Mondays with Mike? Yeah, this is what I was doing last Monday!
Okay, this is not a very pleasant subject but it’s happened to us multiple times so it must be happening to others. At first we really didn’t expect it. We put cross bars in the well casing to make sure a small child could not fall into the well, but I didn’t expect four, yes four young ground hogs to actually follow one another into the well and drown.
Needless to say that was nasty, they were in there a while before we realized it.
So we put a screen over the well to keep animals out. Twice something small, has forced their way under the screen and drown in the well. In the video I show you how we get them out. Now we need to secure that screen to keep them out!
If you have a small diameter well (4, 6, 8 inches) … the best way to remove critters is to remove the pump and pipe. then run a one inch solid non-flexible pipe down the hole at least 10 ft long connected to flexible pipe to the depth of the well. Connect the pipe to an air compressor. (youll likely have to rent the compressor to achieve enough cubic feet of air). As you let the pipe down the well the critters and water blow out of the well to the surface. This is how my family did it for 100 years drilling wells in Arkansas..
Okay Kenny, that’s sounds like I’d end wearing a dead animal!
My well is a drilled well 142 feet deep, which had been abandoned for at 20+ yrs.I haved pulled up small bones in it.and is off grid no electricity , anyway I can acid this out ?
Don’t envy you there! Icky job that has to be done….
Mike they make well seals that fit 4, 5,6,8,10, AND LARGER holes. they can be found at a pump repair supply house they are made of cast aluminum and your drop pipe fits the hole in the center. they have two holers too. you just loose the nuts on the well seal and slip a piece of metal flashing in from the side and that will completely cover the hole. if you pull the pump for the winter take the well seal off and put a piece of flashing between the top of the rubber and the top plates.
Also, never take the nuts completely off or the bottom falls off, this is particularly Nasty when it goes down the well. it takes a lot of effort to extricate stuff out of a well. loose is good enough. when the flashing plug is in place snug the nuts up on the bolts and the lid will seize on the well casing pipe. that way no one can drop stuff in the well to listen to the water plop. when taking the lid off just loosen the nuts but don’t take them off. I peen the bolt ends to keep others who don’t know from causing a problem… it’s about twenty bucks for one and it saves all the ground-hog smells that come from drowning rats…. HoME DEPOT probably has some of the more common sizes.
Thanks Claude, it’s always a matter of finding the time.
Thank you , Mike. you just completely sold me on an above ground tank that seals up tight and gravity feeds.
Maybe you need a heavy metal screen.
Mike, Maybe you can help me. I am looking for seeds for a plant I do not know the name of. when I was young my Grandmother had a plant that looked like a tree, in fact several .She used then as a wall around a sunken garden. They were green in spring and summer , in the fall they turned red then brown. ,pyramid shaped, Grew about 24-27″ tall. Kind of lacey look. She called them firebushes. But the firebushes available I have seen have real leaves and thiese did not. They reseeded each year..
Sorry Jeanne, can’t help you.
Redtips….Maybe???
Burning bush though I expect the pyramids were pruned to look that way? Mine just grow and are huge Lacey leaves that give an airy feeling to the garden.
I love Monday’s with Mike ????
Yuk.
Look at the video the donkey is wearing a Barrell.
The donkeys are great. We have 2. A genie and her baby. 2 for 1.
He didn’t tell us she was pregnant until we got her loaded in the pouring down rain but we love them both.
I’m glad that’s not my well it supplies house as well as the barn.
If this is a recurring problem, you might consider placing a ground-level stock watering tank beside the well. If they have a more accessible source of water, they might stay out of your well. Hope this isn’t your source of drinking water…
No, we don’t drink it. I’m thinking that the warm air in the well during the winter is the attraction.
Good it was just the irrigation well, not house water! 🙂
Why don’t you use a fruit picker to fish the animals out with.
I don’t have a fruit picker.
I couldn’t sell my 200 plus Canna bulbs I tried a Nursery, but I must have been too late? Do you have a market or for sale page?.
Judy,
They’d probably sell in a heart beat in our members area, http://backyardgrowers.com/join. Several of us were looking for them earlier.
Measure the well bore and get a premade plug to fit the well casing. The plugs have cutouts for your wire and pipe. They are also split in half to make it easy to install around the wire and pipe. Good luck and Thank You for the excellent landscaping info.
kh
Mike, you need to have flaps on the screen that fold over the wellpipe, then clamp it down with a hose clamp. That should prevent that from happening again.
I know you’re right, but each morning I prioritize my day and there are always seriously pressing issue. I’ll get to it.
Is it possible that the animals dig into your well from underground and not from your screen cover?
Nope, come in from the top.
There is an old Chinese proverb that states,” No man knows what is rotting in another man’s pond.”
Wow! More truth to that than we want to think about.
I really symphathise with you mike. that is one tough thing to deal with. many years ago we had the same problem with frogs. oh , my I don’t want to think back on that but, experience is a good teacher. tough one tho. we covered our well, big time to prevent reoccurring problems.
Why don’t you make a concrete lid for that well?
I assume the inside of your well is sealed so ground burrowing animals won’t fall in as they burrow.
That’s true, the casing is about 24″ above grade and I thought secure.