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schmenke
30th July 2008, 17:34
A few weeks ago a family of gophers decided to take up residence under the concrete walk leading up to our front porch. Donning a pair of wellies and a well-worn Tilley I set about to evict the diminutive squatters.

Multiple attempts included:
Flooding them out with a garden hose;
Strategically placed pellets of rat poison;
Smoking them out with bits of oily rags.

Results: Nothing. Tenacious little buggers they are :mark: ...

So... I finally shelled out $38.00 for a "humane" cage-type trap.
A couple of nights ago I carefully baited it with a few peanuts and woke up the next morning to find the trap had sprung! "Ah success!" I thought. But alas, no gopher, just a wee mouse :mark:
Undeterred, I reset the contraption, this time with a few grains of bird seed... I awoke the next day to find a gopher!
Now, I ain't now Marlin Perkins, but judging by the state of the fields around here I figure these critters reside in multiples. So, resetting last night... another gopher!

Tally to date: Man - 3, Vermin – 0 :vader:

Tonight I’ll bait with a couple of lollipops and see if I can’t trap the neighbour’s kids.

Firstgear
30th July 2008, 19:32
So where do you drop the buggers off........the Mother-in-Laws?

We've got rabbits here that get into the garden & flower beds. I started off a couple of years ago with a humane trap, but only caught a couple of sparrows. Last year I bought a crossbow and my neighbor dusted off his BB gun. He's ahead 7 - 6

schmenke
30th July 2008, 23:55
Nah, the mum-in-law is in New Brunswick. There's an empty field full of the critters (gophers, not mum-in-laws) about a couple kms from the house where I've dropped them off.

Good luck with the rabbits... you'll run out of arrows :mark: . We have the same bunny problem around here. I own neither a crossbow or a b.b. gun, but my neighbour owns a couple of assault rifles (he works for Corrections Canada). After repeated requests he still refuses to let me borrow one :mark: .

Storm
31st July 2008, 07:45
Are you sure they won't come back ? :p :

I thought this was about the Discovery tv show :)
are you planning on eating them raw to show us your survival skills? :eek:

schmenke
31st July 2008, 15:33
No :mark: .
No, but I know the show you're talking about.
No, but the last one I trapped did look kinda meaty :p : (...well, he would be; he dug up and ate all my tulip bulbs :mark: )

Two consecutive nights now with a baited trap and no critters. I think I have successfully eradicated the rodents. The villagers rejoice! :D

Hazell B
1st August 2008, 02:37
What's a gopher?
I guess they're like rats crossed with rabbits?

Either way, the scoreline sounds like Germany V England :D

schmenke
1st August 2008, 15:47
What's a gopher?
I guess they're like rats crossed with rabbits? ...

More like rats crossed with squirrels :mark:
Pick up the Caddyshack dvd and educamate yerself :p

Daniel
1st August 2008, 16:50
We've got a squirrel that visits our front yard. Nice little guy. What's so bad about gophers?

schmenke
1st August 2008, 17:37
Gophers are a tad bigger and tend to reside in groups, digging holes all over your garden, making quite a mess. They breed like rabbits too.

Daniel
1st August 2008, 18:19
Ah ok. Fair enough. So kinda like teenagers that dig holes?

J4MIE
1st August 2008, 23:51
We have a problem with slugs :s You definitely do not want to walk around in the middle of the night without any shoes on! (I learned this through experience.... :rolleyes: )

dc10
2nd August 2008, 00:58
We have a horrendous slug problem too and this year for the first time they have been joined by humungous snails. God knows where they come from.

Hazell B
2nd August 2008, 15:49
We have a problem with slugs :s You definitely do not want to walk around in the middle of the night without any shoes on! (I learned this through experience.... :rolleyes: )

Hedgehogs or frogs are called for ;)

Failing that, buy a big bag of salt and simply enjoy ..... :up:

Daniel
2nd August 2008, 15:51
Hedgehogs or frogs are called for ;)

Failing that, buy a big bag of salt and simply enjoy ..... :up:
I've been lazy and bought pellets :) Work a treat!