We know that rodents are a big problem when you’re trying to grow fruits. This contraption here has been around for a long time, and by the time I got around to trying it out, I realized that I’ve converted over to electric ride, so I may have a problem using this one.
Joking aside, has anyone tried this at all? One of the advantage that I see compared to gas chemicals is that the exhaust is pressurized and will forcefully travel into all accessible holes. Aside from not so pungent, as it is a silent killer, perhaps the rodent would be caught unaware as Carbon Monoxide and CO2 are odorless, especially from a well tuned gasoline car. What I noticed with gas bombs is that the rodents will typically plug their tunnels once they detect noxious chemicals coming down their tunnels, and so are very ineffective.
I suppose it depends on the type of rodent you are going after. Here we have pocket gophers. Common wisdom is that exhaust and the gas grenades you put int the tunnels are useless against them, as they can smell the gas and block off the tunnel it is coming from before it does them any harm. But I have to admit, I never tried it on them since so many people were telling me this.
Might work on other types of ground burrowing rodents though.
I tried it for moles. The gas distribution was good, I would see the ground smoking everywhere, maybe I killed some, I didn’t know. I still have moles.
the car exhaust cleaners can’t take out CO2 and carbon monoxide, both odorless invisible gasses, and it makes it very deadly as the rodents won’t detect them and won’t be able to plug their tunnels to divert the odorless fumes.
Many humans die from these invisible odorless colorless gasses when they start their gasoline cars and didn’t bother to open their garage as they try to warm up their cars. It is a painless death.
Modern cars mostly have odorless fumes now, except of course from the very cold morning start. Going into spring and summer, these new cars have colorless odorless exhausts once started. Old cars, the exhaust smells bad, very very very bad.
What are the effective methods?
My son used the cat exhaust method. He ran the car for over an hour. It worked but after a few weeks the voles or moles where back. The tunnels are still there so a new infestation is easy. He also hired an exterminator with the same results. They were gone for a few weeks and then more arrived.
I’ve used traps to catch voles but they don’t always work and when they do there are always more. They burrow deep so it’s hard to know where they are until they rise and do damage.
As for better methods, I have taken to using poisoned bait applied in their tunnels and runs. It is hidden from view so does not get to other animals and seems to be effective. At least I no longer have a few trees wobbling in the ground each spring. But I do still have some of the rodents around.
I suspect that like rabbits or squirrels, there is a never ending supply ready to move in whenever there is an opening. One just has to keep up the activity to eliminate them. One advantage to the poison bait is that it remains active for a while to eliminate any newcomers.
I have also had the wobbly tree issue. I’ve used traps but that approach isn’t even a drop in a bucket. For the last few weeks I’ve been coming to terms with the poison approach just because it may reduce the population a little faster and is certainly easier than the trapping.
May I ask, Steve, what products you like?
This trap is the most effective thing I’ve used to kill moles (link below). I’ve killed dozens of them over the years. We had a huge mole problem when we moved into our house 12+ years ago. Tried all kinds of methods, but nothing worked until we bought this trap. Never have tried to exhaust method, though.
For gophers and voles, I had not found trapping to be very effective. It works once in an area and then the gophers seem to recognize the trap and avoid it thereafter.
I have tried a few gopher baits over the years. The zinc phosphide (I think that’s the active ingredient) are OK; most big box stores have it. They are pellets so they will not last that long underground, and it appears that predators can be killed too (even though that is not supposed to happen). I have moved on to treated grain baits, either strychnine or anti-coagulant based ones. The grain last longer underground than pellets and better mimics the rodents real food supply. Kaput makes an anti-coagulant one and one farm store around here still has the strychnine one, but it is pretty rare.
Applying it is easiest with tool that I got at Home Depot (seen it online too). About 3 feet tall, mostly a steel 1/2" pipe with a point on the end. Top has a reservoir and an crank, and two handles. Turning the crank opens a hole near the bottom of the pipe and releases the bait. It is nice in that you can push on the handles and fairly easily tell when you have entered a tunnel. And if you turn the crank when in solid dirt, very little bait comes out. A clever design that greatly speeds applying the poisons in the tunnels, with little disturbance. Makes the job 10x easier.
After a while of probing and placing bait, you get a feel for how the critters design their runs, and it becomes easier to find them.
JoeReal collection by Joe Real, on Flickr
Let us know how it works for you you 
