Castor bean seeds have worked for me in the past. Just throw a few in the hole.

We have a serious gopher problem, and this Spring I plan to do something about them. I never see them above ground, so I don't have the opportunity to shoot one, or I would. We are in a rural area, so shooting them would be allowed.

I have seen feral cats carrying dead gophers back to their "nests" where their kittens live. I consider the feral cats to be my allies against the gopher population, but they and other predators aren't even beginning to control our exploding gopher population. They are just benefiting from it. I plan to start with one of those metal traps. I may eventually resort to one of those devices to pipe our car's exhaust down their holes. Actually, I prefer the trap, because you have the gopher's body as confirmation of the kill.

I have seen those U-Tube videos of people killing gophers with high velocity rifles. The gophers literally explode, and parts of them are blown high in the air. And the shooters seem to be having a high old time. But unfortunately our gophers won't come out to play target practice. I have a 1000-foot-per-second air rifle that should be able to dispatch a gopher, but I have other things to do and I don't have the time to wait for the gophers to present themselves for target practice. Obviously our gophers do come out from time to time, because our feral cats seem to be able to catch them on an almost daily basis.

This Spring, the gopher wars begin. I saw a new kind of chewing gum advertised on TV that might prove to be some kind of secret weapon against gophers. Perhaps Juicy Fruit has become obsolete as a Weapon of Mass Destruction. But if I see that the gophers are winning, I will try for some kind of negotiated settlement. I might let them have that part of the yard out near the road if I can have the yard near my garden. Hopefully the gophers will be reasonable.

ZM

We now use the battery powered ones and so far they are still going strong. I check them weekly to insure they are working.

Last year we had one stubborn gopher show up but it left after a day or so. Compared to the years prior to using the electronic repellers, when I was fighting 15 or more so a year, it was a noticeable difference. (I was putting tick marks on the box trap every time I caught one!)

Before we used the repellers it was awful. They ate my fruit trees into sharpened stakes, they took out everything in the garden and pulled all the flowers down in the front yard.

I have been at war with the gophers for over 20 years where I live. I have tried it all, traps, gopher bombs, poison, wire netting, you name it. Dirty kitty litter in the holes, human hair, soap, and powdered pepper. Its an endless list. Some of them work somewhat, some not at all.

The solutions that do work either take too long to start working, are labor intensive, dangerous or it doesnt keep the new ones away. It was a constant fight.

The electronic repellers have been the only thing that really made a dent and kept them away.