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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Would CO2 Be Organic to kill ground hogs?
  • Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 22:21:31 -0500


On Feb 5, 2004, at 1:11 PM, Erdman, Jim wrote:

. . .


I think tom is thinking of Halon extinguishers, as I see many CO2 ones around, and see them listed in catalogs. Also, I believe that excess CO2 makes you drowsy, so rather than running away or digging away, a groundhog might decide to take a nap, one that he would never wake from.

Sounds like an idea to me, now to figure out how many cubic feet of CO2 are in the big tank that we got at an auction and use for carbonating beer and soda that we make--and then locate the low entrances of the burrows.

Jim Erdman, in Menomine, WI


I think you are confusing carbon dioxide (CO2) with carbon monoxide (CO). Carbon monoxide makes you drowsy, and gives you a nasty headache if you recover. As a way of killing animals, it is pretty humane. CO2 suffocation, in contrast, is very very unpleasant. I once worked in a lab where a lot of rodents were killed in the name of science. Usually we decapitated them, which is quick. But once someone killed a cage of hamsters by gassing them with CO2. The poor things were miserable, and gasped and writhed for a long time before they succumbed. CO2 is the product of respiration, and it is mostly the level of CO2 in your blood and lungs that triggers the "take a breath" reflex. Too much CO2 is what makes you feel like you are suffocating, and in greater quantities, it burns the lungs. (Forming carbolic acid, I think.) This is not a nice way to kill a groundhog. It also triggers the "I'm trapped in a closed cave" feeling, so my guess is that the groundhog would look for a way out, and you'd probably make it miserable without actually killing it. After all, a little too much CO2 must build up in burrows fairly frequently.

Acute lead poisoning is kinder and more likely to work.

Ginda





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