Ground squirrel infestation!

[JaceSpace1369]

Lengua tacos are as good as it gets.

How many lizard eggs does it take to make an omelet?

The Cajuns say you can make gumbo out of anything that can crawl, swim, or fly.

Probably about 6 iguanas eggs to make an omelet, the issue is the consistency. You wouldn't be able to make an omelet as it would crumble. The most common way to eat the eggs is in a curry or soup. Or you sniper the eggs as it's leathery like a snake egg and drip the yolk (all yolk) like a hollandaise sauce. I suggest if you want them scrambled you mix it with chicken eggs or other feathery animal egg as it can be really strong.

You are actually eating those lizard eggs? I thought I was making a joke.

Things are a bit different in Florida què no?

I suppose eating menudo and tongue tacos aren't any stranger than lizard eggs. They make tamales here with blood and chocolate.

I'd eat a lizard egg taco. I'm drawing the line at ground squirrels though.

They are an aphrodisiac lol, I had them twice 4 years ago, haven't had then since. I focus on selling them more as they're only available during the seasonal and they go quick.

 

[UDABEGGER]

You guys are forgetting the most important part for that kind of eating . THE CIDER SHINGLE !

 

[Bedrock Bob]

They are an aphrodisiac lol...

I believe that. I'm getting horny just thinking about eating a lizard egg...

 

[Bedrock Bob]

Lengua tacos are as good as it gets.

Indeed.

The secret to a good taco is not asking what's in it. Ignorance can be delicious.

 

[Motorhead]

Yes indeed .... The Alfalfa fields in our states North east, oregon & north western nevada are LOADED !!! with Belding ground squirrels. ( Sage rats for some )
Shooting 300-500 in a single day is quite common having done so personally many times.

Now collecting them for show & tell photos is actually a REALLY BAD IDEA !! as it is well known the species are carriers of Bubonic Plague
Shocking in most hunts and are over several days when revisiting a well shot previous field ... You seldom find any carcasses as the squirrels living Eat There Dead !!! and those that still remain around the burrows dead on the surface get eaten by raptors, crow/ravens, sea gulls, night roving badgers, foxs and coyotes etc ...

A few years ago our group was using click counters to track kills and in those years of counting my best ever 3 days ( Half, full,half day ) constituting @ 18-20 hours in the fields was @ 1028 squirrels !!! That works out to @ 52 to 58 kills per hour which is Crazy !!! Most instances the kill rate is Substantially higher with lulls due to high wind gusts ( The squirrels kinda spook and stay down ) To many raptors, gull or crows flying over head or mid day glaring sun ( mornings and afternoons being most productive generally )

The downside to all this spectacular pesting is your out in the high desert / high prairie elevations the sun radiation is super intense out in the fully exposed fields !!! Full body, head and hand covering are very important or you will get cooked !!!

Great fun and making a trip here In @ 9 days ... can't wait .. but have too, as time waits for no one

 

[Bedrock Bob]

Here they have bubonic, tularemia, and a few other bacterial diseases similar to lyme caused by boriella. The fleas and ticks carry it. If a dog ingests a diseased tick or flea it gets sick fast. We have hundreds of cases in dogs and dozens of cases in humans every year caused by ground squirrels and other burrowing vermin. The diseases they cause are serious stuff.

It's real in the desert highlands. I rarely touch one and when I have to touch one I wear latex gloves.

As soon as their body temps cool the fleas and ticks start looking for a new home. The grass around a pile of those things is a bad place to be. It's not the rodent that's so nasty but the parasites on it that are a huge problem.

 

[6gun]

127,000 is way over profit margin ! Poison Poison !

I'd be pumping exhaust or c02 down the holes while I shoot. If I had a farmer in that situation I'd be there every week to help in as many ways as I could. Good on ya!

 

[Vetmx]

With that amount of shooting going on in a field I guess the next problem will be lead contamination.

 

[FelixS]

Just message me if you need help.

 

[rcrochte]

Central Oregon farms and ranches are infested with ground squirrel vermin.
Our team of six, “The Cullmasters”, were View attachment 551891hired by a new client who stated that he lost $127,000 last year due to the vermin eating his alfalfa on his 100 acre farm.
We eliminated 1,237 rodentia in 12 hours, but hardly put a dent in their population.

We have the same problem here in southern Utah. People come from all over just for the target practice. Farmers are starting to have companies gas them now.

 

[JaceSpace1369]

We have the same problem here in southern Utah. People come from all over just for the target practice. Farmers are starting to have companies gas them now.

We're gonna lose the war to the ground squirrels the same way that the Australians lost the war to the emus if we really need companies to gas them.

 

[rcrochte]

We're gonna lose the war to the ground squirrels the same way that the Australians lost the war to the emus if we really need companies to gas them.

I agree. Even with the gassing, which helps, they just keep coming.

 

[Bedrock Bob]

The bushy tails here are some bold rascals. They will come right through the front door if things are quiet. They are getting as bad as tree squirrels in a city park about begging. They will steal your lunch and pull a knife on you if you try to get it back.

They are everywhere around the edges of town. They are getting as adept at suburban life as the coyotes.

 

[markhooper]

we used to have a ranch in North Fork California and had lots of trouble with ground squirrels.. I actually had a 17 hmr and got a few but most got it with a Ruger mark 2 target pistol.. and a few with a 410.. and more with a RWS Diana 48 in 22 caliber..
but I got so frustrated because some would get really watching and you'd see the active burrows but there's always one on guard duty to warn everyone..
so to make it easier to tell where they are actually active if fill in the burrow entrance once a day..
I also used giant destroyer smoke bombs to help..it would either flush them out or they would die in the burrow..
for a couple years it got hard to find giant destroyer.. so I used the short burn road flares.. some neighbors used the propane, and oxygen rodent killer but it was limited success..
never touched one though.. we had coyotes, bobcat and mountain lion, eagles and hawks and yes if you watch those disgusting squirrels eat the dead ones..
I remember one year there was a baby mountain lion, black color for some reason, his mom attacked our neighbors horse and tore it up but the horse gave it such a kicking and stomping that the mother died and so one time I was out shooting squirrels and the baby lion would come and retrieve the dead squirrels.. went on for months.. unfortunately the baby grew up and wasn't afraid of people.. once jumped out of the brush at me, glad I had my Ruger old army and I let a round off way over it's head, thankful it scared it good because I never saw it up close again.. those things get big enough to make a big dog look small
we also had a few neighbors that made their own poison.. a special tube with a mixture of corn meal and plaster of Paris.. can't say I thought it was a good idea though.. seems cruel..
my preferred method to get rid of them was lead to the head..
Mark

 

[Bedrock Bob]

we used to have a ranch in North Fork California and had lots of trouble with ground squirrels.. I actually had a 17 hmr and got a few but most got it with a Ruger mark 2 target pistol.. and a few with a 410.. and more with a RWS Diana 48 in 22 caliber..
but I got so frustrated because some would get really watching and you'd see the active burrows but there's always one on guard duty to warn everyone..
so to make it easier to tell where they are actually active if fill in the burrow entrance once a day..
I also used giant destroyer smoke bombs to help..it would either flush them out or they would die in the burrow..
for a couple years it got hard to find giant destroyer.. so I used the short burn road flares.. some neighbors used the propane, and oxygen rodent killer but it was limited success..
never touched one though.. we had coyotes, bobcat and mountain lion, eagles and hawks and yes if you watch those disgusting squirrels eat the dead ones..
I remember one year there was a baby mountain lion, black color for some reason, his mom attacked our neighbors horse and tore it up but the horse gave it such a kicking and stomping that the mother died and so one time I was out shooting squirrels and the baby lion would come and retrieve the dead squirrels.. went on for months.. unfortunately the baby grew up and wasn't afraid of people.. once jumped out of the brush at me, glad I had my Ruger old army and I let a round off way over it's head, thankful it scared it good because I never saw it up close again.. those things get big enough to make a big dog look small
we also had a few neighbors that made their own poison.. a special tube with a mixture of corn meal and plaster of Paris.. can't say I thought it was a good idea though.. seems cruel..
my preferred method to get rid of them was lead to the head..
Mark

Gasoline in a ketchup bottle works good to get them out of an active burrow. My dad would squirt gas down the hole and smack them with a shovel when they came out. He and a bulldog would kill dozens in an afternoon. If he missed with the shovel the dog would shake them. Not many escaped the gauntlet. Those that did were traumatized and moved somewhere the gubmint' cheese was easier.

My old dog Chavo has killed hundreds. He can kill them faster than I can work a bolt. He got his first one when he was a tiny puppy. He's old now but the notches on his pistol are many. He can grab one, shake it and get another before the first one hits the ground. Hes a killing machine. He can sniff out every burrow and loves to dig them up. He'll hunt ground squirrels as long as you can lean on a shovel and egg him on.

He's had bubonic/tularemia a couple times. He's almost 14 now and is not fast enough to snap them up anymore. He still gets excited when I grab the shovel though.

 

[HogKiller]

I'd eat a lizard egg taco. I'm drawing the line at ground squirrels though.

That is a good idea, they are disease carrying vermin. I'm going out to my permission but it's absolutely nothing like Blue Dog's, the best I ever did was 18, of course it's only a few acres. Somewhere on the Air Tanks Plus website they have a absolutely great ground squirrel setup a nice raised platform, it's cool to watch, I can't find it off hand or I'd link it.

 

[HogKiller]

Now collecting them for show & tell photos is actually a REALLY BAD IDEA !! as it is well known the species are carriers of Bubonic Plague

I have a grabber with spikes to pick ours up and lay them out for the buzzards.

Here is a pic of the ONE we found today, darn thing was trying cram its way into a very small burrow after being shot, twice 50yards* with my Tequila .22, off hand****

****** some of the above addition is a flat out lie, some is the truth.





I actually got it at 50 yards with my Maverick .25 using RMR 26gr slugs, gave the darn thing two solid hits and it still made it back to a burrow, it was seriously wedged in that gopher hole. My faithful retriever Pete with an assist from Phil managed to use the grabber to get it out.

 

[Motorhead]

I have a grabber with spikes to pick ours up and lay them out for the buzzards.

Our area has soooo many raptors, gulls, crows, badgers, foxes & yotes the fields are generally cleaned up every night or very close to it !!
Couple years back we returned to a field shot day before and sitting on the Irrigation pivot was no less than 11 large raptors .... they sat there bellies full and watched for near an hour before flying away.
In walking the fields getting to areas unshot & passing over previous days areas it is always shocking in realizing what mayhem was there the day previous !! Only tell tail is the random piles of 17hmr brass telling where the ambush/s came from.

Crazy dayz out in these alfalfa fields !!!

 

[Bedrock Bob]

The hawks and coyotes will clean up a mess in a hurry around here. So will the biting flies and gnats. They will strip an elk skeleton to polished bone in 24 hours. Anything with moisture in the desert will be consumed by something pretty rapidly.

If a carcass lasts more than 48 hours it's mummified. Little dead critters will usually turn into fuzzy rodent jerky before they start stinking. So around here it stays where it lays unless it's in the back yard with the dogs.

 

[Tom T]

That rancher needs a propane/oxygen “Rodenator”