How To Set A Gopher Trap Using DIY Methods

Modern agriculture has various ways of countering the pests and fungi that attack crops and cause thousands of dollars of damage. Farmers are required to implement these measures in order to protect their produce. The measure deployed depends on what pest is being targeted, and not all measures have the same efficacy. A common pest, the gopher (or mole), can be countered using traps, and there are some things that farmers should know about how to set a gopher trap, and how to assess mole traps for sale.

Agricultural pests may be of different kinds. There are those which are plants or flora, such as molds and weeds. These are typically treated with herbicides, or chemically. Then there are those which are animal in nature, or insects. These are also treated with chemicals, but in the case of larger animals, such as small mammals, physical mechanisms such as traps are used.

These latter pests can also be poisoned, but the issue that arises is the distribution of the poison into the rest of the ecosystem. Poison is hazardous to everything else, too. No animal is immune to it, so anything that ingests it dies, even the domestic cats and dogs of the farmer. These also die.

Secondly, the poison enters into the food chain on the farm. This means that the targeted pests such as gophers are killed, and their corpses are then eaten by larger animals. These, in turn, die. The decomposing carcases leak poison into the soil, which either remains there, still active, or descends into the ground water. The water is then poisonous, too.

The use of physical mechanisms to trap or kill these pests then becomes more desirable. These mechanisms are usually traps, and they may take several forms. Not all of them are safe to use or simple in their application.

One type which is probably familiar to the reader is the snare. A snare uses a wire that arrests the foot of the trapped animal and keeps the animal immobile. The animal is then found and killed by the farmer, or it dies anyway because it cannot leave the snare and so it starves. Snares pose a threat to other animals, too, and this is why they are not always used.

In order to kill gophers, another method is available. This is the specific asphyxiation of the animals in their dens or burrows. Gophers live in subterranean burrows, so the method involves connecting a hose to the exhaust pipe of a car and then allowing the exhaust fumes to be pumped into the burrow. The resident animals cannot escape because the burrow mouth is blocked by the hose. The exhaust fumes cause them to suffocate. This is the same principle that people rely on when they commit suicide in their cars.

These methods are all available to the farmer, but they should all be properly researched before they are used. Poisons require extreme caution in their use, and their indirect effect on the environment in which they are used needs to be understood. Physical traps, also, should be used without harming other animals.

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