I didn't plant inground in my raised garden area this year because there's something in there. It's a gopher or a vole. So, I thought I'd be nice to the creature and inconvenience myself by potting everything up in growbags, pots and vertical stackers.
Well, this "thing" has learned a new trick. It got inside my growbag that was full of De Morges Braun lettuce that I was going to pick for dinner tonight. I look outside and notice one of the bunches is all wilty looking. I go out there and this thing has climbed into the growbag, tunneled a hole then tunneled back up, ate the root of the lettuce and rendered it unedible.
It knows now...
It's got to go.
This is war! It's on now!
Go get that critter, Pugzley. If you sit quietly out there tonight, you might be able to clobber that sucker with a stob.
I saw him popping his head up out of a hole yesterday but I was on the second floor and by the time I got out there he was gone.
I got a double stob smack down waiting for him. Husband just went to buy some traps.
Nuke him !!!!!!
Yeah.....you can throw grenades from that upstairs window.
Why does this remind me of Bill Murray in Caddyshack? Gettem Linda!
Haha Devota, great minds think alike, I was thinking Caddyshack too! Sock it to 'em Linda!
Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that this critter would ever be able to get into a bag. Has anyone ever heard of a gopher or vole climbing about 2' into a bag and doing something like this?
Gooooooo! Caddyshackers!
Husband didn't find any traps at the store. :( But the neighbor kid thinks her dad might have some I can borrow. I'll ask him in the morning because I'm babysitting her for a few days while she's on spring break.
In the meantime, I'll be sitting outside waiting with my slingshot, compound bow and crossbow. It's cold and the wind is blowing about 30 mph, hope it doesn't mess up my aim. hehe
Pugzley.........two things....them critters are fast little buggers. But 63.2% of the time they dodge to their left when you shoot at them. So aim just slightly to his left and you should hit him mid-stride. One more thing. Be careful out there, it is a full moon night and no telling what kind of other critters are out there prowling around.
Ya'll are toooooooooooo funny!
Oh yeah - those little monsters climb into my 2' tall flowerpots and dig around too. Now I have one pot that drains real good - my DH shot it full of holes with the pellet gun!
I still like Jay's suggestion: "clobber that sucker with a stob" !!
Has anyone heard from Pugzley?? I warned her about fooling around outside on a full moon night. Reckon she stumbled over another stob?
Fell over a stob and a gopher ate her. Poor Linda.
hahaha, she'll love that! I just got off the phone with her and she's fine, been gardening hard and is reading a book today, gearing up for tomorrow! I didn't think to ask her if the gopher was still around.....
You guys are starting to scare me now. I got almost all my EBs and HEBs planted planted they are on weed cloth, please tell me these critters can't climb up into them? I do have my 5 gallon and lay flat bags on a table off the ground a ways, like in waist high, can they get up there? How about on a picnic table? I got my lettuce in lay flat bags on the seats of the picnic table and was planning on putting more 5 gallon bags and EBs up on there also. Do these critters like strawberries or watermelons or ambrosia melons by any chance, ooooohhhh.
joy
I knew I shoulda listened to Jaywhacker.
Let me tell you my story.
I went outside, the full moon was blazing in the sky like a big silver dollar. I sat there on a rock freezin' my behind off, but even so I ended up falling asleep and when I fell over, my crossbow went off. The arrow hit the wall, ricochet into a light post, then ricochet off the bumper of my truck (I have 2 new parts in my hair, you know, those fancy zigzag parts like on tv?) and lo and behold! it nailed that gopher right between the eyes. Just before it happened, I saw his peepers gleaming bright red, just like the garden demon he is/was. He knew I was out to get him. I knew, he knew I knew and once that arrow bopped him, that red gleam faded like dyin' embers. But once I got up close, I couldn't be 100 percent sure that it was that arrow that killed him, he fell on a stob and it went right through his heart, so he could have been stobbed to death for all I know. So I did what any self respecting gardener would do. I grabbed him by the hind legs and flung him over my shoulder. Did I mention that he weighed almost 30 pounds? Anyway, I lugged him to the back yard. (I had anticipated I'd win this fight) so I threw his carcass into a hole I had dug earlier. I threw some dirt over him, just a few inches, you see. And then I planted some tomato plants on top of him. He's now fertilizer.
Not really. He's still digging up the yard...the little...
This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 12:42 AM
This message was edited Apr 13, 2009 12:57 AM
Pugzley..........I hate to tell you this........but I think you killed the neighbors dog.
Come to think of it, he hasn't been around for the past few days...
My dachshund just sticks his face straight down into a tunnel and grabs them. It is doggie joy on his little face when he nabs them. They were real bad at my place too. He doesn't even dig up the yard. Maybe we could rent him out to help buy more gardening gadgets. :-)
What is the name of this little gopher nemisis? He is beautiful.
Linda...too funny.
Great dog!
My heeler/chow mix would dig channels following the burrow - looked like someone went crazy with a Ditch Witch in the back yard. But he did catch and devour several..
Now would you fine people tell me what a stob is
Bubba you can stake it or stob it..It's still a stick.LOL
There you have it..
Tubby
Oh no Linda..I beg to disagree. A stick is just a stick but a stob is a special tool in th hands of southern gardeners. Their uses are many...Let's hear it Jaywhacker.
I just dont know, Devota. It is kind of discourging when folks dont know the difference between a stick and a stob. I guess we will just have to set up a course to teach stobology.
I don't think a thing like that can be taught, Jman. You're either born with it or your not.
Linda - the gopher gitter is called Buddy and comes complete with his own lounge chair. Thanks for the kind words.
Bubba_MoCity you're from Texas and don't know what a stob is? For shame!
cats do a nice job also.. can you recruit any neighbors felines?
we have a nice big yeller tabby who has this big pot belly from consuming all the moles, voles and mice around our pad.
( the ones whose little bodies he does not leave as a 'gift' outside our door.)
he he
job well done, mr tabby.
alice
You should be a writer. You had me convinced. What a great story.
My dictionary says a stob is "a broken branch or a stump, or a stick used for fencing."
Ever since I've been calling it a stob, my "broken branch or stump" has been doing a much better job of whatever I've asked it to do (lately it was to mix up my coco coir 'n water.)
These cats are so danged lazy over here, they don't care to even look for any moving food. I guess they're used to Fancy Feast. Mine stay inside (they're Persians) but there are two Siamese, a big orange cat and a Bengal cat that roam my street constantly. No takers at all.
How much to rent the poochie? That nose is made for gopher killing.
Thanks you, 2busygardening. I do have a few fiction publications under my belt. :)
Cape Cod I think you have a natural gift for stobbing, once you saw the import of the name. [smile]
Thanks - all - for the vocabulary lesson.
Pugzley Caution I did some extensive research.!!!! If your critter looks like this you best hire a professional ..LOL
Star-nosed Mole
OMG! That is one ugly mug! ROTFL