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gunDriller
22nd January 2013, 04:05 PM
I have a growing ground squirrel problem.

I actually think they are kind of cute. I've always like rodents, the smarter ones, like some rats are very smart, like little dogs.

Anyway, I went to the farm supply store warehouse today, after buying a box of .30-30 Winchester. The best adviser guy in the store told me to look for "Travis", because I was asking questions about dealing with ground squirrels using rodent-eating snakes like Bull, rat, corn, and King-snakes.


Travis has reptiles, currently just a big lizard. But he was quite honest about the ability of snakes to deal with an exponentially growing ground squirrel supply - said I would need 10 of them.

One of his co-workers, who had given the lizard to Travis and was also knowledgeable on the subject, said I needed to get a barn cat. Said it would eat 1 ground squirrel a day


I don't want to use poison, partially because I don't want the smell of 100 dead decaying ground squirrels in my home.

Although, actually, the ground squirrels are under my home, and also in the area around my bath-tub. Travis's co-worker said he had seen infestations where there were 3 or 4 nests in the molded area around the underside of the bath-tub.

Those are the sounds that I am hearing - ground squirrels raising baby ground squirrels, ground squirrels mating, ground squirrels running around and around my bathtub. It's a creepy sound - I would like to record it.


So I guess, the Humane Society charges about $30 for a cat. That is the donation to help pay for the spaying & neutering that they do.

(Of course, I could always get some non-neutered cats and let them proliferate and then EAT them. Separate subject. :) )


Anyway, it looks like, if I don't want to have 200+ Ground Squirrels in a few weeks, I need to make a small hole in the cover to the crawl-space, and get myself a barn cat.


The other thing I learned today is that it takes about 3 years after you buy a 5 foot tall $40 apple tree for it to bear fruit.

I have 3 apple trees that are about 4 feet tall in my living room, and 5 or 6 that are about a foot tall.

So if I am really nice to the apple trees I already have, I can be growing my own apples in 3 years.

The ones I have are raised from seed. I know they say that those tend to be mushy, but I don't really care.


Back to the subject of ground squirrels.

I hear they have this thing called the Mouse-trap.

http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Pest-Control-1500/2007/10/Rodent-1.jpg


The fire-arms approach -

http://www.chuckhawks.com/oregon_massacre2.jpg

"Nate drew first blood with his .17 HMR Savage, blowing the unfortunate sand rat in half at about 50 yards. It's a very bad thing to be a small rodent hit by a .17 HMR slug at short range !"


http://www.reptilechannel.com/images/reptile-news/snake-mouse-500.jpg


No, I'm not going to eat the ground squirrels. :)

Dogman
22nd January 2013, 04:14 PM
Yep!

Adopt a couple of cats and you will have a nearly purrrrfect solution to your critter problem.

And if fixed so they do not reproduce you will not have to suffer through a cat population explosion
and swap one problem for another!

Edit: Just feed them so they stick around the house. Tho if you start raising chicks from your chickens the chicks will need to be protected. Tho if done right the cats can learn to leave the chickens alone.

gunDriller
23rd January 2013, 04:47 AM
it's kidney looks just like a kidney bean !

Tumbleweed
30th January 2013, 05:29 AM
gunDriller there's another option that's kind of expensive but looks like fun and something you might enjoy doing. It's a set up that blows them up in their holes called a Rodent Blaster. There's information on them at this link. http://www.rodentblaster.com/




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es27P11PDxc&feature=player_embedded

gunDriller
31st January 2013, 06:55 AM
gunDriller there's another option that's kind of expensive but looks like fun and something you might enjoy doing. It's a set up that blows them up in their holes called a Rodent Blaster. There's information on them at this link. http://www.rodentblaster.com/



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es27P11PDxc&feature=player_embedded

now i just have to figure out what heavy metal soundtrack to play !


the rodents around the bathtub seem to have vacated the premises. maybe it's their vacation spot.

as far as the ground squirrels eating the chickens' food - i was thinking a roll of 1/2" square mesh, basically, everywhere - floor, wall where they climb up, etc.

Tumbleweed
5th February 2013, 04:19 PM
I ordered one of these things and got it a couple of days ago. Put it together today and tried it out on a couple of pocket gopher tunnels. The ground is frozen but it makes a hell of a blast! I'm going to try it on some prairie dogs early tomorrow morning. You might be able to rent one in your area.

Tumbleweed
7th February 2013, 04:55 PM
I tried my rodent blaster out yesterday morning on about twenty prairie dog holes. Took a few tries to get the gas and oxygen mix adjusted. It puts a lot of gas and oxygen down their burrows because they are big and the blast is awesome when you touch it off. It shook the ground and there's quite a shock wave when you're beside the hole when it blows. It was a hell of a lot of fun and if it didn't kill them they are for damn sure deaf now just like me.