Prairie dog plague

[df]

After spending hundreds of dollars on gas to get to a NW Wyoming PD town that I have shot for a few years, it was a ghost town.
Shot about five dogs in two hours and left. The holes were abandoned and had cobwebs over the entrance. The rancher said they have not been poisoned. Talked to a local game warden, he said the plague wiped out a lot of the towns.

Anyone know how long it takes the population to rebuild in these cases?

Thanks

[df]

Mis stated the part of Wyoming, should have said NE, not NW

[cpttango30]

We had something like that come threw northen CA when I was a kid. We had reall good shootin for a few years then bang over the winter nothing all of our spots dried up...

[jnyork]

Very large areas of Wyoming's Red Desert country were completely denuded of prairie dogs late last summer. I went out and shot as usual in June and July, went back in late August and traveled miles and miles through totally dead towns. I have seen this happen over the last 30 years in different towns, but never so large an area before. I have seen the towns regenerate in 5 years or so, but then some towns havent come back in 20 years. It is just nature at work, and nothing can be done about it. Just have to find new places to shoot, I guess. It is my understanding that the areas out of Casper and Glenrock were also hit.

[funtwohunt]

Had a very large town hit here in NW Nebraska with the plague year before last, couldn't find one. Went by there a couple of weeks ago and it appears it back to business as usual. Lots of praire dogs babies and all, and it appears they are using the old holes.
Later, Funtwohunt

[bullseyebill]

Funtwohunt,
I'm heading to the Alliance area in a couple of weeks .Was that town anywhere near Alliance?
Bill

[funtwohunt]

It's south of Alliance on US 385 about 23 miles at the Angora junction where you turn west to Scottsbluff. It's on the east south and north sides of junction. I don't remember the name of the person who owns it but the dogs are back there.
Funtwohunt

[funtwohunt]

Also, in the National grass lands north of Crawford and Harrison, up against the NE & SD border there are PD towns on just about all the grass lands. There is a town that was about 1/4 mile sq. three years ago and now it is close to 1 mile square if not larger.

Funtwohunt

[Coyote Duster]

Praire dogs have no natural resistance to the plague, since it is an introduced disease from Europe. That is why it wipes them out as bad as it does. Eventually they will start to develope some resistance. Rats have some resistance to the plague because they have been exposed to it for many centuries. It still kills some, but not all of them.

[tuck2]

A lot of the prairie dog towns in the panhandle of Nebraska where I live have ben wiped out by the plague and poison..

[AlteJaeger]

FTH: Check your profile section for msg.

[Southpaw]

Back in the 40's we were over run with gophers , then for a few years in the 50's you could not spot one.
Have had old timers tell me that you could not shoot out a population , poison was very effective , plauge will control over populations .
Here on this farm the gopher numbers have all but dissapeared . No poison , but did do the bubble gum . I don't really think the bubble gum cleaned them out . There were more gophers than pieces of bubble gum.
Its a cycle of life thing , the eb and flow of rodents is always a thing of ponderment. :)

Poison is bad as it passes through the food chain . I never used to care but old age has made me a bit more conservitive. :rolleyes:

[DDgofer]

Ernie, reference our recent email on poisons, I agree with you whole heartedly...I am still in a bit in a twist over this. I almost feel like a greenie tree hugging liberal...almost!