Bah, those things are friggin' useless. You pump and pump and pump, then just stun them, if you even hit them at all. If you're gonna get a rifle, go for a little .22. They're not very loud, and look pretty much the same as a pellet gun, so you could get away with it if you were feeling brave.
Dunno about that. My buddy's pellet rifle kills a gopher pretty efficiently. No pumping involved. And you can just sit in your backyard inside the city and peg off gophers with a .22.
Poisoning works on a small scale if you monitor the holes and remove the gopher IMMEDIATELY after its dead. If not, Magpies or Crows may swoop in and kill themselves
That is what we refer to as 'killing 2 birds with 1 stone'.
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Dunno about that. My buddy's pellet rifle kills a gopher pretty efficiently. No pumping involved. And you can just sit in your backyard inside the city and peg off gophers with a .22.
I lived on an acreage out by Dewinton growing up. We had a huge problem in the area with what we incorrectly called moles but I think they were what Cowperson described as pocket gophers. They were the ones that left the big black mound of black dirt overnight. Anyway, I was pretty young, but I remember my dad trying to rid the place of them using different methods...water, traps, etc. to no avail. One day he got the Pinto wagon into the yard, hooked up some hose to the exhaust and gassed the holes. I doubt it did anything but he got my little Honda 50 in on the action as well, mostly for my amusement I spose. Either way, it did work. Our yard was pocket gopher free from that point. So yup, Co2 does the trick if you can rig up a vehicle or gas burning engine into the yard to do it.
Would CO2 actually kill them? I'm just thinking that CO is a silent killer, but wouldn't CO2 send them scurrying to the surface?
I'd venture a guess that being as small as they are, they only need a few good breaths of it and they're unconscious and dead before nature tells them to get fresh air.
If done correctly the CO2 will knock them out without feeling anything, too much and they will feel a burning sensation as acid forms in their lungs and eyes for a split second before they are knocked out, too little and they have a chance to escape.
It's more humane than the gopher bombing my brother used to do for the city with SO2 producing bombs that would burn their eyes/lungs till they died from shock. Occasionally he had 'shovel kill' one that dug through the plugged holes.
Bah, those things are friggin' useless. You pump and pump and pump, then just stun them, if you even hit them at all. If you're gonna get a rifle, go for a little .22. They're not very loud, and look pretty much the same as a pellet gun, so you could get away with it if you were feeling brave.
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Exp:
Growing up on a ranch I have killed tens of thousands of gophers using various methods. In the city I would not use poison. Too much risk involved. Besides poison is usually only used when populations are out of control and you need to kill hundreds of gophers. From what I understand your dealing with just one family? You can simply snare them like another poster mentioned. Or get a small leg trap and put it just down the hole so they have to step in it to leave the hole. Only problem is you are going to have to kill them yourself once you catch them. When I trapped gophers as a child I would just step on their heads. Its hard to do the first time you do it. But after a while you will become a heartless killer like Cowperson.
I guess if you do snare them, you could put them in a container and relocate them. If you don't have the stomach to bash their brains in. You could try some of the other methods mentioned in this thread, but they may or may not work. Snaring or trapping will remove them immediately.
