On May 26, 11:54�pm, "SteveB" toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote:
"aluckyguess" wrote in message

...

That freaking gopher is doing so much damage. I filed the hole with water
today to try and drown the sucker, water started coming out everywhere. I
thought the ground was going to drop.
The gopher is winning. I have a few more things I am going to try next
week.

I came home after six days in the hospital to find gophers had moved in to
the tunnels left after I blasted the last ones out with my home made
Rodenator. �(seewww.rodenator.com) �So, I dug and dug and dug, making it
look like a scene from European WW I. �But I did find a tunnel. �I filled it
with 60 seconds of propane and pure O2. �Then I couldn't get it to detonate.
I added a little propane, then O2. �Did that a couple of times. �It finally
fired with a nice thump, indicating the explosion took place deep. �Those
are the best, as surface explosions sound like a .357 Magnum, and will blow
dirt and rocks into your face.

Gophers are a pain in the neck. �They are difficult to kill, and then if you
do, there's an OPEN sign in gopher language for the next one. �Water does
not work well often, and only wreaks havoc on your
garden/foundation/whatever. �Poisons are OK, but there's a danger there. �CO
from a lawnmower exhaust works pretty good if you get it in the right
tunnel. �A propane/O2 device works good, but they are expensive to either
build or buy. �And then you just have to use it over and over and over again
on every new juvenile delinquent gopher that comes along.

I have abandoned the idea of hiring out my device, and will use it only now
on my and neighbor's properties because you really need to provide it like a
monthly extermination service. �Once you kill the ones there, new ones move
right in, even with collapsed tunnels. �The costs of fuel and labor are only
a draw when matched to the fee one can charge. �I had many desperate people
call in on ads I placed locally. �However, the dangers of fire and accidents
is very high. �Two Canadians using the Rodenator set fire to twenty acres
and burned $200,000 worth of outbuildings recently. �They were fined $1500
each for their good intentioned work. �Fire can come out the other end of a
blast, so one needs to be cautious around buildings or dry vegetation. �I've
had secondary shots after a minute or so of the first, indicating a slow
moving fire underground.

I have heard of anhydrous ammonia being put into gopher tunnels, and that
works with a side benefit of fertilizing the surrounding soil. �It works,
but that stuff is nasty with a capital N.

Good luck.

Steve in SW Utah

Here's my expericnce:

We, and the surrounding houses, had a lot of gophers... until one of
our house cats (my wife had four) went feral. We put out a little
dish of cat food for her, just enough to keep her around, but now all
the
gophers are gone for the whole block. She must love the taste.

Buy or rent a cat and be sure to leave it out at night!