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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT STATION 



be of service in forcing the probe into the ground. The steel point of 

 the probe should be quite slender to work well in hard or tight ground, 

 but in loose sandy soil a blunter point is better. The upper portion 

 of the probe is of wood and can be made from an old shovel handle. 

 It should be reinforced at the base by a heavy iron ferrule. 



Fig. 1. — Tool for probing ground to locate underground burrows of pocket 



To locate a gopher burrow sink the probe into the ground 10 

 to 15 inches from a gopher mound, repeating the operation until the 

 burrow is located. This will be recognized by a sudden dropping of 

 the probe into the open burrow. The opening made by the probe 

 should then be enlarged, by rotating the probe or else by using the 

 rounded end of tlie wooden handle, so that a poisoned cube will drop 

 clear into the open run. After the poisoned bait has been dropped 

 into the burrow, the hole made by the probe should be closed by the 

 operator's heel. When a field is being poisoned the operator should 

 kick off the tops of all gopher mounds as he goes along. If this is 

 done, all mounds made subsequently can be readily located and re- 

 treated, the poison being placed only where it is then needed. 



Only a few poisoned baits may be necessary where a garden, nursery 

 or lawn is being damaged by gophers. These baits may be prepared 

 more simplj^ as follows: Cut carrots, parsnips, sugar beets, or sweet 

 potatoes into one-inch cubes. Then insert a few strychnine sulphate 

 crystals into a slit in each cube, with the point of a pen-knife. Large 

 raisins may likewise be slit and poisoned, after which they may be 

 placed in a small bottle marked poison and kept on hand available for 

 use as need be. In dry ground, where the use of the probe is not prac- 

 ticable, the main runs of the gopher can be opened up in the same 

 manner as when setting a trap. Then take a long slender pointed stick, 

 so that the bait will not have to be touched, and place one of the 

 poisoned raisins or baits a foot back in each runway, which should then 

 be tightly closed. The hole may be opened up two days later and if the 

 bait is gone and the hole remains open the gopher is probably dead. 



gophers. 



