The Punji stick trap was made infamous by the Vietnam war, not only because of the harm it inflicts on its victims but the simplicity of its construction. A camouflaged pit with spikes lining the bottom, these traps do not take very long to construct but are devastating to anyone who falls into them.
If the time comes that you need to fortify your property against intruders, the Punji stick trap could be a great option.
The Legal Stuff
Most jurisdictions have strict laws regarding booby-trapping your home and property. You must read and understand these laws, bylaws, rules, and regulations before you go around digging pits lined with spikes.
Not only could you find yourself financially liable for harm caused to an intruder but also you could find yourself charged criminally.
Disclaimer: This information is provided to aid you in a post-SHTF situation to defend yourself, and your property in the absence of government and law enforcement.
DO NOT CONSTRUCT OR PLACE ANY TRAPS even on your private property.
The author does not condone the use of these devices and assumes no responsibility or liability for anyone who disregards this disclaimer and the rule of law in the unlawful deployment of any trap or device described within this article.
What Is A Punji Stick Trap?
A Punji stick trap is a pit lined with sharpened sticks, then covered up and camouflaged. During the Vietnam war, the spikes were sharpened bamboo, but here in North America, we will use other materials in place of bamboo.
These traps could be large enough for a person to fall into or small enough to have a foot or leg fall into them. Often the Viet Cong would smear feces on the spikes to cause infections in any wounds that the traps cause.
The goal of Punji stick traps is twofold. The first is to cause enough harm to a person to render them incapable of continuing. If a group of criminals tries to attack your property, falling into a Punji stick trap will mean that the victim will have to be removed from the trap and carried away by their fellow attackers.
The second is psychological; the fear of the wounds inflicted by these traps will cause people to become increasingly paranoid. If your property is known to have Punji stick traps, criminals will probably bypass it.
Punji Stick Traps For Home Defence
If you decide that you need to secure your property with some Punji Stick traps after understanding all the legalities regarding them, your first consideration is how big you want these traps. A human-sized pit may seem like a good option, and in some cases, it may be, but it will be time-consuming and difficult to dig, construct, and camouflage.
Instead, consider traps that are only large enough to have a foot or leg fall in and become impaled on the spikes. These traps will be quicker and easier to construct and allow you to place a larger volume of traps around your property. You can modify this style as needed, increasing length or width to accommodate different areas.
Size And Placement
Punji stick traps work by impaling anything that falls inside of them.
First, the hole needs to be wide enough to accommodate a human leg to drop in. Digging a square pit that is about two feet by two feet is large enough to allow a foot and leg to fall into but small enough to be easily camouflaged.
Next, the trap needs to be deep enough to let anyone falling into it gain enough velocity to guarantee that the spikes at the bottom will do the desired level of damage. Between two to three feet is a good depth.
Related: Spider Hole Tactics to Defend Against Looters
Placement of the traps is the most critical component since a poorly placed trap will be bypassed. Placement is also a limiting factor; setting a trap in your front lawn presents a problem. Cutting out a section of grass only to replace it over an open pit will result in that patch of grass drying out and turning brown. This will highlight every trap on your lawn.
Some of the best places to set a Punji stick trap are along fences where an intruder may jump the fence. Placing a trap here is advantageous because the intruder to your property will have an additional 6 feet or so of distance to fall and accelerate towards the spikes in the bottom of the trap.
Garden beds are also an excellent option to consider partly because digging holes in them will not elicit any suspicion and will be the easiest to camouflage.
If you have a large property, you should consider the most likely avenues of ingress and attack and place the traps along them.
Construction Of The Punji Stick Trap
To build these traps, you are going to need a few tools:
- Shovel
- Knife
- Saw
- Small axe
You will also need to gather some materials for the spikes and the camouflage. You can fabricate the spikes from green branches found in nature, metal round bar, large nails, or anything else you can imagine.
Small, lightweight branches, leaves, dirt and other debris will all act as camouflage for the completed pit.
Constructing the Punji stick trap is a very straightforward process.
- Firstly, locate a site for your trap.
2. After that, dig an appropriately sized pit. While digging, dispose of the excavated dirt by carting away in a bucket or wheelbarrow.
Leaving spoil around the trap will be a clue to intruders that a trap exists.
3. Then, cut several branches at least one inch in diameter and about a foot or so long.
4. Use a small axe to sharpen one end roughly.
5. Use a knife to finish turning the end into a sharp point.
6. Place the spikes into the ground at the bottom of the pit. Bury them into the ground deep enough that they will not fall over.
7. Once you are satisfied with the spikes’ layout, cover the top with small branches and leaves before covering it in dirt and blending the trap into the environment.
Variants
Variants- If you have access to a supply of steel and a welder, you can fabricate a series of spikes by either grinding steel round bar to a point or long bolts to a point. Tack weld these to a piece of steel sheet that will fit in the bottom of your pit.
- You can use nails hammered through a board in the bottom of the trap as well.
- Mount razor blades to stakes that you can drive into the pit’s sides, which will cut a limb that falls through. You can also use shards of glass partially buried in the sides of the hole to inflict more damage.
The Punji Stick trap has a long and bloody history with effectiveness matched by its simplicity. With this comes a deep level of responsibility that anyone placing traps like these on their property needs to take seriously.
These traps will cause significant harm to anything falling into them. Only when necessary for your home and family’s safety and security should any such traps be deployed.
Disclaimer: All the techniques are for INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY and are never to be attempted by anyone for any reason. All devices shown within this article were fully dismantled and the area returned to its natural state immediately following their construction.
These devices are designed to inflict grave and serious harm and the deployment of these devices in any manner constitutes a criminal offense in most jurisdictions.
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“Stick It” to to ’em HARD out in the yard !!!
With my investigation, punji sticks are illegal to use. If there is another civil war in the US and my family is threatened… all bets are off.
The disclaimer reads, “… in the absence of government and law enforcement.”
So once the government becomes a tyrannical entity it is no longer for the people, or citizens of the country and all other local and national agencies, bureau’s or any organization that acts as an authority to uphold and protect its citizens will be fair game to this cool little contraption. ?
other then having livestock…kids and anything else.
My bet is that long after the SHTF the lawyers and Govt will still be protecting the criminals and you will pay the consequences of booby traps. After all, the bums still need to eat and it may qualify as Reparations to a certain segment of the population.
live in a “Stand Your Ground state” also Castle Doctrine state helps
That is also why you have a Backhoe, dig a bigger hole for their remains and cover that with Quik Lime, no evidence.
Indeed. The criminal element…will protect their constituents.
Wild thing to do, but with the southern border being flooded with illegals not a bad idea!!
Leave this for thieves or sex predators lol. Illegals should not have to permanently stay here; they have nothing to offer besides labor. Honestly why send the damn kids? Send the dad so he can rack up some cash and then go back. A work program should be the only way in!!! If they are truly seeking something better.
Hey there Old Cat Lady – Fear not! Don’t plan on installing punji sticks. Save your money! Biden’s putting them all up in posh hotels and you’re footing the bill!
you can also use punji sticks in conjunction with tangle foot emplacements >> you trip them up and bring them down hard into a bed of sharpened stakes & barbed wire – bad day for the bad man ….
How about building a moat with crocs in it
Ed: Nice idea but down here, they better be able to swim in dust 🙂 niio
Another Great Article Mike. Thank You. Here in Arizona, you will need a frigging backhoe to dig, even a small hole, in most places. However, we do have a plethora of different types of particularly prickly plants that can protect almost any area of your home. There must be 25 different cactus species, all of which are quite nasty to deal with; a number of thorny briars, bushes, and trees that will quickly shred modern designer clothing into useless rags, and scratch, slash, cut or jab the exposed skin. Then we have yet another line of defense in angry ants, pissed-off scorpions, poisonous lizards, hungry birds, cantankerous ground squirrels, mangy jackrabbits, snakes, and ornery javalinas. All of the species that inhabit our area are coping with a great deal of natural stress, severe anxiety, and ill tempers caused by the delirium of dehydration, extreme heat, natural selection laws, rap music, and their ingrained common sense, perfect knowledge, and surety that Epstein didn’t kill himself…
If by chance, and shear stupid luck, some dang Progressive Minded Social Justice Thinking, Enlightened, WOKE, Freeloading Fool and or Satanic Minion were to make it past all of the natural barriers; they would undoubtedly be in a sad state, nearly necked, and bleeding from a thousand wounds. If they could still crawl onto the large open, fire barrier, of our backyard/gun range which is generously decorated with sharp-edged crushed 1″ minus gravel (Grass doesn’t stand a chance here cause water is frigging expensive), then he/she/it would still have to survive our killer dachshunds trained to bark at anything that moves, and lick newcomers to death.
Short of parachuting into, high jumping over, or tunneling under the above mentioned naturally occurring, regenerating biological barriers, we feel fairly secure. All of our No TRESSPASSING Signs Clearly State: That all Unwanted/Uninvited Intruders will be Shot, and that any Survivors will be Shot Twice!” We will happily guarantee that their remains will be Gloriously Spread over the Beautiful Desert Scenery to help fertilize, and thereby promote natural growth of the Biosphere; in compliance with EPA Ecological Minded Regulations, Local Jurisdictional Restrictions, and Non Denominational Religious Requirements as written or understood at the particular juncture of time and space continuums, moon phases or tide changes. What the Hell, the Ravenous Packs of Wild Coyotes have to eat too. Cheers, and have a Nice Day.
I like your kind! Hope that some time soon, before this cancer takes me, I can come to yore state, and meet with you.
It’s getting rather ridiculous anymore, with all these so called human beings acting like spoiled children who have never been properly educated on self respect, respect of others, and their property, how to handle money, and to love and fear God life and Liberty.
Shamoo: Hitler said, “I want to raise a generation of young people that will be void of a conscious, relentless, imperious, and cruel.”
“We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” –Adolf Hitler
“If there is no God, everything is permissible.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
And the dems managed it. niio
Absolutely lovely!! Perfect setting. I applaud you and your surroundings. Firm believer, nature needs to eat too!!
It pays to have a little land around you to spread the intruders.
Ha Ha!! We have those same “Trespassers will be shot; survivors will be shot again!” sign!!
Great comments,Brother Patriot!
From Michigan
G.W. – Your Dachshunds are your most formidable line of defense.
Actually, any little dog that (example stated or chihuahuas) are a great alarm system. Sometimes they do false alarms too, but the criminals don’t know that!
Nolan: We used to call chihuahuas miniature Doberman Pinschers. Fierce and happy in battle. I like the standard, the mountain Xolo. They get as big as German Shepherds and are as wiry, but not crazy. A neighbor has a female. When she gets loose, people find a few dead coyotes around town, then she comes home all happy. Good dogs, good trackers and guard dogs, as well. niio
GW: Saw a few signs around here that were interesting. NO LIBERALS. WE DON’T LIKE POISONING COYOTES. And, IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU’RE IN RANGE. YOU’RE IN MY SIGHTS.
When in Arizona, best garden tools are a pick and a shovel, and that’s for good soil. Garden centers used to sell dynamite for a reason. We don’t kill snakes for few good reasons, bubonic plague, haunta virus and a few others.
Football season for most starts in late fall. For our cattle, it’s the start of hiking seas/mojado invasion. niio
This ain’t over yet, I’m Certain… Keep watch, Hold the Line Patriots. We Got This!
GW: Lucky you to have friendly dachshunds. Ours always tended to feed first and lick late. When Bubba der Shrek became a daddy and was allowed to meet his pups (at one month old), the lone female crawled over to my and latched onto my boot. My sister, who owned the pups, looked at her and frowned. “What’s she doing?” I said, “She’s trying to pull me to the floor to finish me off.” Sue blinked and leaned down. “Geezis, she’s growling!”
It may be because the kids had too much influence over the dogs. We call our kids were-puppies, baby werewolves. niio
It’s Always Something. Best of Luck to You and Yours. This Ain’t Over yet!! Hold the Line Patriots!!
I like to plant rose bushes under my teenagers bedroom windows. Mostly to keep them in at night but I’m sure it would discourage uninvited visitors as well.
2many: Type depends on where you live, but all around, rugosa roses are so thorny they turn back rabbits and livestock. I think they even developed one that blooms all summer. niio
I would say that if it’s total chaos and there is NO RULE OF LAW and the crazies are trying to get to you to harm or kill you, then that would be a time to implement such a method of protection for your home.
Lowe’s and I am sure Home Depot, although I have not checked them out for the product, carries rebar in various thicknesses and lengths. You can either buy the standard length which is 12 or 16 feet long and cut it yourself or buy precut lengths and just sharpen the ends.They sell a variety of lengths and thicknesses of rebar. If you sharpen both ends you can drive one end in the ground and leave the other end sticking up in the air. Quarter inch rebar should be more than satisfactory for your purposes here.
It is not necessary to dig pits. Exposed punji sticks can be used to direct traffic into a fire zone. They don’t have to be close together even, just close enough that the approaching bad guy has to step very carefully to avoid stepping on the punji stick. I haven’t bothered to figure out what the optimal distance between stakes is but it isn’t brain surgery. You want the minimum number of stakes that will cover the maximum square footage.
Along the fence line is fine but you have to make sure that the punji line ends far enough from the fence that making a flying leap from the top of the fence presents significant danger of being impaled.
Should you have a welder and know how to weld, you can make a fiendishly diabolical device known as a caltrops. Look up caltrops on line. There are myriad Utube videos and written articles on how to make caltrops. They have the advantage of always having a sharp point facing up.
Caltrops, once made are easy to deploy. I would suggest the minimum length for a deadly caltrops would be two eight inch lengths of rebar, sharpened on all four ends to a fine point, bent and welded to make a caltrops with a 4-inch leg all around. That will penetrate to a deadly depth in the human body and will make a through and through wound in a foot. You don’t need heavy duty rebar, again, quarter inch rebar or the lightest weight rebar will work just fine. Don’t worry about rust forming on the points. That is a psychological tool. Everyone automatically thinks infection when they consider getting cut with a rusty instrument or worse, having a rusty instrument penetrate into the body.
You can always smear fecal matter on the points if you want to add to the psychological impact. It will stick better to rusty points compared to shiny clean points.
A visible trap together with a couple of covered traps will serve as a significant deterrent. Unless your property is quite large and your home sits in the middle of your property, you can still be subject to deadly gunfire from outside your property line.
OTOH, even if your property is quite small, you limit the gang rushes that might otherwise occur and attacks will be limited to fire from outside the property lines until you have been overcome.
In an EOTW situation broken glass will be available by the wheelbarrow full. Broken glass can also be used to limit access and direct foot attacks into a fire zone.
A broken wine bottle that only has the neck and shoulders broken off can be buried partially in the ground to imitate a punji stick. Sheets of broken plate glass can also be partially buried to create effective barriers. If the neck and shoulders are intact, they can be buried with the broken edge showing to make an effective barrier.
Or you can just scatter broken glass around to make a less than threatening scene that you might credibly think up an excuse for that still is a fairly effective barrier to invasion by foot. The first instinct upon coming under fire is to flop down. Now consider that you come under fire and the ground is littered with broken glass. You have a Hobson’s choice. Remain standing and take your chances with being a bigger target or flop down and take your chances with being seriously cut in a world without organized medical care.
Digging pits for punji sticks is fine. The VC and the NVA had lots of manpower and limited resources. They also had screening jungle on both sides of the path to limit movement to known footpaths. In that application, a pit was a guaranteed man-getter. Unless one had an ambush set up, my method outlined above would not be successful. Protecting your property with pits is going to take a lot of calories and effort which in an EOTW situation are going to be in short supply. I would NOT put out punji sticks unless it were truly a world without rule of law. I am not talking about where there are police but they just are sitting on their hands due to an out of control situation or a political situation where they are proscribed from acting by so-called government but a world where best case, the police have disappeared — worst case they are among the bad guys.
Claymores were far easier to set up for such an ambush than setting out several hundred punji sticks or digging pits to set punji sticks. In Vietnam we had almost unlimited supplies when the system worked and so used the more expensive but more effective claymore system.
If you have an opportunity to score some claymores, I would suggest that you consider doing so, making sure your source is secure and not some governmental trap.
The government loves to use informants to set up unsuspecting folk into breaking laws that they may not realize they are breaking.
The Weaver situation in Idaho was a classic example of that sort of despicable conduct. Randy Weaver was importuned by some federal agency to join q white supremacist group to act as an informant. He refused. In retaliation they got what is called a “twist” on a so-called friend of Weaver to try to get him to hold a sawed off shotgun without a dispensation from the BATF. Weaver refused that ploy too. That led to the infamous assassination raid by the assorted federal agencies involved in the whole stinking mess.
A “twist” is where you have committed some crime that has been brought to the attention of law enforcement. Instead of prosecuting you, they either know or get a list from you of your friends and acquaintances. They suggest a scheme to involve your “friends” in the commission of a crime in return for which, you will either not be referred to the DA for prosecution or will be promised a reduced sentence.
Left Coast Chuck… I’d marry you if you were a girl! However, I’d need my wife’s permission!
Godspeed my friend!
Booby traps are illegal in every state in the USA.
No question about illegality in a situation where there is still some semblance of rule of law. What we are discussing here is the situation where the police are totally non-effective and all goobermint activities have broken down commonly called in preppier parlance WORL (Without Rule of Law). You have to be careful to delineate between WORL due to a temporary breakdown in the political process such as we saw in Portland and Minneapolis or a total breakdown of the political process which we have not yet experienced in this country but which some of us feel is very close to the edge at which point we drop into the abyss.
This article, I hope, is for the latter situation where all government is dissolved and it is every man for himself. Otherwise if you install punji pits and stakes, you are waving a red flag to be incarcerated for a considerable period of time even if no one is hurt.
Hopefully that situation will not devolve until I have departed for greener pastures and my progeny and their progeny are left to deal with the remnants of what used to be the greatest country with the greatest freedoms of expression and freedom to live your life as you desired. I hope not to live so long as to see such an incredible experiment in freedom for humanity crumble into what surely must follow the ever encroachment of our freedoms by folks who are so stupid they think they can decide how to live for 330+ millions of folks with a wide disparity of backgrounds.
My social security card has stamped on it in red caps “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES” That’s how old I am. I would wager that I am one of a very few who have such adornment on their social security card.
The goobermint sold social security to the masses on the basis that the numbers WOULD NEVER BE USED FOR IDENTIFICATiON PURPOSES as we had seen what was going on in Europe even though we had the head in the sand attitude that it really wasn’t as bad as the press made it out to be and they were only Jews anyway, so it didn’t matter that much.
I can’t understand the Jews’ and the Japanese-Americans’ fascination with the demonokratik party. It was Roosevelt and the dems who refused landing to ships already full of Jewish refugees from Europe. It was Roosevelt who signed the executive order locking up tens of thousands of JAs who were native born U.S. citizens. It was the Roosevelt appointed supremes who ruled that incarceration was constitutional. Yet they still flock to that political party like flies to honey.
To quote that great American political philosopher, “We have met the enemy and they is us.”
LC Charles
I for one will miss your wit and sense of history when you depart for greener pastures assuming you do so before myself.
I am also amazed at the number of seemingly bright people who want, read desperate, to throw their freedoms away. Or to let them be so eroded as to be unidentifiable.
Please continue sir with sage advice. I hope some read your posts and learn things they were not taught in school.
Many German Americans and Italian Americans were also interned during WWII to prevent spying and sabotage which were real threats. On the other hand, today we allow thousands of CCP Chinese to come to our country to attend school, work in our corporations, and live freely in our country while they are closely monitored by their own. Every single one of them can be considered a spy because when they return to China, they will under go 3 months of mandatory isolated interrogation.
CC: And with our unprotected southern border we have absolutely zero idea who is crossing over into the country. A significant portion of the southern tier states prison population is felony convicted folk who have illegally crossed our southern border. I have maintained for some time that we most definitely do not need to import felons. We have a sufficient quantity of native born felons to keep our prisons humming. The overcrowding is due to illegal aliens who come here to commit felonies. Where would you rather be a criminal, in one of the countries to our south where poor folks are really poor or a criminal in the U.S. where most “poor” folks are considered middle class in countries to our south.
I don’t want to get started on that rant.
LCC – Well, so far they only report catching four known terrorists crossing into the US at the southern border. The rest they are putting up in hotels at our expense. Why Isn’t the custody of children given to their respective embassies here in the US along with a warrant for the arrest of their parents on charges of abuse, child neglect and abandonment?
CC: Kids are being separated from parents. A lot of the loose kids are older, teens, and in Mexico a teen is supposed to act like an adult. biden’s slave jails are at 768% capacity, with kids taking turns sleeping on bare concrete floors. Hundreds of adults have been released into the general public and many were not treated for corona, or were and released anyway. Terrorists have been caught, most of the OTMs and M13, about 800 or so. New York has been arresting quite a few, lately. A group smuggling children over the river were caught and then so were several more. ICE cameras have caught heavily armed drug soldiers herding drug mules over the border, many of them children. So many kids are being brought over and disappearing anti-slavers are horrified. But then, Mexico does have well over 8 million slaves, according to the CIA and Trump screwed them by fighting the dnc. niio
Red, Yes, you are so right! Our sense of normalcy and logic and values do not apply! For sure we are dealing with another world at the border, i.e., what they refer to as the 3rd world. One international travel is fully back up and running, I expect we will have even more problems on the way.
CC: Your eyes are wide open. niio
LCC, I’m right there with ya…I’d rather not see the terrible things I firmly believe our country is about to experience…but if I’m still around I’ll make the best of a bad situation.
I’m pretty sure my dad’s SS card says the same thing as yours…he’s 91 years young and still going strong as is my mom who will be 90 next month. I’ll be 70 this summer…good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise… I think my SS card is in a safety deposit box at the bank so I haven’t checked to see if mine says that on it…lol. I got mine when I was 12 years old and started a job at the local movie theater running the movie projectors. Man I loved that job!!
I get kinda worked up when I hear people refer to Social Security as an entitlement. I’d hate to tell them but that money is mine…I worked for it…I had no choice but to pay into it…if I had my druthers I’d rather them just give me what I paid in to it and let me manage that money myself.
The dollars everyone put into Social Security probably would have been self sustaining if big brother hadn’t robbed it to fund welfare and everything else they wanted to spend it on.
Oh well…it’s not a big deal for me personally because I may not be around to see the Social Security fund go broke in 2035 like they’re predicting…but it’s a big deal for my children and grandchildren who have worked a job and paid into Social Security & will never see a penny of It. That’s just not right!
Mailpouch: Corna is the dems’ version of Hitler’s final shot for social sec recips. Dems knew what it was doing in China and Italy. The DNC is coming down hard on Cuomo for sexual harassment, something he’s done for decades, to cover him as a mass murderer. 4 more governors are being lined up for killing off the elderly and the dems will cover for them, as well. Peace. In the end we win. niio
Red – Not just the elderly. He also did in folks in assisted living facilities and group homes for the handicapped and mentally retarded, Final count yet to be determined. Cuomo is truly a man with out a soul. In this big city. these harassment allegations are not worth the time of day and nothing much to squawk about. All these stupid women needed to do was to tell him to knock it off! I actually think that the timing of and the multitude of these harassment cases pending are a convenient smoke screen to take the heat off the real extent of the criminality of his actions, many of which were also committed by other Dem governors. Remember they all got together to plot resistance against Trump’s Operation Warped Speed. No one’s been more brutally harassed by the so called “Love Gov” than Janice Dean. She deserves a medal. She knows how to handle what we gals call a real creep!
LCC: Hang on and keep that boot inserted in liberal ass. I found something by Socrates you might like.
“Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.”
– Socrates
Old-school stuff is cool. Like an old desert rat trold me many decades ago, “If it ain’t got horns, thorns, or fangs, it’s poison That’s Arizona!” We’re a hundred miles north of the border, and probably better off than many in other, more northern states. We have perfect natural defenses like manzanita, which can deter a tank because it grows so crooked and springy. Almost all trees and bushes have thorns, even some food plants.Our ‘strawberries’ grow on Pencil Chollo, which is loaded with nasty, loose thorns. Mesquite, prickly pear, and more all make a very good hedge against the average intruder and will give even determined raiders pause.
Best garden is the pit, a form of hugelkulture. dig a pit 3 feet deep and take out as much lime (caliche) as you can. Backfill with plenty or logs and thorn brush, dirt and so on. As the brush decays, it leaves the thorns and hollows where eventually, scorpions, centipedes, and grasshopper mice (a small but eager predator) and so on take up residence. Do not never ever mess with a grasshopper mouse. Coyotes fear them, and with good reason.
The garden ‘wall’ is growing bigger, and better. Thronier. Producing a lot more food, as well. Wolfberries, native goji, are nasty, but look good. Harvester ants make nests outside the property, and can be controlled. One bite and a person is in agony. Most nests have hundreds of ants. Our bees are friendly enough, if you understand their dislikes, but deadly to strangers. Yes, bees can recognize individual people. so, we’re ready to go all natural, all legal. And, this has proved to work for untold centuries.
I like the cholla along the with the prickly pear growing along the length of our six foot horse fencing. And watch out for them grasshopper mice, they will bite right through heavy gloves as I have found out.
One could always set it up to re fill the hole once um used, ahem!
Thus no one would be the wiser!
Any booby trap or man-made deterrent (trip wire, noise maker, etcetera) is a billboard stating that someone is there, and probably has supplies worth protecting, even if the construction appears to be old. This could be useful to misdirect people toward an area with no persons or resources. While it has value as a last-ditch effort, it doesn’t discriminate good from bad. Friends, relatives, children, animals and yourself can be hurt by it. Count that cost before doing anything like this.
WoodStock: It’s like I keep saying, go natural. All around the house are pits filled with brush and logs, then dirt for garden beds. Plenty of soft spots develop, holes under the surface inhabited by scorpions and spiders, centipedes, and our killer mouse, the Grasshopper, who can bite thru shoe leather. Plenty of cactus and jujube, citrus, wolfberries, and so on all covered with thorns. Keep it natural. No one can fault that. niio
I have prickly pear growing along just about half of my east property line fence. I’m adding as I can. I want a cacti fence along that side road.
The fruit is food, jam, syrup and wine and we eat young pads too. Cholla is nasty stuff. Plenty around but none on my property. I’m hoping to get some of the large pad nopal. Our native ones are small and pigmy.
Any trap is illegal but if society breaks down more all concerns about that will disappear. Trapping for food or fir has even become illegal recently. I’ve about decided dogs after my critters will be garden ferlizer. I’m always making a new bed or planting something. Same for Coyotes. Dems protect anyone or anything but the victims.
ClergyLady: Will the larger pads varieties survive up there? Some of mine are from Mexico, domesticated varieties (thornless), and this is about as far north as they can grow. there are some good ones in the brush, tho. Not quite as good, and thorny.
A woman in town lost half her laying hens to a dog. I can’t believe another woman defended the dog. I said the dog needs to be put down. We always had dogs, but if they went after livestock, they were punished (usually a few harsh words worked). She came after me, and I said, when it goes after a child, can you do the time in jail? She shut up, but still has the dog.
this is stray dog season. City people dump large dogs near town and we see them every day, till coyote entices them into the brush.
niio
niio
Lay out a bunch of old boards with rusty nails pointing up.
Don’t hide them.
No booby trap that way.
Personally I would also want a fall away floor at each doorway, and a 10 foot drop right onto those sticks.
Can keep mobs (and cops) at bay.
Just need a secure way to prevent it from happening and make it easy to ‘arm’ the trap.
CS: There aren’t too many that walk on this property even after dark. I call it my construction zone, and yes, that’s a very good idea! 🙂 niio
CS: It wouldn’t work around here. The soil is too shallow and the mines too deep. An oubliette is the best bet.
niio
CC: Hmmm 🙂 I’m more concerned with the second wave than this one. Next wave the chicoms pay for, from N. Africa and Asia.
Right now, Arizona is counting Maricopa ballots. Out enate had to pass a law to force dems to give them up, and state troopers collected them. Now for a hand-count backed by repubs. Dems are desperate to own us, but if these ballots are counted right, we’re one more nail in the dnc coffin. Mark Kelly here is next.
People in Kali-fornia are doing the same. First, get rid of the governor, and witnesses say he’s getting freaky cursing and shouting at people over the recall. Pelosi and Waters both will be recounted.
What this means is impeachment. this is why Pelosi backed off forcing Greene (GA R) out of office. People in GA were screaming mad–Greene is very popular in GA. Pelois, word is, was again caught with her hand in the tax payer cookie jar.
I love politics. All of mine do which is why we call it our second religion! This is more fun than the tome Nana (granny) broke a bat over Uncle Bob’s back for saying a naughty word to her. She was 5-2, him 6-2 and a war vet niio
Red -Pelosi keeps sending me invitations to join the Dem party! I imagine they are trying to sweep up as many lost souls as they can to keep their numbers high. It’s a shame that so many people are just plain stupid and can not see the big picture. Texas, Arizona, California are all beautiful states, but right now I’m glad I’m no where near the border. It’s a whole set of problems just getting worse by the day.
would landmines be easier?
Dr. S.: Yes, but I recall when the boat people were coming in, that an older gentleman who may have been on the, ah, other side said such things are wonderful in war, but have an annoying habit of killing more of their owners than they do the enemy. They tend to rust, or rot, or become unstable. Consider anything temporary at best and always make a map where these were put.
If you use booby traps and mines, how will you feed the dogs? A female can eat food scraps but males should be let out at night, before dawn to hunt. Even if fixed, he’ll always come home.
Growing up on a farm and ranch, I like natural methods. Hidden gardens, thorny fruit trees, cactus, weedy meadows of grain and so-called 3 Sisters (which were more like 27 plants, all grown in the same beds). Mouser the rattler, deep pits filled with brush, logs, and dirt as gardens–and becauseful where you step because they rot, leaving deep holes and angry carnivorous bugs like scorpions, centipedes, and hungry mice like the Grasshopper, who even coyotes fear.
If you need grain, we don’t much, perennial varieties are being developed in maize and others. If you have desert sand, then the best one is Indian rice grass and Indian rush pea (a legume that gets tuber), timpsula (Indian turnip, a legume), and other things. niio
New signs:
NO TRESPASSING
DON’T BE A BOOBY
YOU MIGHT GET TRAPPED
Fair warning?
CC: Some said, Pelosi is drowning. what can we do? I said, call in the sharks, then relented and said, No, why poison innocent man-eating sharks when a concrete block will do.
What this brings us to is the border. AZ legislature passed a law threatening arrest of anyone who interferes with a valid recount of votes and in-depth investigation of voter fraud.
If it’s proved there was voter fraud, we have a couple of senators and some congressmen who may well face recall. When even dem politicians are angry about something, it shows they’re frightened enough to act on behalf of honor and honesty.
It ticks me off that I couldn’t get down to visit family this month. They said, don’t try. come after the monsoons.
Yeah, the liberals gave us another border crisis. It’s part and parcel for them, a tradition now. Like higher taxes to destroy the economy, they do love to feel our pain with munching on moldy cheese and bubbly vinegar water and probably the pickled anal glands of civet cats (Africa’s answer to the skunk 🙂
this border problem has gone on for almost a century, since Mexico slaughtered any and all Christians and other religious people in 1922, the Cristeros Wars. South Tucson is gearing up for turf wars, and we have clips of armed, masked people moving across the border on old Indian trails.
As the saying goes, praise the Lord and keep your powder dry. niio
Red – Unfortunately the rest of the country is now highly aware and learning all about crooked political election practices. Hopefully should help folks to understand how so many really good states, where good decent people still live, are blue. They vote, but their votes don’t mean a thing when the ballots are tallied. I’ve actually had my local city council representative write back to me that he doesn’t care what I think! After a while, one would think that one’s no longer living in the US so it’s so good to be able to touch base here with like minded folks!
CC: Mom wrote to a senator who wrote that to her. she copied it, posted it in every church and synagogue, magazines, and two newspapers. People did not forget and while he won the next election, he barely squeaked by. politicians still fear their victims, us. niio