Best Pest Video

Wine industry trade shows provide wonderful insight into the sometimes mysterious world of wine. Nothing cuts through the intentional obfuscation of the marketing departments like a stroll past the rows of tanks and the stacks of barrels, the demonstrations of cleaning equipment and the array of pumps, the shelves of “natural” additives and racks of electronic measuring devices. Blind Muscat’s idea of a breath of fresh air.

And so it was this past week up in Portland at the trade show attached to the annual meetings of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. But I was saddened to discover that my new favorite vendor, one I only discovered this past January at the Unified trade show in Sacramento, wasn’t there: The Rodenator.

Among the many mundane, thoroughly un-sexy things growers in various parts of the country have to deal with are burrowing pests—gophers, prairie dogs, voles. These little suckers can mess up your vineyard, and so can getting rid of them the old-fashioned way by poisoning them with some god-awful bait. Wild boar can at least be controlled with a rifle and a barbecue.

The Rodenator, named after California’s action-hero governor, terminates the gopher problem once and for all. A long, maneuverable wand pumps a mixture of oxygen and propane into the offending burrow; pull the trigger, and a small electric spark ignites the mixture, creating a massive, concussive shockwave. No pests, and no poison; it’s green, and it’s certainly mean.

There’s very little chance you have anything better to do than take a look at the video, which is remarkable: http://www.rodenator.com/videos.htm.

The gophers will be sorry, but you won’t.