varmint control -- moles and voles

Chuckle! Way to go, Don! The ultimate cool tool of devastation.

We're overrun by moles here, and it's *illegal* to trap them in the state of Washington. No mention of bombs, though!

Harold

GREAT READ.

Reminds me of our troubles with ground hogs, woodchucks, in the barn. We tried everything without success. I mentioned the trouble to Craig at my local Co-op fertilizer and farm chemical supply. He said they had the same trouble and a solution. He told me to come back tommorrow with the truck and he'll have everything ready. Next day, I picked up a 1000 gallon tank of An-Hydrous Ammonia and a 100' length of reinforced plastic pipe with a metal barb on the end. Just stick the metal barb in the burrow and give 'em a good shot he said. He also said, be careful, this stuff is bad, stand back when you turn on the line.

When I gave those ground hogs a shot of Ammonia it stunk so bad I could feel the water being taken out of my lungs. I shut the barn up and left on vacation for a week. The odor was still noticeable when I came back. Not only were there no ground hogs, but all the mice were gone too. Haven't seen a groundhog sense.

Karl

A hint from 1915:

-- Jeff R.

I also have an overabunance of moles........I crank up my 8 hp tiller, and utilize a corrugated stainless steel cryogenic fill hose i scrounged that I attach to the exhaust, and pour in a couple of tablespoons of insecticide like Dursban or carboral (sp?) and also a some small mothballs of crystals, and fire up the motor, and place the end of the hose into the tunnels, and let it run. I allow smoke and fumes to come out of various passages for awhile, then start to block them off a little at a time as they become saturated with the fumes. Been pretty sucessfull at reducing the tunnels and critters, but they always return. I have quit spending money on baits and traps as most times they are worthless in a lot of situations. ALthough my little miniature dachshunds have no problems with moles, as they can literally tear up and excavate the entire yard in no time flat and usually come up with the critters doing the tunneling...........however its at the expense of having to do a larger repair to the lawn in the end.........

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!

I'm curious about your squibs, Don. It looks to me like you pass current through a wire just below the head of a kitchen match. Does that wire heat up enough to fire the match?

GWE

Seems to me, that all the methods listed so far have been to attack the critters after they've invaded the lawn/garden (with the exception of the buzzers, which seems to be too high-maintenance). While these various methods might work on the present occupants, you are fighting a losing battle: the damage is already done and more will always come back.

We commonly erect fences to keep out undesirable critters. Why not bury a fence (or other barrier) around the perimeter of your lawn/garden to keep out the subterranean pests? I doubt it would have to go very deep, perhaps just 3 feet or so.

Just an idea.

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 01:53:06 -0500, the inscrutable Don Foreman spake:

Heh heh heh. Hmmm, would a nastyass local barking dog (and/or its owner) + baggie + squib = a Whump and _quiet_?

More links to the technology:

If you look very closely, you might see a fine wire going over the top of the matchhead. It is a single strand from a bit of lampcord, about .010" dia. It goes thru two slits in the bottom of the stick. The leads are connected to it. 12 volts is plenty to heat this fine wire to melting point and ignite the match. The matchhead provides physical support, and also provides "staying power" with ample fuel to burn thru the baggie after the fine wire has done it's job and is history.

That would be a lot of burying!

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:08:30 -0700, the inscrutable Grant Erwin spake:

The wire goes over the tip. Put your glasses on and look again, Gramps...er, I mean Grant. ;) Pretty cool idea.

Wanna see my scars from that idea??? Use Don's sqib, an stand WELL back.

I thought about making a Rodex-like device, but decided against it. I recall noting from a previous website that they used a pretty robust ignition system for some reason. It wasn't just a piezo ignitor. They might need a long, hot spark to ignite a less-than-optimal gas mix. I'm guessing that their ratio of oxy to propane is so high (97% oxy) because the oxy diffuses into soil faster than propane does. The baggie solves that problem. TBD how far the overpressure pulse will propagate down a tunnel.

Acetylene has considerably more whack than the same volume of propane, though the total energy is probably less.

Be careful. ESD has been known to prematurely ignite acet/Oxy mixtures in polyethylene bags.

I did get a chuckle out of your description of the neighbor lady.

"Between the ages of...."

Have fun, don't poke your eyes out, etc.

Jim

My thought as well. Pink antistatic bags are available. I'd treat the mixed gas as capable of exploding at any time.

Chuckle!

I just checked with my local bike and auto dealers for calcium carbide and received nothing but blank stares.

Could it be things have changed?

Harold

Well, anytime around here this week. Last week it was monsoon season, so I doubt there would have been any ESD events then. :^)

Jim

I used to fire my home built cannon (1/2" water pipe) that way when I was a kid. I had a power supply from an old radio that I used as a power source to heat that single strand of copper you spoke of. . Probably saved by buddy's life one day, when he wanted to light it by hand but I insisted we do it with electricity. We fired it from the safety of the basement of the house, which had a large ding in it from the barrel that was propelled backwards from a huge overload of home made black powder and a wrist pin from an old lawn mower engine. How did any of us live to be adults?

Harold

Who said we ever became adults (:

snip----

Hard to argue with that!

Harold