billb@teklabs.UUCP (Bill Beran) (06/05/84)
My wife and I have a small farm where we are establishing a commercial
winegrape vineyard. We have been plagued by gophers and moles for some
time, and have tried most of the remedies described in a recent posting.
However, I am curious about what you are supposed to do with the fish heads?
Our results were poor, as you might expect. However, an elderly re-
tired dairy farmer neighbor uses a technique which he swears by and which
we are going to try. I make no claims yet, but at least his pastures are
conspicuously free of gopher mounds.
You need the following tools; a propane flamethrower (the kind that
is advertised for burning weeds) a small bucket of sulfur powder, a small
shovel, a one cup measure, and some method for transporting this stuff
to the site of a recent gopher mound.
What you do is, dig down to the run, dump in a cup of sulfur, light
the flamethrower and jam it down the hole. The massive flame and the high
velocity of the gasses creates an explosive wave front of sulfur dioxide
which travels through the burrows faster than the little varmits can
close it off behind them. This is the reason that the gas sticks, car
exhausts, flares, etc. don't work. The gas moves slowly enough that the
animal can close rhe run
They can apparently do this very rapidly, even as they are running
along.
Emil (the neighbor) has offered to teach my wife the technique, as
she is conducting a personal vendetta against these pests. I saw him do
it once when he was picking peaches in our orchard. Smoke literally came
out of the ground at several mound locations as far as a hundred feet
away. No further activity in a large area around that location!
This sounds like an elaborate and complicated way to go, but if it
gives good results, will be worth it in our case. In a neighborhood,
perhaps several people could share in the cost of the equipment.
If you try it, please be VERY careful with the flamethrower! It will
start a fire very quickly, and the head gets hot enough to cause severe
burns almost instantly.
I hope I don't get any flames :-) from animal lovers. If you have
ever tried to do any gardening or farming in an area where gophers are
rampant, you will understand the panicky tone in the posting from the
person who asked for help. I will try to update later in the season on
results, good or bad.
Bill Beran
Imaging Research Lab
Tektronix
{decvax,ucbvax}
!tektronix!teklabs!billb
"A day without wine.....who needs it?"