Prairie Dog Hunting (dangerous, to eat, relocation)

[mtngigi]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

Miners lamps used to use Carbide pellets for power. A few pellets exposed to water, makes a type of flammable and explosive gas. A type of acetylene gas.

When I was a kid, we had a lot of gophers that do the same type of damage that prairie dogs do. We would open a gopher hole, drop a hand full of carbide pellets (many people call it miners lamp) into the hole, pour in a cup of water and wait for a little while for the gas to disperse around the tunnels. Then have a flaming torch ready and open the hole, ignite the gas coming out with the torch, and listen to the rumbling explosion for quite a distance around the field which wipes out the burrowing animals in the hole. Doesn't take long to wipe out the whole den.

For you city people, yes animals do step in the prairie dog holes and break legs. Happens every year. They also destroy a lot of crop and grazing land to the point it is near useless. They may look cute to city dwellers, but are a constant drain on farmers and ranchers bank accounts in lost animals and lost crops and grazing land.

Prairie dogs are a pest to farmers, and ranchers, and need eliminated. They cost hundreds and often 10s of thousands of dollars in damage to just one farm or ranch. If you can show farmers and ranchers you are a safe, and responsible hunter, and will not shoot his family, employees, equipment, and animals you have a good chance of being invited to shoot those pests for them. When done for the day, stop by and let him know how successful you were, and he will invite you back. Bring him a good bottle of wine to show your appreciation, and who knows you may become a friend after a few shoots and be invited to do your big game hunting there on his place if it is the right size and location to show his appreciation for you wiping out his pests.

Well ... mine isn't in a field, it's my little front yard, in a historical district, on a busy Manitou street. I'm pretty sure rumbling, explosive, underground noises would not be welcomed by neighbors or the police. I also don't happen to have any flaming torches laying around.

The holes are very close to my old, wood-shingled house. I was already evacuated once this summer - have had enough close calls with fire. We can't even use our charcoal grills - I would guess flaming torches are out as well.

I need a practical, easy and low-cost way to deal with this issue within city limits. There's got be be some other solutions ... aren't there?

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Gopher traps (large) work!

If you want to trap it alive you can use a box trap but they are pricey. Snares also work.

[oldtrader]

You don't have to light up the carbide, as the gas will kill them for you. The other alternative as stated is get some gopher traps. Open a hole, place the trap in the hole, and they will come up to see why the hole is open. Have used lots of those as well as the carbide method. Another method some people use, is to run a hose from the tail pipe of their car to the hole, seal around the hose with some of the dirt from the hole and kill them with the carbon monoxide. Worked better years ago, but there is still enough in the modern exhaust to do the job.

[matthew & sons]

Hi---this is John Wilson in the Denver area. My 20 y/o son Matthew and I would like to do a bit of prairie dog shooting on your farm if you're still interested---either with an air rifle or a .22. Please write back and let me know at [email]wilsoncoyote@aol.com[/email]. Thanks!

John

[Idunn]

This might be a good time to mention that prairie dogs are one of God's creatures, and unless intending to eat them as hungry—they should be left alone.

[ocean2026]

Get all those who want to hunt and kill the prairie dogs and plan a hunting meeting. Take those with a history of abuse towards animals and give them red Jerseys and the dumb rednecks a black jersey. (Yes there will be plenty of duplication)

Then - Open fire on each other! Perhaps one day - someone who plans to shoot up a theatre or school to make a name for himself -instead turns on guns on people who need to be eliminated.

[McGowdog]

Are you having a bad day?

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Attitudes aside, there is a time and a place to eliminate the things from certain areas. The Colorado Division of Wildlife encourages it.

If you want to shoot em' there's many places out in eastern Colorado, as was suggested earlier, that you can do such. The farms from Brandon to Arapahoe and Cheyenne Wells comes to mind.

If you're in anyway offended by the shooting of prairie dogs, you ought to save your energy and stay out of this thread and don't waste your energy flaming this one. You could do something constructive like start your own thread and call it; More Humane Ways to Displace Prairie Dogs.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by mtngigi

Well ... mine isn't in a field, it's my little front yard, in a historical district, on a busy Manitou street. I'm pretty sure rumbling, explosive, underground noises would not be welcomed by neighbors or the police. I also don't happen to have any flaming torches laying around.

The holes are very close to my old, wood-shingled house. I was already evacuated once this summer - have had enough close calls with fire. We can't even use our charcoal grills - I would guess flaming torches are out as well.

I need a practical, easy and low-cost way to deal with this issue within city limits. There's got be be some other solutions ... aren't there?

Coyotes.

I had a friend who fed them bubble gum AFTER the prairie dogs had completely totaled more than 2 acres on his place. He claimed that the bubble gum worked and he saw far fewer prairie dogs the following spring. I think that having eaten every last plant and blade of grass, they moved on like a cloud of locusts or one of the plagues of Egypt.

To the posters who can't imagine killing such sweet little things, let me tell you this: P. dogs are a major problem here and can cause the value of a property to decrease by no small amount once it's become part of the prairie dog desertification project. A single prairie dog can be quite cute; an infestation of them is mind numbing. It's the same as deer mice - really cute little guys, but they shed the Hanta virus in their droppings everywhere they go. I had a deer mouse show up in my living room earlier this week when the temps started to drop for the first time this fall. I felt sorry for the little guy - I really did. But not sorry enough to end up with mouse droppings everywhere and a possible trip to the intensive care unit of the local hospital in my near future. I turned my half grown kitten loose on the mouse and she took care of the problem in less than a minute.

People who live in cities or people who have never witnessed the denuded land around and in a prairie dog town have the luxury of thinking of them as cute innocents. Fine, anthropomorphize away. Just don't make the rest of us join you. And if that makes me an ignorant redneck, guilty of cruelty to animals, so be it. I'll only say that there's plenty of ignorance to go around on both sides of the issue.

[Littlekw]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

People who live in cities or people who have never witnessed the denuded land around and in a prairie dog town have the luxury of thinking of them as cute innocents. Fine, anthropomorphize away. Just don't make the rest of us join you. And if that makes me an ignorant redneck, guilty of cruelty to animals, so be it. I'll only say that there's plenty of ignorance to go around on both sides of the issue.

I thank you for your post.

Have you folks ever seen a prime cow break it's leg in a prairie dog hole? You can't splint cattles legs. You have to put it down and eat it yourself. Great food, yes, income loss, absolutely.

Have you ever had you favorite horse step onto a prairie dog village and see both of its front legs sink into the underground tunnels and snap? It's heartbreaking knowing that that will be the last time time you ride your best horse and get to be with one of the most beautiful creatures you've ever known.

I don't have a problem with prairie dogs, per se. They're cute little buggers that serve a purpose, I'm sure. But in large numbers they will decimate and destroy.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by ryanek9freak

you could shoot them every day for a year straight and still not put a dent in the population.

It has to be a calling...