varmint control -- moles and voles

Have you tried this on tunnelling pests?

OK, I should have said conductor. Both I and the cat are filled with wet conductive matter. (Opinions on what I am full of may vary....) My thinking goes like this, after a little boost from Dan: a spark is a flow of charge, a current, that begins and ends on a region small enough so there is enough current density to heat the ionized gas (air) along the spark path. If a conductor is present in which a charged insulator can induce charge, then once any current path thru intervening gas is established , then current can flow from the rest of the charged conductor to feed the increasing current flow as gas along the path ionizes and becomes more conductive.

Without the conductor, any small flow of current thru the gas would discharge the charged insulator in the region from which the current flows without ever reaching the level of current density that produces significant heat -- a spark. There is research being done at USC on corona ignition, but even corona requires some current density, albeit considerably lower than a spark or arc.

Corona originates and ends on a conductor.

I think the reported accidents were caused not by static on the bag but by charge accumulated on the (conductive) person carrying it and sparking to ground, perhaps thru the bag.

Interesting website, thanks! I was surprised to learn that plastics are better insulators than glass.

Correction: it originates on a conductor, ends in regions in the gas away from the conductor where current density is too low to cause ionization.

I like to think I'm smart enough not to get hit by a whip in the first place...

Dad forwarded this to me because of my past history of playing with Oxy-acetylene boomers.

Dave

More interesting safety related picture:

On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 11:22:50 -0700, the inscrutable "Lane" spake:

Hmmm, a VERY expensive way to get some venison, wot?

I don't think I'd want to be:

1)the one making the hatbands or boots. 2)any of the pilots or 3)either of the pickup drivers, especially the latter.

------------------------------------------------------------------- Do. Or do not. * Stylin' Web Design Services There is no try. --Yoda *

I wonder if there is a Boone & Crockett catagory? Nice rack

"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke

Hello all:

Back to the original subject. Our mole problem doesn't sound as bad as others, but the buggers are still a nuisance. Our old sidewalk (brick in sand) would have a couple bricks humped up almost every day from the tunnels.

When I redid the sidewalk with pavers, I dug a small trench down the middle of the sand and poured about a gallon of castor oil down the 50' long trench

($67 a gallon here, probably better prices elsewhere):

That was three years ago. No trace of moles around the sidewalk since.

My 14 year old daughter complained about the moles in her little garden. Every morning, a new area was mounded up. I gave her a quart of castor oil to pour around the perimeter, about 10 x 10 feet. It's been a week, no trace of moles.

Some suggest that it's the ricin in the castor oil that repels 'em. I don't know, and don't care..... it seems to work for me. YMMV.

Best regards -- Terry

Wanna bet his insurance agent said it could be fixed? :)

Not around here they would likely say "you are not covered for acetylene bomb damage"

Pat