That is a hell of an image of your father sitting out there in his garden just waiting for gophers to appear. Sounds like it was quite restorative for him as well
My dad. Yep. He loved his garden. Had a whole acre of veg. Watered it with flood irrigation through ditches by turning on the well pump. Fed a lot of people. We had about 4 acres of plums and just about every kind of fruit tree you could imagine. Grew barley out back.
I bought some gopher deterrent flares a month ago… not knowing anything about them and thinking there was some actual active ingredient besides sulfur smoke…so basically I bought a 4 pack of half sized road flares with a picture of a gopher on the packaging, for 3 times what regular full sized road flares cost…. Lesson learned
Loved hearing you tell the story about your dad. My grandpa had a1939 Ford 9N tractor and would hook up a hose to the exhaust pipe to give gophers and moles a permanent nap. My job was getting to use the pitch fork when we would see one trying to make a run for it. Will never forget the time and neither did my grandpa when he went to stomp on a mole at the same time I was thrusting down the pitch fork. That was the first time I heard my grandpa, who was a big man that worked in the boiler room at the paper mill, scream like a girly boy lol ... and yeah I know, who can blame him, right :)
My grandpa did the same with a Ford 641 tractor, have a piece of flex pipe on the exhaust and into the gopher holes. We are farmers and he couldn't stand gopher mounds in his hay fields. Many hours spent gassing the gophers and his Golden Lab, Skip, taking care of any runners.
This video put me on the road to ending the destruction from gophers, and digger squirrels on my farm. It's cheap, easy, and effective. Next I will be trying the AMDRO gopher gassers. They are cheaper than flares, just as easy to use, and made for the purpose. Thanks Blair. Merry Christmas.
@@arboristBlairGlenn did it work, did the critters die? otherwise, this is jus another American Bull$sh!t story-a typical American traits-that's why American Made Ford cars are garbage-made by lazy folks in the factory-its true i caught them napping instead of working.
Just yesterday I had an experience with a gopher. I was walking my dog through a small park and noticed new holes and piles of fresh dirt. My dog is a 7 year old Siberian Husky. She noticed the new holes also. As it turns out, her gopher tracking skills are very impressive. She became very focused on the smells and sounds coming from below the grass. She was just frozen in one spot and listening intently. I didn't think a gopher would poke its head out of one of the holes while we were standing there. Then suddenly my dog lunged at a hole and in the blink of an eye she had an adult gopher in her mouth. Then one second later I hear a crunch sound and she drops the gopher on the ground. It was mortally wounded and died in about 5 seconds. Then my dog acts like nothing happened and walks away. I underestimated my dog's hunting skills!
Great alternative to poisons. There are a lot of owls and hawks that fall victim to poisoned gophers. I try my best to avoid that. I love this simple idea. Trapping is a pain.
My dad used to run a metal flex hose from the tailpipe of his old truck and just let it idle all day. Periodically he'd put a squirt of oil in the carburetor to create more smoke so he could see all the openings. One days treatment usually solved the gopher problem for a good while.
Glad you found a solution for your problem. Mine was a lot bigger, 3 acres of mole hills. When looking at it from the Google Earth satellite view it looking like miniature multiple B-17 bombing runs across the yard! Over the years I tried almost everything I heard of, but it wasn't until I researched it online and saw the "Molinator Trap" in action. So, I bought two and put them to work. I caught 7 moles on the first day I used them. I caught a few more each day after that until a week later I wasn't catching any. But, I wasn't seeing any new mole hills anymore either. I raked all of the existing mole hills down level and just kept an eye out, because I knew they'd be back. When I saw a new hill I'd put in a trap and catch it. Now I see maybe 3 or 4 new hills a year as new moles from neighboring acreage wander over looking to expand using existing (but empty) mole tunnels. A word of warning to anyone who might use this. Anchor your traps with a sturdy stake driven in the ground and attached with a stout cord! While you might have the occasional mole try to drag the trap he's caught in back into the tunnel, your biggest danger is cats smelling the mole you caught and taking it AND YOUR TRAP away to eat it under some bush. I found this out the hard way! The nice thing about the trap is it's made completely of stainless, so it never rusts!
Wow, what a great idea. I used to try to flood them out, but this is so much better because too often the water would end up going deeper into the ground rather than flooding their tunnels. Only on a fresh tunnel would the water work. I remember once a gopher made the huge mistake of making a fresh tunnel in a parking strip and I was able to flush him out quite easily.
When I had gophers in my back yard the method I used to get rid of them was to first push a plastic tube down the opened tunnel, as far as it would go. I aimed for 6-8 feet. Then I poured gas down the tube. Before pulling the tube out, I blew any gas left in the tube out. Then I lit a sulphur smoker and shoved it in the tunnel. I quickly buried the hole with a few shovels of dirt and stamped it down. Within a minute, the fuel - air mixture in the tunnel would explode, with a loud thump! noise. Any gophers that survived would go back to the neighbor's yard. It would be a year or more before they came back.
@@freddyrosenberg9288 You might be thinking about the Bill Murray movie, "Caddy Shack". The gophers I had dug long tunnels to get into my yard. When the gas exploded, it blew out all the plugs the gophers had put in and likely hurled a few scorched gophers a ways. I would sometimes see a gopher stick his head out of his hole in the next yard.
@@aufait- it never killed any trees. I used a 1/2" id tube, about 10 feet long. It has to be straight and rigid enough to go deep into the tunnel. Sometimes the hose bumps into the side of the tunnel and won't go in all the way. When that happens, I pull It out a bit and push It in a few times until it goes in 6 - 8 feet. It only takes about a cup of gas. I used an old style metal gas can that had a plastic air vent just the right size for the hose. After pouring in about a cup of gas, I would blow through the tube to empty out any gas, so it wouldn't dribble out when I withdrew the hose. Hardware stores sell gopher smokers. They look like highway flares. I would light one and put it in the tunnel with the fuse end sticking into the tunnel and quickly cover it. I fill 8n the hole and stomp it down. Within a minute, there is a loud whoomp! underground. Doom for all gophers.
Try a lb of calcium carbide pellets+water+plugging all exits. We had large, destructive moles. Works great. And for extra fun wait a half hour then throw a match down a hole. Calcium carbide and water produce lots of acetylene, used in old fashioned miner's safety lamps, and Union Carbide's first product.
My brother in law, a rancher, uses the propane trick in my sistet's very large garden. Yes Blair it can start a fire. So, either my sister or I stand by with a charged hose. This has been very successful. And fun!
Just did this for moles. Three flares and the blower end of my car vacuum. Saw sulfur smoke popping up all over my yard. There must be carnage down below now. 👍🙂 Thanks for the tip!
I prefer an adapter attached to my car exhaust that has a port where the garden hose attaches ! Slide the unattached end of the hose into the tunnel pack the dirt around the hose fire up the vehicle and let it run for 15-20 minutes pull the hose out pack the gopher entrance with remaking dirt and it’s done nice and neat!
I have been dealing with this starting about 3 weeks ago, and as much as I try to flood them out they never surface. In fact, some of the holes never even fill up - its like there is a vast cavern down there and I am pumping wayyyy more water into the ground that I think is a good idea. Plus I heard that water just softens up the ground and makes it more attractive to new tunnel building. So I'm going to try your method - it sounds like a better plan. And I am with your dad - HATE these gophers!
My grand pa had his garden full of gophers mounds. He would use sulphur cartridges, no evail, until one day I took the family small 8mm shotgun and I posted myself beside the mound. At 3 o’oclock of(every day it happened, at least in France) the afternoon the mound started pulsating. One shot one gopher. I got the second one the following day. For some years we had no more trouble.
Wow. I’ve never seen that trick. I really hope it works. . . . We’ve been at war with gophers here in the Santa Cruz Mountains for years. They wreak havoc on our young fruit trees, and I’ve tried just about everything. . . . This approach may not be as fun as my Rodenator, but it’s simpler, cheaper, safer and a whole lot quieter. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
@@arboristBlairGlenn if there weren't permanent solutions for pests then every house hold would have rats mice and gophers living in it. Exclusion is permanent when done right. In your case if done right it can last a long time when you smoke them out.
If I had gophers, they'd be safe. I'd be laughing too hard to do anything with them, since I imagine every time I think about them, I'll remember this anecdote...
Blair, my Ent brother, trickster, gentle mentor, thank you for this and the hundreds of other real life skill shares. You are a treasure! PS- would dry ice under an inverted bucket work? Might be nice to not saturate the soil, the food chain with toxic compounds…
That has been working for me. The local fireworks store even sells a particular kind of smoke bomb for this purpose. I don't even use the lawn blower, by the way. I simply poke the lit flare or smoke bomb into the hole and cover the entry so the pressure of the flare or bomb itself pushes the smoke thru the tunnels.
I tried flares for 2 years. All it did was drive them next door. They were back within a few months. Now I wait for new mounds, dig into the tunnel network and set lethal traps. Working much better.
I've used the flares over the past couple of years. It does work. But I haven't used the blower trick. Great idea. If I get to them when they are first trying to infiltrate the area, I get my point across and the problem disappears for a long time.
An orchard supplier here sells a propane tank, filling wand and sparker, it fills the tunnels with gas then you ignite it. Best on more open land I imagine.
@@arboristBlairGlenn I think the prey is Columbia ground squirrel so maybe the exploding is just for stress relief for the farmer or orchardist. I know nothing about it personally. Have the friends over for beer and propane?
Our feed store sells a flare called Giant Killer, that's actually labeled for killing pests, which is just the same thing really. Nasty sulfur smoke stick. Works every time.
Good to know! I've got gophers and ground squirrels infesting my yard. I'll have to try this. BTW, a very long time ago, in the 1950s, you used to be able to buy cyanide sticks to get rid of gophers. They worked like highway flares, but was somewhat more toxic.
What I do is I find as many of the opening as I can then I cover them up except on in the middle of all of them. Then I light the flare and put it in the one opening as far as I can then I cover it up. Most Gophers sleep in the day time and come out at night. So doing this in the day time will catch them sleeping and will kill them. I have done this four different times in four different yards. It has worked every time
Excellent video, thanks! Things that annoy me are when posters wanna wax philosophical before they actually show the solution; puhleez, just show us the good stuff immediately. Additionally, I appreciate your voiceover commentary: you're showing us what to do while telling us the various considerations. Wish more videos were like this.
That was a great way the get rid of gopher. I use an old lawn edger. I mix half cup of motor oil in the gasoline and put the exhaust in the gopher hole. Let it run until the tank goes dry. It gets rid of gophers for a whole year !
I taught my dog to dig down from a fresh mound to the main tunnel so I can set a spring gopher trap in each side. An hour later we go back and the dog has a snack waiting for him. We killed thirteen when I bought my land two years ago and haven't seen one since.
awesome idea, we have a serious gopher problem in our yard and I've been looking for an idea that I can use and not worry about our dog getting into poison or traps.
I had the same problem. I used my lawnmower with a metal pipe with a bend in it. It bends so I can get it down the hole and I leave on for ten minutes. The problem is gone no more moles or gophers. It worked great just have to use gloves so I don’t burn my hands.
Wow! Look at you kneeling like a guy with virtually no arthritis! I'm jealous! It's all on me for not listening to older guys years ago when they told me I would regret abusing my body, but I was a young guy and thought I was invulnerable.
I used to do this too, but I always used my garden hose down the hole to make the hole be wet and not let smoke seep into dirt. 30 min flare works best. But 15 min ones work great too.
Cyanide pill in a dixie cup with a little water in the bottom. Place the cup in fresh gopher hole and cover with grass. Cyanide gas is heavy. Kills them great.
Man I wish you tube was around back in the day (not really but for this I’ll allow it), I would love to have a video of your dad sitting there, crushing beers and popping any gopher who sticks his head up.
Will the flares, the smoke affect the fruit trees? The mounds of dirt are within 1-2 ft from the fruit tree. I want to try this method, but I’m afraid it will damage the roots of the fruit trees. Anyone have a suggestion? Thank you
Mom told me that my grandfather used his old Model A exhaust. After a while he noticed smoke coming up in the vacant lot across the street. Can't help but wonder if the flare is necessary? Would the exhaust from the blower motor or an old lawnmower work as well?
so, this trick works well on gophers too! but ya don't need the blower. just dig down to the tunnel and shove the flair down it and bury it! good luck!
Wow, an final solution to gophers, you could almost call it "Endlösung", it's so similar to another method! Let me guess: your dad learned this technique in Europe? :-D
You never had a groundhog come up out of the hole and go after you? I've heard they can be vicious. I'd have been leery of having my hand down that close to the hole.
Hopefully this has worked. It’s oddly satisfying to watch all the smoke coming out of the holes. Thank you. This may just be a game changer. I’m on 10 acres and they’ve made a big mess!
Some smoke grenade can work much better. Sometimes you can find it in a firework store. Don’t know where you’re from, but in my area, it’s called ground hog.
So does ground hogs have to breath air into their lungs to stay alive? Well, there's your answer for if the smoke and toxins from the flare will work on groundhogs.
@@Jaye1024 I used a Gopher Gasser a couple days ago. As soon as I saw smoke coming out of any surrounding holes, I quickly put a rock or dirt over them.
@@arboristBlairGlenn believe it or not the gophers. All you need is a shovel to pick up shredded gopher. After a couple months the gophers stopped coming so his dog moved on to birds rats and mice. She was a sweet dog to people but a living nightmare to small animals.
I'm wondering if anyone has tried using H2S gas to turn gophers into fresh fertilizer for their lawns. Only problems I would be having with that it's very explosive and highly flammable...
That is a hell of an image of your father sitting out there in his garden just waiting for gophers to appear. Sounds like it was quite restorative for him as well
My dad. Yep. He loved his garden. Had a whole acre of veg. Watered it with flood irrigation through ditches by turning on the well pump. Fed a lot of people. We had about 4 acres of plums and just about every kind of fruit tree you could imagine. Grew barley out back.
What caliber?
I bought some gopher deterrent flares a month ago… not knowing anything about them and thinking there was some actual active ingredient besides sulfur smoke…so basically I bought a 4 pack of half sized road flares with a picture of a gopher on the packaging, for 3 times what regular full sized road flares cost…. Lesson learned
Did that too. 1/10 sized. They burn for less than a minute from what I saw. I did kill one, based on result, but it was spendy.
Q a@@kenreynolds1000a2 mi
Loved hearing you tell the story about your dad.
My grandpa had a1939 Ford 9N tractor and would hook up a hose to the exhaust pipe to give gophers and moles a permanent nap. My job was getting to use the pitch fork when we would see one trying to make a run for it.
Will never forget the time and neither did my grandpa when he went to stomp on a mole at the same time I was thrusting down the pitch fork. That was the first time I heard my grandpa, who was a big man that worked in the boiler room at the paper mill, scream like a girly boy lol
... and yeah I know, who can blame him, right :)
This story made my day dude thanks
Enjoying these stories, thanks
Ouch 😅😅😅
My grandpa did the same with a Ford 641 tractor, have a piece of flex pipe on the exhaust and into the gopher holes. We are farmers and he couldn't stand gopher mounds in his hay fields. Many hours spent gassing the gophers and his Golden Lab, Skip, taking care of any runners.
You people are sick!!!!
This video put me on the road to ending the destruction from gophers, and digger squirrels on my farm. It's cheap, easy, and effective. Next I will be trying the AMDRO gopher gassers. They are cheaper than flares, just as easy to use, and made for the purpose. Thanks Blair. Merry Christmas.
Good luck
@@arboristBlairGlenn did it work, did the critters die? otherwise, this is jus another American Bull$sh!t story-a typical American traits-that's why American Made Ford cars are garbage-made by lazy folks in the factory-its true i caught them napping instead of working.
Yeah because they are the destructive ones 😂😂😂
Just yesterday I had an experience with a gopher. I was walking my dog through a small park and noticed new holes and piles of fresh dirt. My dog is a 7 year old Siberian Husky. She noticed the new holes also. As it turns out, her gopher tracking skills are very impressive. She became very focused on the smells and sounds coming from below the grass. She was just frozen in one spot and listening intently. I didn't think a gopher would poke its head out of one of the holes while we were standing there. Then suddenly my dog lunged at a hole and in the blink of an eye she had an adult gopher in her mouth. Then one second later I hear a crunch sound and she drops the gopher on the ground. It was mortally wounded and died in about 5 seconds. Then my dog acts like nothing happened and walks away. I underestimated my dog's hunting skills!
Sooooo fresh gopher for dinner then?
Same dogs with rats, after its dead lets go and play
Wolf instincts intensifies!!!
Great story, thanks.
Tbf the gopher had it coming
Great alternative to poisons. There are a lot of owls and hawks that fall victim to poisoned gophers. I try my best to avoid that. I love this simple idea. Trapping is a pain.
My dad used to run a metal flex hose from the tailpipe of his old truck and just let it idle all day. Periodically he'd put a squirt of oil in the carburetor to create more smoke so he could see all the openings. One days treatment usually solved the gopher problem for a good while.
This process works great for ground moles and voles too. I used my shop vac to generate the needed wind. This year, I had none.
👍🏻👍🏻
Glad you found a solution for your problem. Mine was a lot bigger, 3 acres of mole hills. When looking at it from the Google Earth satellite view it looking like miniature multiple B-17 bombing runs across the yard! Over the years I tried almost everything I heard of, but it wasn't until I researched it online and saw the "Molinator Trap" in action. So, I bought two and put them to work. I caught 7 moles on the first day I used them. I caught a few more each day after that until a week later I wasn't catching any. But, I wasn't seeing any new mole hills anymore either. I raked all of the existing mole hills down level and just kept an eye out, because I knew they'd be back. When I saw a new hill I'd put in a trap and catch it. Now I see maybe 3 or 4 new hills a year as new moles from neighboring acreage wander over looking to expand using existing (but empty) mole tunnels. A word of warning to anyone who might use this. Anchor your traps with a sturdy stake driven in the ground and attached with a stout cord! While you might have the occasional mole try to drag the trap he's caught in back into the tunnel, your biggest danger is cats smelling the mole you caught and taking it AND YOUR TRAP away to eat it under some bush. I found this out the hard way! The nice thing about the trap is it's made completely of stainless, so it never rusts!
Wow, what a great idea. I used to try to flood them out, but this is so much better because too often the water would end up going deeper into the ground rather than flooding their tunnels. Only on a fresh tunnel would the water work. I remember once a gopher made the huge mistake of making a fresh tunnel in a parking strip and I was able to flush him out quite easily.
@@need100k sometimes it’s like a game
When I had gophers in my back yard the method I used to get rid of them was to first push a plastic tube down the opened tunnel, as far as it would go. I aimed for 6-8 feet. Then I poured gas down the tube. Before pulling the tube out, I blew any gas left in the tube out. Then I lit a sulphur smoker and shoved it in the tunnel. I quickly buried the hole with a few shovels of dirt and stamped it down. Within a minute, the fuel - air mixture in the tunnel would explode, with a loud thump! noise. Any gophers that survived would go back to the neighbor's yard. It would be a year or more before they came back.
That's a good way to blow up a hole in your yard. There's a video of guy doing that with those results.
@@freddyrosenberg9288 You might be thinking about the Bill Murray movie, "Caddy Shack". The gophers I had dug long tunnels to get into my yard. When the gas exploded, it blew out all the plugs the gophers had put in and likely hurled a few scorched gophers a ways. I would sometimes see a gopher stick his head out of his hole in the next yard.
That's a great idea, but didn't the gasoline kill any of your trees or plants?
And how much gas does it take and what dimension was the tube and what's a sulphur smoker?
@@aufait- it never killed any trees. I used a 1/2" id tube, about 10 feet long. It has to be straight and rigid enough to go deep into the tunnel. Sometimes the hose bumps into the side of the tunnel and won't go in all the way. When that happens, I pull It out a bit and push It in a few times until it goes in 6 - 8 feet. It only takes about a cup of gas. I used an old style metal gas can that had a plastic air vent just the right size for the hose. After pouring in about a cup of gas, I would blow through the tube to empty out any gas, so it wouldn't dribble out when I withdrew the hose. Hardware stores sell gopher smokers. They look like highway flares. I would light one and put it in the tunnel with the fuse end sticking into the tunnel and quickly cover it. I fill 8n the hole and stomp it down. Within a minute, there is a loud whoomp! underground. Doom for all gophers.
I use snakes ,especially rattle snakes . Solves neighbor problems too .
Really bro 😮 why not get a better snake to stick in there
Try a lb of calcium carbide pellets+water+plugging all exits. We had large, destructive moles. Works great.
And for extra fun wait a half hour then throw a match down a hole.
Calcium carbide and water produce lots of acetylene, used in old fashioned miner's safety lamps, and Union Carbide's first product.
My brother in law, a rancher, uses the propane trick in my sistet's very large garden. Yes Blair it can start a fire. So, either my sister or I stand by with a charged hose. This has been very successful. And fun!
Besides the fire risk, you can't just blow up your customer's lawn and flower beds, hehehe!
I have seen that technique being done at the school field. Very loud!
I've used this method as well. You know you got some when you smell burnt hair.
My grandpa taught me this technique for ground squirrels on our farm. Even used it on a badger once.
Just did this for moles. Three flares and the blower end of my car vacuum. Saw sulfur smoke popping up all over my yard. There must be carnage down below now. 👍🙂 Thanks for the tip!
My pleasure
I would get my uncle to sit on one of the holes, feed him beans, and wait.
😳
I prefer an adapter attached to my car exhaust that has a port where the garden hose attaches ! Slide the unattached end of the hose into the tunnel pack the dirt around the hose fire up the vehicle and let it run for 15-20 minutes pull the hose out pack the gopher entrance with remaking dirt and it’s done nice and neat!
I have been dealing with this starting about 3 weeks ago, and as much as I try to flood them out they never surface. In fact, some of the holes never even fill up - its like there is a vast cavern down there and I am pumping wayyyy more water into the ground that I think is a good idea. Plus I heard that water just softens up the ground and makes it more attractive to new tunnel building. So I'm going to try your method - it sounds like a better plan. And I am with your dad - HATE these gophers!
@@chas4life get em!!
My grand pa had his garden full of gophers mounds. He would use sulphur cartridges, no evail, until one day I took the family small 8mm shotgun and I posted myself beside the mound. At 3 o’oclock of(every day it happened, at least in France) the afternoon the mound started pulsating. One shot one gopher. I got the second one the following day. For some years we had no more trouble.
Wow. I’ve never seen that trick. I really hope it works. . . . We’ve been at war with gophers here in the Santa Cruz Mountains for years. They wreak havoc on our young fruit trees, and I’ve tried just about everything. . . . This approach may not be as fun as my Rodenator, but it’s simpler, cheaper, safer and a whole lot quieter. I’ll give it a try. Thanks.
Never a permanent solution but I did it on my lawn with great results.
How did it work?
@@arboristBlairGlenn if there weren't permanent solutions for pests then every house hold would have rats mice and gophers living in it. Exclusion is permanent when done right. In your case if done right it can last a long time when you smoke them out.
If I had gophers, they'd be safe. I'd be laughing too hard to do anything with them, since I imagine every time I think about them, I'll remember this anecdote...
Blair, my Ent brother, trickster, gentle mentor, thank you for this and the hundreds of other real life skill shares. You are a treasure!
PS- would dry ice under an inverted bucket work? Might be nice to not saturate the soil, the food chain with toxic compounds…
Very interesting idea! Try it and let me know. How about dry ice in a bucket of water for mouse control in an attic or basement? I like how you think!
Sulfur isn't toxic... it's a standard chemical used to manage pH in soils
I have used dry ice on ground hogs. The gas is heavy. Cover the hole and they all just go to sleep.
That has been working for me. The local fireworks store even sells a particular kind of smoke bomb for this purpose. I don't even use the lawn blower, by the way. I simply poke the lit flare or smoke bomb into the hole and cover the entry so the pressure of the flare or bomb itself pushes the smoke thru the tunnels.
I'm glad we don't have them over here, we have enough vermin to deal with. You have my sympathy my friend. Well done.
I tried flares for 2 years. All it did was drive them next door. They were back within a few months. Now I wait for new mounds, dig into the tunnel network and set lethal traps. Working much better.
I've used the flares over the past couple of years. It does work. But I haven't used the blower trick. Great idea. If I get to them when they are first trying to infiltrate the area, I get my point across and the problem disappears for a long time.
BTW, I used the flares in order to minimize the chances of a "friendly" predator getting poisoned. Thanks for the video.
Blower on low volume to push the fumes through this system is key. Not too hard or it will blow out the flame. Good luck!!
An orchard supplier here sells a propane tank, filling wand and sparker, it fills the tunnels with gas then you ignite it.
Best on more open land I imagine.
That can start a fire
@@arboristBlairGlenn I think the prey is Columbia ground squirrel so maybe the exploding is just for stress relief for the farmer or orchardist.
I know nothing about it personally.
Have the friends over for beer and propane?
@@wayneessar7489 Sounds like a good way to aerate the soil ;-)
@@Gordon_L Of yes!
Sounds like fun but I wouldn't want that kind of liability if I were the one selling that.
Saw the thumbnail and thought "oh boy! We're blowing up gophers with TNT!!" Not as explosive but not disappointed.
Our feed store sells a flare called Giant Killer, that's actually labeled for killing pests, which is just the same thing really. Nasty sulfur smoke stick. Works every time.
Good to know! I've got gophers and ground squirrels infesting my yard. I'll have to try this.
BTW, a very long time ago, in the 1950s, you used to be able to buy cyanide sticks to get rid of gophers. They worked like highway flares, but was somewhat more toxic.
What I do is I find as many of the opening as I can then I cover them up except on in the middle of all of them. Then I light the flare and put it in the one opening as far as I can then I cover it up. Most Gophers sleep in the day time and come out at night. So doing this in the day time will catch them sleeping and will kill them. I have done this four different times in four different yards. It has worked every time
Excellent video, thanks! Things that annoy me are when posters wanna wax philosophical before they actually show the solution; puhleez, just show us the good stuff immediately. Additionally, I appreciate your voiceover commentary: you're showing us what to do while telling us the various considerations. Wish more videos were like this.
I use a Remington model 700 BDL 3006, 165 grain.
My brother and I done this. Used a flare and pie tin. Haven't seen a gopher in over 20 yrs. No holes either.
That was a great way the get rid of gopher.
I use an old lawn edger. I mix half cup of motor oil in the gasoline and put the exhaust in the gopher hole. Let it run until the tank goes dry. It gets rid of gophers for a whole year !
I tried this some years back. Worked pretty well. None since then.
In the thumbnail, I thought you had a stick of dynomite. I was like, yeah, I saw caddyshack too.
I taught my dog to dig down from a fresh mound to the main tunnel so I can set a spring gopher trap in each side. An hour later we go back and the dog has a snack waiting for him. We killed thirteen when I bought my land two years ago and haven't seen one since.
Man i loved back in the day sittin out with the .22 blastin those lil bastards while my dad drank beer on porch. Good times!
awesome idea, we have a serious gopher problem in our yard and I've been looking for an idea that I can use and not worry about our dog getting into poison or traps.
It works
I had the same problem. I used my lawnmower with a metal pipe with a bend in it. It bends so I can get it down the hole and I leave on for ten minutes. The problem is gone no more moles or gophers. It worked great just have to use gloves so I don’t burn my hands.
I used cotton balls with a little peppermint oil in their tunnels. Rodents are allergic to mint. I also grow mint.👍
Great idea! I’m going to pass that on to my clients. I would like to collect all the different ideas for this invasive critter.
Wow! Look at you kneeling like a guy with virtually no arthritis! I'm jealous! It's all on me for not listening to older guys years ago when they told me I would regret abusing my body, but I was a young guy and thought I was invulnerable.
Now you can take up Golf.... 😉
Caddie Shack?
Hi Blair.
That's a great way to bruise them off.
I used to do this too, but I always used my garden hose down the hole to make the hole be wet and not let smoke seep into dirt. 30 min flare works best. But 15 min ones work great too.
I use to do the same thing here with the woodchucks. But did it at dusk then capped the holes overnight.
Cyanide pill in a dixie cup with a little water in the bottom. Place the cup in fresh gopher hole and cover with grass. Cyanide gas is heavy. Kills them great.
If the road flare fails then you can make some animal friends out of C4
I catch you with C4 in that application you are going to enjoy at minimum of a year in time out.
@Look_What_I_Did apparently you've never seen caddy shack you should get out more
@@jimmymcdonald1638 C4 is no joke... Good thing you don't seem to have the aptitude to acquire it.
Good information. I really enjoy learning from you.
I love your channel
Thanks. I try hard to keep my videos different and with unique content for those of us who love trees.
I have used a water hose and when they popped up , whack with the shovel.
This is great for voles as well
Man I wish you tube was around back in the day (not really but for this I’ll allow it), I would love to have a video of your dad sitting there, crushing beers and popping any gopher who sticks his head up.
I poured used cat litter down all the holes and they were gone
Old rich adjusted Lawnmover, piece of hose (Metal duct material is best)....one end over the exhaust, the other end in the hole.....let it run
Will the flares, the smoke affect the fruit trees? The mounds of dirt are within 1-2 ft from the fruit tree. I want to try this method, but I’m afraid it will damage the roots of the fruit trees. Anyone have a suggestion? Thank you
I have a Milwaukee vacuum. That will work nicely
germanys taking notes right now
I've got a few expired maritime flares that I'll use to try this out. We got a rat problem this year and they have tunneled under the shed.
Easy to do
Simple and cheap, don’t forget the fact that it’s fun!
Satisfying
Mom told me that my grandfather used his old Model A exhaust. After a while he noticed smoke coming up in the vacant lot across the street.
Can't help but wonder if the flare is necessary? Would the exhaust from the blower motor or an old lawnmower work as well?
The flare is convenient and requires no set up.
Smoke bombs from the fire work store work great as well, do several holes at the same time
i was expecting a gopher coming out.
I always used model rocket engines. shoot them down the hole, they travel a good distance in the tunnels.
I was hoping that would be a stick of dynamite
😳
Yo también, 🤨🤨 así se airean un poco las raíces con la vibración del suelo.
so, this trick works well on gophers too! but ya don't need the blower. just dig down to the tunnel and shove the flair down it and bury it! good luck!
I hired Bill Murray and haven't seen a gopher since 💥🧨
I wonder if this will work for moles too.
Mole and vol repellent from I must garden works well for me
Wow, an final solution to gophers, you could almost call it "Endlösung", it's so similar to another method!
Let me guess: your dad learned this technique in Europe? :-D
I've had good experience with dry ice, and a ceramic flowerpot.
Gopher hawk nuff said. 😁
Want pics😂😂😂
Pics of dead gophers??
@@arboristBlairGlenn whatever methods work best.😁
You never had a groundhog come up out of the hole and go after you? I've heard they can be vicious. I'd have been leery of having my hand down that close to the hole.
Not around here
Hopefully this has worked. It’s oddly satisfying to watch all the smoke coming out of the holes. Thank you. This may just be a game changer. I’m on 10 acres and they’ve made a big mess!
Some smoke grenade can work much better. Sometimes you can find it in a firework store. Don’t know where you’re from, but in my area, it’s called ground hog.
A Highway flare lasts a long time. The smell of sulphur makes the passage ways undesirable and inhibits new inhabitants.
Road flares are expensive. better off getting the smoke bombs made to kill goohers. Same result and cheaper.
Look up Giant Destroyer
Road flares are not expensive and the volume of smoke is much greater than those little ones
Great idea. Will it work for ground hogs?
So does ground hogs have to breath air into their lungs to stay alive? Well, there's your answer for if the smoke and toxins from the flare will work on groundhogs.
Can I use the flares even though I have dogs? I can keep the dogs in for the day but would it be safe to let them back out later?
Yes
A peaceful solution for the lucky bastards.
Aren't you supposed to plug all the other holes so the smoke lingers in their tunnels longer?
Could do, but how long can they hold their breath?
@@arboristBlairGlenn Probably a long time! I've been dealing with them on and off for about 5 yrs.
That's what I was wondering i have plenty of holes
@@Jaye1024 I used a Gopher Gasser a couple days ago. As soon as I saw smoke coming out of any surrounding holes, I quickly put a rock or dirt over them.
What's that light called? where can I buy them? is it safe to use, incase fire?
Highway flare. Any auto parts store. Not in dry grass
I like my Gopher hawk caught 4 in the first day of having it
Not familiar with that tool or is it an actual bird?
@@arboristBlairGlenn No its a Spring loaded trap that works great and easier to set than the scissor traps and more reliable
Should work with voles as well, right?
Likely
@@arboristBlairGlenn would a grill full of smoker chips work as well, or do you think the sulfur and phosphorus works better?
@@Appophust the smell
My friend's solution to gophers was his airdale terrier mix his back yard looked like a gopher masacre.
What destroys that yard worse?
@@arboristBlairGlenn believe it or not the gophers. All you need is a shovel to pick up shredded gopher. After a couple months the gophers stopped coming so his dog moved on to birds rats and mice. She was a sweet dog to people but a living nightmare to small animals.
CADDYSHACK had the best way. You just need plastic explosive!
Cinderella story…250 yards away…I think…I think he’s gonna use a 9 iron….it’s in the hole!!!!
We have a pool and a pond... Pond would be good for you.
Thumbnail is a little misleading as we all think you've given up and gone the Bill Murray Caddyshack route with the TNT
I think the thumbnail is the only reason this video is doing so well. Not intended to be misleading.
Thanks for your advice 👍 😊
Did you try it? Did it work?
Looks good to me.🦇
I'm wondering if anyone has tried using H2S gas to turn gophers into fresh fertilizer for their lawns. Only problems I would be having with that it's very explosive and highly flammable...
A simply great idea!
Works really well
hey, think about out of date marine flares ........ they gota be disposed off some how ........... huge amounts of acrid smoke
Would this work for moles?
Couldn't you just forget about the flair and just put the exhaust from the blower down the holes?
Genius, Subscribed!
A hard hat for gophers ?
We call them whistlepigs up here in Ohio
What's the smoking thing is called?