# Rodent Control



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Of the natural variety.....Progressive Forage Grower.

Regards, Mike

http://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-production/pests-and-diseases/owl-boxes-for-pest-control-are-they-as-effective-as-some-say


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I would certainly agree that owls will put a dent into the rodent population. I wonder how many rabbits and gamebirds owls also kill? Maybe not so many gamebirds as owls tend to hunt at night. Mom had guinea hens a number of years ago. They quit roosting in their coop and would roost in the trees at night. An owl moved in and killed every one of those guineas in the middle of the night.

I believe I read somewhere that the great horned owl is the only natural predator of the skunk.


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## Three44s (May 21, 2016)

I think with ground nesters, the ravens, crows and magpies are their worst enemy.

Here's more on the subject:

http://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-production/pests-and-diseases/effective-management-of-pocket-gophers-and-voles-in-alfalfa

A cousin loaned me his "blaster" ....... they blow up and burn gophers with propane and pure oxygen. I found it to be effective but time consuming.

I know another fellow that runs a gopher control service, he tried the exhaust fume outfit and gave it up ......... he swears by traps ......... I should have him train me on their use and give that a whirl.

As the article eludes to, I think that if one gets the numbers down to near zero in a field ...... say by deep subsoiling prior to re-establishment ........ then you might stand a chance of really slowing gophers from building back so fast but even that is going to be a lot of work.

Also, my wife and I purchased a drone last fall and that might help spot new mounds quicker in a field where the numbers were low.

So far as the voles go ....... I haven't a clue on how to stop them lil' buggers!

Three 44s


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Owls have been known to kill newborn lambs as well, along with eagles and other large birds of prey.

I had a Crow kill a lamb last year. It was just born...within minutes, and laying on the ground unmoving the crow thought it was dead and pecked its entrails out. I was right there when it happened and felt the lamb make its death kicks so I know it was a live birth. If I had not physically seen it occurred I never would have known.

I called the State Biologist who gave me permission to kill crows out of season, but in his 30 year career, he had never heard of such a thing; crows killing newborn lambs.


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## Three44s (May 21, 2016)

Crows can most certainly kill calves as well ....... they peck their eye balls out.

I have heard of eagles killing calves as well.

Around my parts we fight coyotes, cougars and an occasional bear ....... our next nemisis will be the invasive Canadian wolf.

It will be the deal breaker ........ game over!

Like was said in the article, owls are not an end all cure all but where they can be tollerated I believe they can help.

We certainly welcome owls and hawks on our fields but our fields run as long as 2000 feet the way we hay them and upto 2600 feet the other way ...... we run side roll sprinklers .......... so if we build perches or artificial nesting boxes, the perimeter or mainline is the only zones we can place them on .............. and a bigger problem is that once the hay gets some height ......... game over ..... the birds would be forced to hunt outside of the fields .............

Thus, you've got a smaller window where the birds can truely be effective.

However, there is some tangible value to knocking down the population of rodents around the perimeter because if one ever gets a handle inside a field, the critters on the perimeter will move right on in without something done about them.

Of course they breed like .......... well like mice! ........ it never ends!

Best regards

Three 44s


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Biggest problem here are still deer and ****. Have seen 12-16 rows of corn wiped completely out along a woods from raccoons.

Problem is most people think deer and **** are too cute to shoot.

Canadian geese walking down the rows of beans that just came up and pulling them out one after another is also a bummer. I used to keep some of the larger bottle rockets around and shoot em at the geese when they landed.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Bears!

Get a few bears who like to scratch their backs on the corn and they will roll 1/4 of an acre under in a night. Stupid things, and bears are starting to get plentiful where I live now. :-(

On a better note however, across the road from me in an old barn is hundreds of bats. I actually enjoy watching them fly around and make sharp, square corners in flight getting insects. They make a huge dent on the bug population for my sheep, and if that building is ever destroyed, I would consider putting up bat houses to attract more; they don't bother me a bit. I think they get somewhere around 5000 insects an hour and bug zappers average 50.

Then we have egg laying ducks, not many, just a few for our needs and they do an excellent job on the ticks, snakes, toads and insects too. In some ways the pair work well; the ducks get a lot of insects, snakes, toads and ticks down low during the day, and the bats get insects up high at night.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

RuttedField said:


> I called the State Biologist who gave me permission to kill crows out of season, but in his 30 year career, he had never heard of such a thing; crows killing newborn lambs.


You mean you have to ask permission to eliminate predators of livestock?? Your state biologist are about like state road workers...they don't do much so how would they know what is going on?....I wouldn't think of asking permission here....I would just do my due diligence.

Regards, Mike


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

No, he told me I had the right to blast them, it was just that Crows killing my lambs was a new one to me so I called to get their thoughts on it.

We are on the same page generally:

Shoot

Shovel

Shut Up


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I have seen crows kill all sorts of animals....my son has a Harris Hawk that he can ride down the road in a vehicle with the window down and when they pass a crow in a field fairly close to the road he can launch the hawk out off his wrist at 35mph and the hawk will nail the crow everytime. The crows can't get away when the hawk has a 35mph start...Love to watch that....if there are other crows in the field they really get hysterical when they hear the crow screaming that the hawk has impaled with his talons....he has to pull over quickly and hot foot it back to the hawk or those black devils will gang bang his hawk.  Liberals are aghast when they see it....they look like the proverbial deer in headlights....just good ol' boys having fun. 

Regards, Mike


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## Three44s (May 21, 2016)

That hunting with birds of prey is pretty cool. I had a couple of families hunt our ranch a couple of falls ago for bunnies.

I apologize for a deviation from the thread but here is the most heavy duty bird work on the planet:






Three 44s


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