When gophers are eating your crop...
Brad Crammond from Austin, Man., has been having a problem with 13-lined ground squirrels (striped gophers) eating his crop. “It started in one field two years ago in a small patch, and they have now spread to almost every field. We have been on top of it from the start using the grain-mixed rodenticides, but the population continues to grow. During this spring's direct seeding I was amazed how they have spread,” he says.
Crammond says Rozol, a grain-based poison bait, takes up to three baitings before he can notice any drop in activity. With the poison, he has also seen dead gophers lying on top of the ground. “Badgers and hawks could come along and eat them getting poisoned themselves." He didn't want that.
When he noticed hundreds and hundreds of holes in one quarter-section of canola again this spring, he knew he had to do something different. After hearing about NH3 being used as a rodenticide, he and his father, Lorne, set out to make something on their own. He borrowed a 1,200-gallon NH3 tank from a neighbour with only 15 per cent left in the tank “You need barely any product,” he says. He towed the tank around the field with a mid-sized tractor with duals. He didn’t want to damage the young canola plants, so he went with the big-wheeled tractor. “A few days later we couldn’t tell where we’d been,” he says.
He got 30-feet of NH3 hose and put a 3/8-inch stainless steel ball valve on the end and a length of threaded pipe for his injector. He stuck the pipe through a eight-inch rubber cup. This sealed the hole, keeping the NH3 inside. He stuck the pipe in the hole, cracked the valve for five to 10 seconds, then moved on to the next hole. “With the tank pressurized to 100 or 110 pounds, you just need to crack the valve a quarter turn,” he says. He stresses that everything must be compatible with NH3.
For protective gear, he wore a full-face snowmobile helment, NH3-grade rubber gloves and a three-quarter length lined rain coat. He also made sure he stayed upwind of the target holes. “It’s nice to do the job when there’s a slight breeze in case any product escapes.”
With one round of NH3, Crammond figures he got 95 per cent control. "It's not a fun job, but it works," he says.
Do you have problems with 13-lined grounds squirrels, Richardson ground squirrels or pocket gophers? What techniques work best for you? Post a comment by clicking “comment” under the headline of this blog, or send me an email and I’ll share it with Grainews readers. (Photo credit: Wisconsin government extension and images.google.ca.)
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Dear Jay and All,
I work with gophers and ground squirrels as a part of my business and I have found two traps that take most of the work out of controlling both. Gophers have a weakness that farmers can exploit and that is that they must always close the burrow entrance after they push out soil - always. I use a tool to open the burrows and then a trap that fits down into the open burrow and traps them when they come up to close the burrow opening. The method is called the Cinch surface trapping method and I have train many ag workers with great results - better than poisons.
The California Ground Squirrel like all ground squirrels also has a weakness - the need to be a community. They have a social structure that thrives on the "group" taking advantage of a situation (like a crop) while there are guards and lookouts. I use a trap that captures most of a single colony in one day. There are many family groups in a squirrel population and this method allows the easy trapping of each group. I use a trap called the Black Fox repeating Ground Squirrel trap. Prebaiting is the key here and using grains like oats usually works well. Sometimes in early spring it is better to use apples as they change diet with the seasons. Set us a feeding area not to far from the colony burrows and not too close either. Place the trap in the locked position so squirrels can not get in for the first seven days of baiting near the feeding area. Then after seven days open the trap outer doors to expose the one way doors inside and this is when you make the catch. I have growers reporting up to 28 squirrels in one morning in one trap. Dispose of the squirrels using a euthanizing method (CO2, CO or H2O) and have the next area in the prebaiting stage. More information on both of these techniques are on my website www.gopherslimited.com
Good luck,
Thomas
Brad, I feel your pain.
My company manufactures a device that will solve your problem quickly. Have you ever heard of the Rodenator? Take a look at www.rodenator.com, I know you will love what you see. The Rodenator is a safe humane and chemical free way to instantly kill any type of burrowing pest animal. The Rodenator injects a mixture of propane and oxygen down the gophers tunnel system, then the mix is ignited. Death is instant, concussion kills the animal, not a flame. What is really nice about the whole process is that when your pet goes out and eats one of the dead animals, he does not get sick and die. Do yourself a favor and check out the website. www.rodenator.com What a Blast!!!