New Gopher Trap's A Real Killer

New Gopher Trap's A Real Killer MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Pest Animals 31-4-3 When gophers strip a 40-acre field of alfalfa and grass to the point that it isn't worth harvesting, you've got to do something. Lee Schwartz of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, built a trap. It worked so well he got it patented. After only a few months on the market, he can't make them fast enough. "I had a farmer in the area order 50 to control gophers that were destroying a field of lentils," relates Schwartz. "I was showing him how to set the traps. By the time we got to the 30th trap, we heard the traps we'd just set start to snap shut. By the time we got to the 50th, we counted 11 traps with dead gophers. He ordered 50 more traps. They were catching 500 to 600 gophers a day on that field before they cleaned them out." This year Schwartz harvested a good crop of hay from the field he lost to gophers last year. The difference was the 250 traps he set out this spring after pushing old mounds flat. "In the two months after setting them, I removed 6,100 gophers," says Schwartz. "When I catch a gopher, I reset the trap and usually catch another one in the same tunnel. If nothing is caught in a day or so, I move it on to another tunnel." The gopher, or Richardson's ground squirrel that Schwartz is catching, is a small version of the prairie dog. It's a common problem on farms throughout parts of the prairie provinces of Canada. It's also common in Montana, North and South Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. The gopher builds a burrow with an open mouth tunnel exit. Schwartz's trap is designed to capture the gopher as it exits its tunnel. The 3-in. wide, 3/4-in. thick and 18-in. tall trap has a pointed end that acts as both a spade for removing dirt from the mouth of the tunnel and as a stake when setting the trap. The spring tensioned slide acts on a trigger. When the gopher sticks its head through the hole, the slide is released. "Ninety-five percent of the time, the gopher is caught between the head and the shoulder and is unconscious in seconds and dead in a few minutes," says Schwartz. "The traps need to be checked at least once or twice daily. If the trap is full, another gopher will burrow around it." Expecting limited sales, Schwartz had 5,000 traps cut, pressed and assembled this past winter. Initial sales were to small property owners who bought 10 to 15 at a time. As word got out, that changed and larger area farmers started buying 100 to 200 traps at a crack. "Now with our website set up, we are selling traps into the U.S. with orders coming from as far away as Arizona and California," he says. "So far, we've only gotten good feedback." Schwartz sells his traps for $15 each plus shipping. The traps come unpainted, but he suggests spray painting them a bright color so they stand out in the field. The traps can be wired to a stake if predators start removing them to get at the dead gophers. However, part of the trap's attraction is speed of installation. "You can empty and reset a trap in four to five seconds," says Schwartz. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lee Schwartz, 524 Aspen Dr., Swift Current, Sask., Canada S9H 5E4 (ph 306 778-2083; mobile 306 677-7441; leestrapworks@ gmail.com; http://www. leestrapworks.com).

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