gas doesn't leak out when filling.

Using the smaller torch set I have I used about 1/4 turn of propane and 1/2 or more of Oxygen. This is with the propane set to 7 and the Oxy set to 30.

Let run 5 minutes (found by slowing moving up one minute at a time).

Put your ear plugs in while waiting

Turn the torch off and disconnect from the hose (don't want to blow up your torch)

Move to a safe place, touch the wires to a cordless drill battery and enjoy

I went through and blew up every recent mound in all directions till I was satisfied I had gotten the whole tunnel network.

Worked like a charm. It does work better if the ground has been recently irrigated and is wet down for an inch or two.

If you have to dig down a ways make sure you fill the hole back up with dirt, I had one where I had a hole about a foot deep and some propane settled in there and it went off like a cannon

No damage to anything but it was a nice reminder on how dangerous this stuff is.

BTW this is for educational purposes only, use at your own risk

Charles

archerynut · Apr 30, 2007

Now that sounds like some good, clean, honest fun.

Harvster · Apr 30, 2007

That does sound like a BLAST!

You may find this entertaining.http://www.bennorthrop.com/Home/Misc/Funny/whale.qt

HomeBrew2 · Apr 30, 2007

Charlz, thanks so much for the DETAILED commentary. I'm to the point you got to on my 5 ac ... I get good results with the traps but have so many ancient tunnels many times they just come up 50' away and abandon their entry tunnel.

I will try this but may have to wait till fall due to arid conditions coming on fast.

I do have to ask, I assume you had no luck using propane alone ...

Thanks again for your very helpful post

charlz · Apr 30, 2007

HomeBrew2 said:
Charlz, thanks so much for the DETAILED commentary. I'm to the point you got to on my 5 ac ... I get good results with the traps but have so many ancient tunnels many times they just come up 50' away and abandon their entry tunnel.

I will try this but may have to wait till fall due to arid conditions coming on fast.

I do have to ask, I assume you had no luck using propane alone ...

Thanks again for your very helpful post

It is actually all about the oxygen, the mix you are shooting for is about 93% oxygen and the rest is propane. I got about 12 shots to a 40cuft bottle of oxygen. I did not do any kind of calculations, mainly just tried different amounts of each. Some shots are better then others, could be due to me having the mix a bit off or just the structure of the burrow/ground. All in all I think I spent about $70 with about $25 of that being in igniters. A reusable ignition system like a coil off a car and a spark plug or a battery operated BBQ igniter would save some $$ if you have a lot of blasting to do.

charlz · Apr 30, 2007

Harvster said:
That does sound like a BLAST!

You may find this entertaining.http://www.bennorthrop.com/Home/Misc/Funny/whale.qt

Hehehe yeah I saw that some years ago... has that classic line "So dynamite it was...."

HomeBrew2 · Apr 30, 2007

Charlz, Thanks for the followup. Really appreciate it. If I wind up w/ anything to add, I'll do so.

tallyho8 · May 1, 2007

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

Mrs3RRL · May 1, 2007

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?

California · May 1, 2007

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.

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.