my life

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Say goodbye to the age old Victor Mouse traps and welcome the new generation of traps. They’re essentially an electric chair, but designed to electricute the unsuspecting rat or mouse. Designed by AgriZap, you can findout where to buy them at http://www.ratzapper.com/

All I did was set the trap in the morning by placing some dog food at the far end of the device. I checked it in the afternoon and had already killed my first rat. Felt bad I had to kill the cute little bugger.

Like many people who live in the wilderness, aka smack dab in Los Angeles (Santa Monica Mountains), Gophers will often wreak havoc on your landscaping. If you’ve ever tried to get rid of them, you’ll know a little garden hose and water won’t do the job. They’ll come right on back up as soon as you’ve turned off the water and plug up the hole right in front of you (arrogant little buggers).

What doesn’t work:

1. Water hose (they dig drainage tunnels so that the water just emptys out on the hillside. Further more, they build their food storage and sleeping burrows so that water drains out before it reaches them.
2. CO (Carbon Monoxide) poisoning doesn’t work either. Sounded good, but California emissions standards are so strict that the vehicle will not produce enough toxic gas at idle to fill the tunnels before dissipating. Perhaps if you have a diesel truck, you’ll have luck with this strategy.
3. Sulfur Sticks don’t work unless the gopher happens to be very near by. It’s by far the most fun technique, but hasn’t paid off for me.

What does work:

1. Filling the tunnels with propane gas and igniting it. Problem is you’ll probably blow up half your lawn and start a forest fire, so it’s not too practical.
2. Traps seem to be the only practical solution to irradicating the gophers (temporarily). There’s a special trick however, to placing the traps. Identify to recent mounds relatively close by to eachother. Find a thin rod (probe) to stick into the ground between the two mounds. After penetrating the ground for about 6 inches, you should feel a sudden drop. If you do, then you’ve identified one of their main thoroughfares. Prepare your traps (I recommend the Victor Gopher traps). Attach a string/wire to each trap so that it won’t be dragged intothe tunnel. Never handle the traps with your bare hands, as the gophers are weary of the human scent (they will burry the trap before touching it). Take your shovel and dig down to the tunnel opening up (excavate) about a 8 inch square area (the smaller the better), taking care not to collapse the entrances. Place one trap in either entrance and secure the strings to something solid. Cover the hole with a small board and seal the cracks with dirt so that no light enters. Gophers are incredibly active and if you truely identified recent mounds, the gopher will likely run in to the trap within 2 hours. If you check the trap after 2 hours and you notice no activity, chances are you’ll need to try a new location. If you’re unlucky, you’ll notice that the traps were burried and the tunnel closed by someone other than you :). He’ll not reuse that tunnel, so you’ll have to find a new one to place the traps in.
3. Poison works, but is less fun than the traps and you’ll never know conclusively if you got the gopher. The strategy is the same as above, but instead of placing traps in either entrance of the main tunnel, you’ll instead bait the entrances with poison bait, making sure to use garden soiled gloves to mask any human scent.