Dust Bunnies Under the Couch? <i> No</i> Sweat

The idea came to Gay Balfour in a dream--build a vacuum system powerful enough to suck prairie dogs from their burrows and the business would come.

He did and it has.

Balfour vacuums prairie dogs from their holes in urban areas or on farms. The animals are deposited alive “but somewhat confused” in a large tank in his truck.

“It causes them no harm,” Balfour said. “There’s no poisons or gas used, strictly vacuum. It takes the little critter up and puts him in a tank, and there he can either be relocated or dispatched, whatever’s necessary to do.”

Balfour said the idea for Dog-Gone came to him in a dream.

“I saw a large yellow vehicle and there were green hoses running from it,” he said. “I was putting the hoses in the ground, sucking out prairie dogs.”

Balfour said the prairie dogs captured by his vacuum may have to be killed if there’s no place to relocate them. He said he is trying to avoid that by developing a market to send them to Japan to be used as pets.