Re: Varmint's
>Linda wrote:
>
> > I am plagued with gophers and moles Do you have a remedy to get
> > rid of them?
>
>I sympathize with you. No easy solutions. Even if you can totally
>eliminate gophers, as soon as you stop an eradication program, they will
>migrate in again from your neighbor's land. Expensive and time-consuming as
>it is, you have probably found the only total effective solution - wire
>mesh. One solution is to put wire mesh underground (and underneath) a
>planted area, and keep this a "gopher free" zone, and give up on the rest of
>your land. The sides of this area could be anything impervious, such as
>concrete or plastic board such as used as a bamboo barrier. Expensive , but
>permanent, and would allow you not to have to cage each new plant. Some
>people have said (and i do not have personal experience to know) that if you
>plant a mass of certain euphorbes (which have poisonous roots) around your
>desired plants, that will protect them from the tunneling gophers, since the
>gophers wont eat the roots. This would probably NOT work for moles, which
>are eating little insects and other critters under the ground, and not
>roots. If you're out in the country, you can encourage 22-carrying
>teenagers to use them as target practice. Most people use poisonous baits,
>which are reasonably effective, and must be constantly put out (and traps
>for moles - there is this type of trap that is sensitive to the vibrations
>moles make in their tunnels, and is set above ground, and springs and
>impales them as they pass under.) If you had enough hawks or coyotes, you
>probably wouldn't have such a big problem. (Do your fellow South Texans
>regard coyotes as an asset, or as a varmit? ) I am told, though I have no
>actual experience, that Abyssinian cats will eliminate a large part of a
>gopher problem. Of course that means keeping them outside, and I imagine
>they would have to have been trained by their mother to hunt. (They may
>themselves become the meal of a coyote if they are around, and they may also
>take a few birds with the gophers)
+++++-----------------
Our botanical garden is still small but we have great
expectations. It is outside of town in El Chorro Park in San Luis
Obispo CA.
We of course have a poison program. But one think not
mentioned by Richard is the using of raptor perches. We have a number
of these T- shaped pipes stuck around the garden to give hawks and
such a good position to look for "varmints". It helps but probably
doesn't solve the problem. ---Chas---
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Charles E. Dills 1371 Avalon San Luis Obispo CA 93405
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