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Around The Vineyard

Effective Solutions for Burrowing Rodents

After sixteen years of hard work, feedback from cus- quite. The original units had to be built, put in the field,
tomers and a dedicated work force, H & M Gopher Con- tested and yes, sold. The original budget was $5,000.
trol is selling and fielding a machine that is very effective
at controlling burrowing rodents and also a work horse Trade shows, print advertising and a lot of support,
that holds up under long hours in the field. both financial and moral from family members were key
to moving forward in both design and sales. Customers
that were intrigued by a new product were extremely
important that first couple years.

While in the early years, alfalfa growers were the target-
ed market, vineyards and orchards started to take notice.
Machinery breakdowns from gopher mounds, dirt in the
hay and production lost due to gopher and ground squir-
rel damage peaked farmer interest in the trademarked
PERC (Pressurized Exhaust Rodent Control) machines.
The California digger squirrel was (and is) creating huge
financial losses in almond orchards knocking nuts off
In 2005 after listening to alfalfa hay growers complain- trees prior to harvest. Newly planted orchards needed
ing about the damage gophers were doing in their hay total control of gophers to prevent root damage. Go-
fields and wishing someone would come up with a way phers and ground squirrels were damaging drip irrigation
to get rid of the dang critters, Allen Hurlburt came up lines.
with the idea that he could utilize the burrow system Schools, municipalities and park districts were im-
that burrowing rodents felt safe in to effectively eradi- pressed by the safety features as well as no targeted
cate the problem. animals were affected.

Obviously, the use of a poisonous gas was a solution, Commercial operators quickly saw the potential for
but it had to be cheap, easily available and injected in a doing work for hire, and have become major customers
way that would overcome the targeted rodent before it of H & M Gopher Control.
could block the burrow or escape. Several ideas fell into
place. First, exhaust from an internal combustion engine
could cause asphyxiation as well as poisoning the rodent ELIMINATES
with a toxic level of carbon monoxide.
The need to inject the gas into the burrow system in a Burrowing Rodents
very short and immediate time frame could be accom-
plished by pressurizing the gas and injecting it directly NO Explosions!
into the burrow under pressure. The goal was to purge NO Poison Bait!
the air out of the burrow and replace it with exhaust gas.
The first unit was a cheap $600 gas powered air com-
pressor with a couple of copper tubing cooling coils, a
couple 50’ air hoses, a T-bar hand piece with ball valves
and probes. The corner of a friend’s alfalfa field that was
loaded with gopher mounds was the first trial. Half a
day was spent probing gopher mounds, trying to figure
out the best way to get the gas in the burrow and yes,
having some fun. At the end of the week, Nick’s dad, Pressurized Exhaust Rodent Controller PERC ®
Jerry, cornered me at the coffee shop and asked, “have
you checked that field you guys treated? There aren’t • The most effective & safe way to kill burrowing rodents.
any new gopher mounds, it worked!” • Saves time, gopher mounds are probed not dug out.
• Kills ground squirrels-gophers-prairie dogs.
Hurlburt was a long way from designing and developing • Low operating cost & simple to use.
a machine that would function for commercial agricul- • Preserves turf and landscaping.
ture. A second larger prototype was made, and several
farmers hired Hurlburt to treat their gophers. Again, H&M Gopher Control ®
treatment was successful. Manufacturing & Sales
During two months of cancer treatment, Hurlburt drew Phone: 530-667-5181
up the schematics, wrote the design dialogue and a pat- Toll Free: 855-667-5181
ent was applied for and granted. www.handmgophercontrol.com
As they say in story books, the rest is history. Well not
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