OP
RockWrangler
Bronze Member
It is interesting to see the varied replies to this post. It looks like every area has its own varmint problem. On the west side of WA State, it was mostly moles, voles, rats, and occasional beavers damming up the creek. My Anatolian Shepherds took care of the voles and rats, and I trapped the moles. The beavers were a whole other story.
I’m not sure there is a solution to this problem. The marmots probably can reproduce faster than I can trap them, so my new idle time filler may be marmot trapping. Since their fleas can be a source of bubonic plague, I handle them as little as possible, which means eating or skinning them is out. The website selling marmot skins for $131 each does make me pause and consider. Hmmm, $131 X 78 (as of this moment) = $10,218. Figure maybe 25% from the merchant: that is almost $2500. I’m still going to pass on that option though.
To give you an idea of the number of marmots on my little plot of ground, I have trapped an additional four just since I started writing this post. My wife now considers our trips to the nature preserve as a kind of “date.”
Jstpssng asked whether I could be relocating the same animals over and over. I suppose it is possible, but the preserve is 2-3 miles away, across three roads, maybe 2,000 feet lower elevation, and up at least two basalt cliffs. I don’t underestimate the possibility, but don’t think so.
Several of you mentioned problems with pocket gophers. That is another issue I have to deal with. My barnyard and pasture are riddled with gopher hills and tunnels. I have a box of new gopher traps setting in the shop, waiting to be deployed. This is a new subject for me, so I am learning as I go. Last summer, our first year of gardening at this place, the gophers absolutely wrecked my garden. I hope to get ahead of them this year. We’ll see …
I haven’t mentioned the chicken hawks (Cooper’s Hawk), have I? Since raptors are federally protected, I can’t shoot them. Although when I caught one tearing the head off one of my chickens, I was tempted. What I did, instead, was cover the chicken yard with netting. The smaller birds can still get in to steal the chicken scratch, but so far it has stopped further hawk predation.
There are always a couple of red-tailed hawks that show up when I mow the back pasture, ready to feed on the newly-exposed rodents. They rarely go away hungry. Oftentimes they will miss their target, so will set still a minute, waiting for the critter to move. I usually stop the tractor, sometimes only a few feet away, and watch. I told my wife they look for all the world like feathered cats.
There is also a pair of Golden Eagles that love soaring on the thermals moving up the cliffs. When they get bored or tired they land in a tall pine at the back of my pasture and survey their domain. We got to watch last year as they made some new Golden Eagles.
I’m not sure there is a solution to this problem. The marmots probably can reproduce faster than I can trap them, so my new idle time filler may be marmot trapping. Since their fleas can be a source of bubonic plague, I handle them as little as possible, which means eating or skinning them is out. The website selling marmot skins for $131 each does make me pause and consider. Hmmm, $131 X 78 (as of this moment) = $10,218. Figure maybe 25% from the merchant: that is almost $2500. I’m still going to pass on that option though.
To give you an idea of the number of marmots on my little plot of ground, I have trapped an additional four just since I started writing this post. My wife now considers our trips to the nature preserve as a kind of “date.”
Jstpssng asked whether I could be relocating the same animals over and over. I suppose it is possible, but the preserve is 2-3 miles away, across three roads, maybe 2,000 feet lower elevation, and up at least two basalt cliffs. I don’t underestimate the possibility, but don’t think so.
Several of you mentioned problems with pocket gophers. That is another issue I have to deal with. My barnyard and pasture are riddled with gopher hills and tunnels. I have a box of new gopher traps setting in the shop, waiting to be deployed. This is a new subject for me, so I am learning as I go. Last summer, our first year of gardening at this place, the gophers absolutely wrecked my garden. I hope to get ahead of them this year. We’ll see …
I haven’t mentioned the chicken hawks (Cooper’s Hawk), have I? Since raptors are federally protected, I can’t shoot them. Although when I caught one tearing the head off one of my chickens, I was tempted. What I did, instead, was cover the chicken yard with netting. The smaller birds can still get in to steal the chicken scratch, but so far it has stopped further hawk predation.
There are always a couple of red-tailed hawks that show up when I mow the back pasture, ready to feed on the newly-exposed rodents. They rarely go away hungry. Oftentimes they will miss their target, so will set still a minute, waiting for the critter to move. I usually stop the tractor, sometimes only a few feet away, and watch. I told my wife they look for all the world like feathered cats.
There is also a pair of Golden Eagles that love soaring on the thermals moving up the cliffs. When they get bored or tired they land in a tall pine at the back of my pasture and survey their domain. We got to watch last year as they made some new Golden Eagles.
btw, in NYC they've been using dry ice for some time to reduce rats in specific locations. I wonder if Chi-Town won't try it too somewhere. It pretty much does what 'Giant Killer' etc smoke bombs do but just suffocates vs w/poison.
