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permaculture - RE: [permaculture] Gopher control - RATS !

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  • From: "sals" <sals@rain.org>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [permaculture] Gopher control - RATS !
  • Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 06:28:51 -0700

The snake is probably fat it takes awhile after they eat a rat before
they are hungry again. Barn owl nest boxes may also help . And don't
forget a good cat.

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-admin@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Claude Genest
Sent: Saturday, August 10, 2002 10:53 PM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] Gopher control - RATS !


I had quite a preponderance of rats accumulatiing on my property over
the last two years.... They were loving the availability of organic
chicken food... I decided to take a "wait and see approach" figuring
that if there was an abundance of prey it would inevitably attract a
predator....

So, I kept looking up - figuring there would soon come a saviour from
the sky - owl, eagle, hawk, falcon.... The one day I looked down -
Yeehah ! Biggest Gartner snake I ever saw ( used to catch them as a kid
)..... ( see
pic)
Now I began to watch the snake interact with my chickens - figured he
was a goner for sure, but he held his own ( no, I didn't check his
sex...) .... Then I watched how the snake goes into the rat's layer and
awaits their return.... Rat problem now under control !

New dilemma: haven't seen the snakes in a while, wonder what's eating
them ?

Claude

> From: Loren Davidson <loren@farwalker.com>
> Reply-To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:52:10 -0700
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Gopher control
>
> At 06:57 AM 8/9/02 -0500, Mark wrote:
>> Their their burrows are pretty shallow, you may be able to flush them

>> out with a garden hose and catch them in a snare or net for
>> relocation. Having said that it's completely unethical IMO to
>> "relocate" a pest you don't want to some one elses farm or garden.
>
> Given how many plants - including fruit trees - I have lost to gophers

> over the years, I have absolutely no qualms about "relocating" them to

> the gopher afterlife, sorry John, by any means that doesn't imperil
> other species in the vicinity.
>
> I have one acquaintance who has remarked, "I hear that garlic-stuffed
> gopher is delicious." :) Sounds to me like an appropriate way to
> harvest surplus gophers.
>
> That said, here are some bits by a southern CA gardener named Andrew
> Lopez, from his book "How to Heal the Earth In Your Spare Time" (Acres

> USA, ISBN: 0-911311-26-2). I've found some of his suggestions to be
> really helpful, but haven't tried these yet.
>
> Top-dressing with year-old horse manure has a repellant effect; they
> "don't like manure at all." (I'm not sure this one works in practise,

> though the last gopher damage I had in a bed with horse manure may not

> have had enough of it to drive them away.)
>
> One gopher-repellant formula he lists involves mixing equal parts
> tobacco dust, cayenne pepper, and diatomaceous earth (DE) and
> injecting this into an active gopher tunnel with the same type of
> injector you'd use to put poison into their tunnels. He also claims
> that putting human hair in the tunnels will make gophers go away.
>
> I don't agree with his recommendations for the battery- or
> wind-powered "gopher stakes." In my experience, they only enrage the
> gophers, who become even more destructive. And the little beasties
> tunnel right aroung "gopherspurge."
>
> Build soil,
>
> Loren
>
>> At 10:45 PM 8/8/02 -0700, you wrote:
>>> Aloha,
>>>
>>> Looking for tested methods of gopher control for a friend of mine in

>>> central coast CA, non-killing if possible. Trench and wire mesh
>>> around the garden is a future option but not doable this year due to

>>> lack of time and/or money (how deep will they go, anyhow?). So,
>>> repellent mixes, that sort of thing, for short-term relief until a
>>> longer-term solution can be implemented...
>>>
>>> thanks,
>>> John S.
>
> Loren Davidson Earth steward, healer, singer/songwriter
> loren@farwalker.com http://www.earthspring.org/loren/
> AIM: loren334 ICQ: 65291610
> Music: http://www.earthspring.org/lorendavidson/
> ***Ask me about Sunset Celebrations in Berkeley - next one 8/27***
> "Life goes on." - Sun Bear
>
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> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
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