geoman wrote:

"Duane Bozarth" wrote in message
...
Ross Mac wrote:

"g" wrote in message ...
Does anyone have any sure-fire advice on this? Do those electronic
spikes
work?



I have heard that putting up a barn owl house will attract barn owls who
will grub those pesky varmints. Here is a link for one .....
http://www.groworganic.com/a/item_PB...nOwlHouse.html
Good luck getting rid of the "gopher cong" ....Ross

We've had both barn and great horned owls for years...while they do prey
on gophers as the opportunity affords itself, I can assure you they
aren't sufficient in of themselves to eliminate them (or even keep them
in limited numbers)...

At last count I know of roughly 3 or 4 pairs of barn owls and a pair of
great horned (they raised four young last year, but will not tolerate
them in the near area so the young have to find their own range once the
next season approaches which is about now...they're starting to "talk"
to each other at night, now).

Wow, you two must live in remote areas. I haven't seen a real live owl for
over 40 years in our area! Northern Ohio! Can hardly remember what they
look like :-((

Rural, but not what I would call "remote"...we're 10 mi to town w/
nearest neighbors of one place at 1/2 mi, next at 1 mi +. The horned
owls took up permanent residence back in the late 60s or so when the
cedar windbreak reached sufficient height and density they liked it for
day time roost. The barn owls were off and on for as long as I can
recall (back to the early 50s, and probably much earlier) although they
have been permanent now for roughly the same time which corresponds to
when we quit using their favorite nesting site, the old grain elevator
for active grain storage.

I put the rough estimate on them as they are much more reclusive than
the horned owls and I haven't climbed to the upper levels of the
elevator for quite some time now...last time I did there were two pairs
of adults and five chicks I could count for sure...

Interesting that I've been assured by many that the two species will not
share range, but that's news to these...

We also have the small burrowing owls that use abandoned prairie dog
holes, etc., but they're not real common and not seen very often. I
actually suspect they're much more likely to be predators for the moles
and gophers than either of the horned or barn owls. The one thing the
horned owls keep down pretty effectively, actually, are ths skunks.