Part 1: 2009 Montana Gopher War

My pellet gun is loaded, and even though I know I can't win this war with a gun, I will use all means legally necessary to win!

2008 almost made me want to jump into a "Honey I shrunk the kids" machine with a shotgun and cruise down the gopher holes in my yard (a few acres) and go hunting.  In Montana we call Richardson's Ground Squirrels "gophers".  They are rodents!!!  Not to be confused with prairie dog or pocket gopher.

These gophers are very destructive:  in Montana a single pair of ground squirrels and their offspring can remove a quarter of an acre of alfalfa in one growing season, in other areas, even more!  They also eat everything else, even some of my weeds.  They leave dangerous holes where I have turned my ankle numerous times just walking out in my yard.  I am not a mean person, I'm not even a hunter, but baby, this year they have to go!

I am doing the research and have a plan for my 2009 offensive.  Ground squirrel, rodent control can be viewed online at the MSU Extension office web site.

Let me introduce you to my comrade in this war, I call him The Gopher Whisperer.

This animal has an acute sense of "I should do something".  He is a little mixed up about what he is to do since he has the Australian Shepherd telling him to "heel it" and the Malmute telling him to get in an burrow with it.

We lost our 2008 Gopher War last year so this year we are recruiting the neighbors and using a new tool.  It's all about timing aparantly.  That's why I thought I should blog about this, maybe you too can save yourself.

The new tools we plan to use include a bait station constructed of 3 inch PVC pipe.  We will use several of these units, no more than 200 feet apart and fill them with Ramik Green a slow acting anticoagulant bait.  More than one feeding is necessary, so we need to keep the bait station in the middle full.  You pretty much construct a T unit with a short leg in the middle part of the T.  Both other ends are open so that the gophers can come in and feed from the bait you place into the pipe from the short T (which needs to sit upright, and capped for protection).  The long ends should be open close to areas where gophers travel (outside their burrows).  Stake the upright short T section and add bait as needed.

We are going to try this, starting this weekend, because timing is everything.  The sooner we get them under control, the less damage.

Link to Montana Gopher Wars, Part 2