Having enormously enjoyed the thread so far,
I would have one consideration. How would your soil react to having Liquid Nitrogen pored down it. whouldnt most of the Chemicals mentioned ave a detremental effect on soil pH level.
the Groundhog Sucker. it sounds so good. I want to buy some hog ridden land just to have a go at such a machine.
would lighting (and sustaining) a fire at most of the entrances to the warren (?) cause a vacum and suffocate them? and you could pop any of them coming out of an entrance with minimum effort.
Overfertilization with Nitrogen or ground poisoning represent a scorched earth kind of policy, and would not only adversely affect the land, but harm the drinkability of local water.
Hey you guys, clarify what you mean by liquid nitrogen hurting the soil. I can’t imagine problems what problems elemental (non-fixed) nitrogen would cause for soil, but there could be something I haven’t thought of.
That which does not kill me just makes me really irritable
now, i wasn’t really serious when i suggested the nitrogen bit, but i strongly disagree that it would cause any pollution. liquid nitrogen will go directly into vapor phase as it heats up. since the vapor is still extremely cold, it will sink at first (getting the little varmints). but once it warms up more, it will rise, dissapating harmlessly into the atmoshpere, which already contains plenty of the stuff.
the nitrogen from liquid N2 is neither a)going to be fixed by your alfalfa, nor b)going to run off into local streams the way nitrogen in fertilizer will.
it may not be practical, but it won’t be poisonous. and it would be fun.
A woman solved her problems with voles eating her tulip bulbs with an ingenious idea.
In between her tulip rows she tilled, get this, broken beer bottles into the soil. She plowed them in about 8"'s to a foot deep. Claims it has lasted 3 seasons with no return invasions.
Seems the little buggers disliked getting their paws shredded far more than they liked raiding her garden.
Since your raiders tend to strike from below, this might be a good passive solution. I was picturing channels 8" wide set up in a 12 foot grid. You could set out a test area before trying it out on the full acreage.
That’s a lot of beer, you better get drinking. I think you’ll have to go deeper than that though. Might as well get one of those underground cable burying trucks and put in some underground barb wire fencing…
Ellis,
Thank you for clearing up that point for me.
I was unsure of the effects of Nitrogen in Soil, (being more of a physics sympathiser than chemistry )
John Larrigan
“82.35% of all statistics are made up on the spot”–Vic Reeves
It’s so obvious, when the real answer finally arrives…
Your problem is YOU THINK YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. You don’t! (At least, not if you can get over this obvious fixation with alfalfa…) Whatcha got there is what we in the industry call AN OPRAHTUNITY.
Gitcherself one o’ them there Sucker Machines. Put up some concessions and a nice family picnic area. Put up a big sign - maybe on a hot air balloon - sayin’ somethin’ like Hog-Wild Heaven, Home of 500 Horses of Hog-Sucking Power and The Most Fun East of the Mississippi and charge people fer the ride! Your hot air balloon could double as another ride. Other possibilities for concessions and/or contests: Name That Sound! Fastest To Fifty. The Hog-Wrasslin’ Pit. Live WhackaMole. With a little creativity you could be set for life.
>One of my dogs is an Irish Wolfhound named >Corwin. He weighs 125 pounds, and has a >head like a shovel. His kind are why there >are no wolves left in Ireland.
An excellent literary reference there in the name. I’ll keep their woodchuck-vunerability in mind.
If you type “prairie dog vacuum” into HotBot you’ll get several articles about Gay Balfour, the guy in Colorado that invented the prairie dog removal system. His company is called “Dog-Gone,” appropriately enough. I don’t know if he has a vacuum big enough for a groundhog, though.
I’m with Jazzmine. Come spring if your still infested I’ll take a few days vacation, come on out and sit in a lawn chair. Only I want mine to recline, and I’d prefer beer over lemonade (but that should help provide you with the broken glass you need, right). I’d ask to borrow my dad’s rifle as well, but something about beer and guns doesn’t sit well with me.
Gee, a good old .22 Marlin with a CCI Stinger round took out the groudhogs in my backyard. The used to spook pretty easy and I found the best way to get them was to run full speed towards them rather than try to sneak up. Shotgun worked well also. Starting fluid is the ultimate varmint kill in my opinion. It’s almost 100% ether, I think the vapor is heavier than air, and it’s cheap. Buy a few cans, empty them into the holes, and plug as needed. I’ve used it to kill a raccoon in a garbage can but never needed it for groundhogs. Explosive as hell, too, so if the fumes won’t croak the sum bitches, spray some more and toss a match down the hole. But wear your helmet !
mentioned utility for pocket gophers, said nothing about Monstrous Ground Grizzlies. I question the ability of a machine to “suck” hard enough to to yank in one of these giants though. Am not familiar with Vac-all
Without a doubt, this has been the most fun, most hilarious thread I have ever read and/or participated in.
I am very aware of why I feel so much at home with the Dopers after seeing all the bordering-on-insane solutions they are coming up with for the ultimate demise of the “ground grizzlies”.
FixedBack
“Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity.”~~G.K.Chesterton 1908
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