Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus for electrocuting pests such as gophers, rats and the like. The present invention employs a resistive switch that uses the same electrodes to sense the presence of a pest therebetween as are used to electrocute the pest. The resistive switch senses a leakage current flowing through the pest and into the reference electrode of its electronic circuit and uses the presence of this current to trigger the generation of a high voltage and current that is of sufficient magnitude to dispatch the pest. A timer deactivates the generator after a predetermined time has elapsed to save battery power. A status indicator is provided that does not consume power unless activated by a user. The invention will not retrigger until reset by turning it off and then on again, thereby activating the power on reset circuit.