SHOP VERMIN

[RJSakowski]

Not about dachshund but their larger cousin. Some years ago after fresh snow we visited a friend with a basset hound. There was a set of tracks straddling two parallel parallel lines in the snow.

 

[RJSakowski]

The propane through the garden hose with a model rocket igniter in the burrow works too. But I wouldn't do it under a slab as it can be destructive if you do it right.

And once upon a time I saw a Vactor truck used to extract prairie dogs from their burrows. Not sure how it would work on groundhogs but it sure worked for the prairie dogs.

I remember seeing that. It made my day!

 

[eugene13]

I didn't do anything in the shop today because of the covid restriction, when my son is there I'm not, but I did clean up the basement in our house, and I found s bunch of keys that belonged to my Grandfather. I hardly knew him, he died when I was three but my Grandmother, who raised me said he was a steam fitter, and the keys were from the places he worked. Some of the keys are simple stampings, like for a cheap padlock, and some of them are beautifully ornate emblazoned with the lock company's names, Yale, Russwin ,P&F Corbin. There are keys to a General Motors auto, Briggs & Stratton and some that look like hand cuff keys. Any ideas what I could do with them?

 

[mickri]

You need a gopher heaven. Make your own out of an old B&S lawnmower engine. An friend of mine worked for one of the local school districts in their landscape department. They kept one old truck just to smoke the buggers out. They'd come out of their holes half dead and the crew would scoop them up. Did it after hours when the kids weren't around.

 

[uncle harry]

You need a gopher heaven. Make your own out of an old B&S lawnmower engine. An friend of mine worked for one of the local school districts in their landscape department. They kept one old truck just to smoke the buggers out. They'd come out of their holes half dead and the crew would scoop them up. Did it after hours when the kids weren't around.

au.qz her up.

Decades ago we rented a farmhouse were there were tons of openly stored shell corn. The rat infestation was like running water when we banged on the side of one bin. So I hooked a hose up to our Kenosha Vibrator (Rambler American) and then stuck the hose down a rat hole. Then I mixed a concoction of oil, kerosene & gasoline. After taking the air cleaner off I started the engine, revved her up and repeatedly poured the cocktail down the carb short of stalling the engine. Clouds of white smoke billowed from beneath the slab the rats had undermined. For weeks after one couldn't go very close to that area but for the smell.

 

[RJSakowski]

There are some good ideas here. I'll have to put some of them to the test.

Now on to Mr, Big. Maybe fifteen years ago, beavers moved into the lottle creek behind the house. Initially, there was a trapper that removed some each winter but he's gone. They built a series of dams along the 1/2 mile on stream, turning pastures into marsh and killing every tree in the bottom. The water level has risen by about two feet behind the house to the extent that the garden is only a foot above the water level at one end.

Given the current situation, we expect to be dependent on the garden produce and if we have a wet summer like last year, it will be difficult to have a productive garden. The dams have to go! At least the upper one which would lower the water level by about a foot.

In olden days, a half a stick of dynamite would have solved the problem but somehow, I don't think ATF would be the understanding. The flooding is such that I can't get in with a tractor so the dam will have to be broken manually. Former experience with beaver is that they can rebuild a dam as fast as I can tear it down.

Suggestions are welcomed!

 

[uncle harry]

There are some good ideas here. I'll have to put some of them to the test.

Now on to Mr, Big. Maybe fifteen years ago, beavers moved into the lottle creek behind the house. Initially, there was a trapper that removed some each winter but he's gone. They built a series of dams along the 1/2 mile on stream, turning pastures into marsh and killing every tree in the bottom. The water level has risen by about two feet behind the house to the extent that the garden is only a foot above the water level at one end.

Given the current situation, we expect to be dependent on the garden produce and if we have a wet summer like last year, it will be difficult to have a productive garden. The dams have to go! At least the upper one which would lower the water level by about a foot.

In olden days, a half a stick of dynamite would have solved the problem but somehow, I don't think ATF would be the understanding. The flooding is such that I can't get in with a tractor so the dam will have to be broken manually. Former experience with beaver is that they can rebuild a dam as fast as I can tear it down.

Suggestions are welcomed!

Would grappling hook(s) catch to loosen and/or pull sticks out?

 

[RJSakowski]

Would grappling hook(s) catch to loosen and/or pull sticks out?

I made one yesterday. That works but beavers are remarkable engineers . It takes a lot of muscle power to pull apart one of their dams. A gasoline powered winch would work if I could get one in there. I used to have a winch which mounted on the tractor 3 pt. and ran off the PTO. It had been used to string cable up in Madison back in the '70's and could fit a 1/4 mile of 5/16" cable. It was made from a 3/4 ton four speed transmission. I haven't seen it in years. It may have been sold to one of the iron mongers. I would need around 600 ft. of cable anyway and two people at least ; one at the dam and another at the winch. I could take my power pull if I can find an anchor point.

 

[uncle harry]

I made one yesterday. That works but beavers are remarkable engineers . It takes a lot of muscle power to pull apart one of their dams. A gasoline powered winch would work if I could get one in there. I used to have a winch which mounted on the tractor 3 pt. and ran off the PTO. It had been used to string cable up in Madison back in the '70's and could fit a 1/4 mile of 5/16" cable. It was made from a 3/4 ton four speed transmission. I haven't seen it in years. It may have been sold to one of the iron mongers. I would need around 600 ft. of cable anyway and two people at least ; one at the dam and another at the winch. I could take my power pull if I can find an anchor point.

About a decade ago the DNR released some beavers in a conservancy near Tichigan Lake. When the beavers started to "harvest" the prize trees on some lake residents property the DNR rep was summoned. His excuse for the problem was quote "We forgot to train them".

 

[RJSakowski]

About a decade ago the DNR released some beavers in a conservancy near Tichigan Lake. When the beavers started to "harvest" the prize trees on some lake residents property the DNR rep was summoned. His excuse for the problem was quote "We forgot to train them".

That sounds like our DNR. Unlike streams up north where poplar grows in abundance, there is little food for them here. When they move into agricultural land they will decimate a corn field. The dams they have put in have choked the stream up to the point where the silt level is a doot higher than in the past. The spring floods and occasional flooding used to scour the stream bottom. Now the stream is looking more like a sewar. The strea is too small to support a trout population but a half mile away, it empties into a trout stream, The damming has caused flooding of adjacent land which creates a warm shallow pond which tends to warm the effluent endangering the trout in the stream below.