REPLY: Moles and other Geophyte predators

Gary doji@hawaii.rr.com
Sat, 31 Dec 2005 10:45:50 PST
A number of years ago while managing an apricot orchard in the San Francisco 
Bay Area, I had a big problem with gophers.  The control that worked best 
for me was to pay kids 25 cents per inch for gopher snakes they would catch, 
and release them down active burrows.  Wether they ate the gophers or just 
scared them away, it seemed to work, and they certainly don't eat bulbs.

Gary in Hilo, HI, where we do not have gophers or moles but do have a snake 
called locally the blind worm.  It lives mostly underground, is 
parthenogenic (there are no males), gets about 6"/15cm long, and eats 
termites, ants, and other arthropods.  I find them in my compost piles 
usually.  They are wonderful! 



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