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Help with gophers
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Posted by Jason_az Arizona (My Page) on Tue, Mar 30, 04 at 1:40
| I need help with how to get rid of gophers I have lost three fruit trees to them I have tried poison I tried the smoke bombs for gophers I even tried putting a hose down the hose and letting it run for an hour but what ever I try to do it does not seem to work does any one have any ideas on how to get rid of them I would rely appreciate it thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Help with gophers
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| Jason, There are some very interesting threads on this forum on that very subject. Suggest you run a search. However, I have sprayed or wetted the soil around young fruit trees with a Pine Sol mixture which is supposed to repel gophers. Seemed to work in as much as the activity stopped. I've wanted to adapt the old electrical charge method of bringing up earthworms to bringing up gophers. Then perhaps letting my cats and dogs get them. Bob |
RE: Help with gophers
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| Here is somthing that might work. It's a toxic plant. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Euphorbia lathyrus
RE: Help with gophers
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| I just bought Mole Stop made by Spectracide at Lowe's. I had read about it. It contains camphor oil and is good for 2 months. My gopher comes half way out of it's hole to eat bird seed around my tree. I had to relocate the feeder so as not to have the tree damaged. I have a dog and am afraid to use harsh chemicals and the neighbors cats wont come close to my house.Anything I plant now gets chicken wire in the hole. Good luck to you and an old fashioned trap may just be the ticket. |
RE: Help with gophers
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| LOL!! I have a real bad gopher problem too. But I have found out I have no guts. I planted garlic and mint last fall in cut milk cartons and buried them into the ground next to my house. The mint never did well, at first it seemed to but suddenly it was gone, all expcept one small sprig. A couple of days ago I was out gardening and saw a tunnel under the row of buried milk cartons still containing my garlic. A couple of hours later I saw a gopher a few inches outside of it's hole. It looked at me as if to say, "Please dont hurt me, I am cute and innocent." I left it alone. The next day one of the cartons (full of soil still, but no plant) was pushed out of it's spot about a foot away on the lawn and my largest garlic was uprooted and dead! Even the last standing mint was gone. Next time it gets the AXE!!! |
RE: Help with gophers
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| let me just say one thing-gophers are not cute-they will destroy everything in your yard if you don't activley fight them tooth and nail.They will not go away-just move to a new tunnel and new food source. The mccabie traps work good but only for awhile(I think they get the smell of death on them and they won't hit anymore.Maybe try soaking them in a smell neutralizing solution. You will need two traps to set inside the tunnel in oppisite directions and tied to a piece of string and then to a stake outside the tunnel.This will prevent them from dragging trap down tunnel if they hit trap.Cover hole with a piece of dark non reflective material and be sure to seal all light from tunnel hole or gopher will figure something is going on and it will push dirt onto trap.check traps every other day and move to a new tunnel if no hits.The piles of mounded up dirt or open hole is not the place you want to set traps as these are not the main tunnels of the gopher and just a sort of side street. use a sharp rod or something and probe the yard with it until you feel the rod go into open air vs hard soil,then dig down to open tunnel up and set traps.I hate to tell you but after declaring jihad on gophers twenty years ago I have won battles but lost more than my share-now the most I hope for is to just chase them back into my neighbors yard.Don't ever show them mercy unless you are rich and love to see your roses/fruit trees and everything else destroyed.I like to hook up a hose to my lawn/mower or truck exhaust then put the other end into their tunnel and let the gas war begin.works for a while then there back when the smoke clears.maybe they have little masks they wear down there.Using chicken wire works till ut rots-too much work and expense.Above all be persistant,show no mercy ever and never give up.I never will.... |
RE: Help with gophers
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| Re Oldgopher's smell of death on the traps. I've experienced that problem. Now I always burn off any residue from previous settings and rub carrot on the traps. Seems to help. Bob |
RE: Help with gophers
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| a buddy recommended "the Black Hole", I tried it and I've caught 4 moles and 2 gophers with them in the past few months. I've just been setting them when i see a new hole or tunnel and so far I've always gotten something eventually. I think part of the trick is staying on top of it and setting the traps where you know it's a fresh hole. I put a little carrot in as bait, and it seems to work. It's basically a black cylinder with a wire snare on one end, and a gate in the middle that releases the wire snare when they push it (you put the carrot on the other side to lure them..) It doesn't kill them immediately (I had one go off when i was standing there just about 20 minutes after I had set it) but they're normally dead when i've checked them. it's good to have the visual evidence instead of just hoping you got them. smoke bombs and flooding with a hose didn't do anything for me. Between my cat and the traps it's been pretty under control, I really recommend these. I got mine at Orchard Supply. (actually i got 2, sometimes it's good to put 2 of them back to back if you're putting them inline in a hole...) hope that helps. those things (rodents) are a major pain. |
RE: Help with gophers
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| Thanks everyone for the tips about a week ago I went to the store to get a trap and I found this gopher bate they just started selling so I figured I had nothing to loose so I tried them I mean I hated to half to kill them but at this point I had no choice they were killing all my fruit trees so I tried it they are little blue bars that have different kind of bird seed mixed withe poison I put them in the different holes and the next day I checked the holes where I put them and they were all gone and for the past week I haven't had one new gopher hole |
RE: Help with gophers
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| This is my method I previously posted a year ago. I begin by washing my hands and putting on latex gloves, and cloth gloves over them. I first find an active area. Not one with a 6" high mound but one just started (I used to mow the ground and see who started to kick dirt up - I have 1.7 acres). Next I use a 1/4" steel rod that I can bend but retains it's shape. I use this to locate the actual hole and direction of the tunnel. Using a narrow hand trowel, I dig out the entrance to the tunnel. I try to be the least invasive as possible. I place the trap in the hole as far as I can without tearing up the ground. I use McAbee kill traps (I'm sure most open spring traps are the same) This is a tedious process, and I typically trigger the traps 4 or 5 times just to get one set right. The trap is tied to a stake using bailing wire - they will chew through string. I then put a stick of gum directly behind the trap. I've read and heard from a number of sources that they use Juicy Fruit out of the wrapper to kill gophers. Theory is that they can't resist eating and either choke on it or are unable to pass it through their body and die. Hearing of this, I integrated this into my "system", but I use the juicy fruit in the foil wrapper (only) as bait. If I am working the tunnel entrance I leave it uncovered (on the theory that the gopher may think this new hole just caved in). However if I return to find the entrance filled in, it probably means you are very close to a main tunnel. When working a main tunnel you have to put a trap in each direction.. After I set a trap in each direction, I cover it with nearby grass and sticks, and cover it lightly with the dirt I removed from the hole. I find that committing a lot of time over a short period is better than a little time over a long period. After buying our home I finally got around to doing something about the gophers. After I put together my process I caught 14 in one day using only 10 traps. Ultimately I killed 85 gophers on my property in about a month, almost all of them in the first 3 weeks. I have not found poison to be that effective, and definitely less satisfying. My current count is 118 dead in 15 months. One other thing I've heard is that you should leave the dead gopher in the hole so that other gophers won't reoccupy the same hole. But with a dog on the property I would not want over 100 dead gophers in the ground on my property. Rinse your traps after each time you use them, and wash them regularly in soap and water. Some people use vegetable oil to lubricate them The only thing I would add is that I now remove all dirt kicked out by the gophers. I use it on my property to fill old gopher holes (isn't it ironic). Otherwise you end up with large areas of compacted dirt without anything growing out of it. |
RE: Help with gophers
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| If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it. My neighbor did the hose down the hole trick and showed me a pattern made by the gopher. He uncovered and soaked all 4 holes in the pattern. 5 holes later we had killed 5 gophers. In two days I had destroyed 13 gophers. Some are stubborn and possibly get wise to the water coming in but if the soaking doesn't work after a few times of filling the holes, he uses traps. I am determined not to give up and maybe it will take several things to get rid of them. I have heard by a very knowlegeable Nursery owner to pee in the holes. She swears by it, but I haven't tried that yet. |
RE: Help with gophers
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| One way I got rid of my gophers, although not in a humane way, was to take my industrial size drain snake, and attach a 3 foot length of barbed wire to the end, and then feed it down into the hole. After a few minutes you will know if you got it or not. It worked for me, but this is not for everybody. Let me know if it works for you. Good luck. |
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