gophers and moles

[laurencen]

well now I have the road and ditches in, grass coming thro I am honoured to have gophers and moles creating havoc, my airstrip is also being attacked, now I have taken a few gophers with a 22 but not getting ahead, any ideas what can be done

thanks

 

[Charlton John]

I recently had a problem as well. Bought a granular product called Mole Max, just spread it around the area and presto no more moles and voles, worked great. It does not kill them but after watered in they dont like the feel of it on their skin apparently and flee the area. In the past I have also used the smoke bombs in the holes and this worked well too, this will kill them I beleive. Good Luck

 

[MrDig]

Gophers love our sandy soil here, are very difficult to control. Many neighbors have given up, kitchen gardens are raised in stock tanks, etc.

I have tried trapping, repellents, cats, poison, 22's, stomping on them when they sometimes appear at dusk. None of these seemed to have any effect on the gopher population, dead plant.

About a year ago I got the only thing that works, so far: a Gopher Getter
GA-400 Gopher Getter

 

[MNBobcat]

Earlier this summer an old fella (82) stopped by my place and offered to trap gophers for $1 each. He took 190 of them out of my field. I paid him $2 each because he worked so hard. The county pays $2 each as well so he earned $4 a gopher.

About a month ago I rented a gopher getter to pull behind the tractor. It makes gopher tunnels and drops poisoned wheat into the tunnels. The gophers are now under control. Every rain I have 3 - 4 new mounds (on a 10 - 12 acre field) and I trap them out right away. I figure there are very few gophers left and I can handle what remains by trapping.

 

[MNBobcat]

About a year ago I got the only thing that works, so far: a Gopher Getter
GA-400 Gopher Getter

Do you use the strychnine or Rozol based poison?

 

[Mike120]

I've used a Gopher Getter with good results but I've always wanted one of these: Control damaging squirrels, gophers and other problem rodents with the Rodent Blaster Hot Shot. RodentBlaster.com. Seems like it would be a lot more fun.

 

[MrDig]

Do you use the strychnine or Rozol based poison?

I used strychnine bait with good results fall through spring. With summer, I started to have several areas where gophers survived many multiple passes with the machine. I tried Kaput-D Pocket Gopher Bait (Diphacinone), worked great, immediate big difference, no gophers survive.

It might be the type of poison, or just seasonal preference for the grain. Strychnine bait is on milo, Kaput on wheat.

Here's a pic of my Gopher Getter. Coulter is 22":

 

[Kenster]

This thread has been dead for several months but I wanted to add my thoughts on gophers. All the properties around here are infested with them. It's mostly sandy soil and the gophers love it. For about a year I went out nearly every morning very early with my LC Smith double barrel 16 guage and most mornings would find a hill being freshly dug. I'd wait a minute or so til the critter pushed up some more dirt and I'd pop him with bird shot. In a year's time I got about 70 confirmed kills. This doesn't count the many that I must have wounded and they crawled back down and died. If I miss them they would come back and fill in the tunnel. If the tunnel was never closed up I know I got him.
Anyway, just over a year ago I found a great trap on eBay called the Gophinator. I bought four of them. I've trapped about 140 in the past year. Anytime I've put a trap into a tunnel I've pulled out a gopher. If you dig down into a fresh mound a bit you'll find that the tunnel splits off two ways, sometimes three. You have to put a trap in each tunnel.
The two and a half acres around our house is virtually gopher free. If a new mound pops up it's easy to spot so I'll set my traps and have a gopher within an hour or so. The neighbors comment that I must be driving the varmits over to their properties. I go weeks now without seeing a mound.
The traps don't give you the instant satisfaction you get with a shotgun but it's sure fire. Just set the traps and come back later. Done deal.

 

[laurencen]

Hi Kenster, how are you covering the hole you dug after placing the traps

 

[Kenster]

Hi Kenster, how are you covering the hole you dug after placing the traps

Lauren, I never cover the hole. I stick the traps as far down the tunnel as I can reach. I leave it open because I think the light and the air lets the critters know that someone left the door open, so they go to investigate... I get 'em every time. I did tie a two foot leader to the trap made of thin, woven cable, then I tied a fairly long piece of heavy string to that and loop the string around a dowel I stick into the ground as an anchor so they won't get snagged and pull my trap into the tunnel. The metal cable keeps them from chewing through it in the very unlikely event that they don't die almost instantly from the trap.

 

[JackMentink]

If you are looking for the easiest to use Mole trap just follow the link below.

Wire Tek Easy Set Mole Eliminator Trap : WTK1001 - Buy.com

I bought a couple of these after I had tried everything. poision penuts victor traps, poision worms, etc, I tried them all, and none worked. This thing is so easy to set , no digging or setting with precision. It like a scissors jack that you just set over the tunnel and step it down with your foot.

It works great. I got mine and had 6 moles in three days. very simple to use. Highly recommended if you have mole issues

 

[Kenster]

If you are looking for the easiest to use gopher trap just follow the link below.

Wire Tek Easy Set Mole Eliminator Trap : WTK1001 - Buy.com

I bought a couple of these after I had tried everything. poision penuts victo traps, poision worms, etc, I tried them all, and none worked. This thing is so easy to set , no digging or setting with precision. It like a scissors jack that you just set over the tunnel and step it down with your foot.

It works great. I got mine and had 6 gophers in three days. very simple to use. Highly reccomended if you have gopher issues

I can see how these would work for MOLES, who have very shallow tunnels that are barely below the surface. The MOLE comes back through the tunnel and ZAP! He's history. But I can't see how there is any way this will work for a GOPHER whose tunnels can be two to three feet below the surface, other than the one they create to push dirt up to the surface, creating a mound. This is usually at the junction where two tunnels meet. The gopher then backfills this surface tunnel and never returns to it. Stepping on this trap to arm it on top of a gopher mound will not put the trap more than a few inches below surface.
Moles are very different from Gophers.

 

[JackMentink]

I can see how these would work for MOLES, who have very shallow tunnels that are barely below the surface. The MOLE comes back through the tunnel and ZAP! He's history. But I can't see how there is any way this will work for a GOPHER whose tunnels can be two to three feet below the surface, other than the one they create to push dirt up to the surface, creating a mound. This is usually at the junction where two tunnels meet. The gopher then backfills this surface tunnel and never returns to it. Stepping on this trap to arm it on top of a gopher mound will not put the trap more than a few inches below surface.
Moles are very different from Gophers.

I meant moles not gophers. It works great for moles

 

[SARG]

Well ......... I just ordered a couple of the traps off Ebay cause I've tried everything else... including the other mechanical traps available and poison.

My 2 acres of lawn around the house appears like a flight of B52s dropped their loads. This last summer I put in 180 feet of drain pipe and shortly after the moles "untrenched" the majority of it.

The only success I previously had was standing over a fresh mound until it moved and then blasted it four times with a .22 pistol.

Not very effective but it sure felt good.

 

[Kenster]

The only success I previously had was standing over a fresh mound until it moved and then blasted it four times with a .22 pistol.

Not very effective but it sure felt good.

I'm not good enough with a .22 but a 16 guage shotgun does wonders.
And, since I have virtually eliminated gophers from the 2.5 acres around the house it seems like the moles have come on strong. If it's not one thing, it's another!

 

[charlz]

The Rodenator etc works great for Pocket Gophers... who close their tunnels behind them. For 'regular' gophers, who leave their tunnels open and run around on the surface, a .22 is a quick remedy.

I made my own propane blaster and cleaned my place up. Occasionally a pocket gopher moves in from a neighboring place and I have to go blasting

Here is a thread I started a while back about blasting pocket gophers:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/99104-if-youve-got-pocket-gophers.html

 

[saskman49]

I assume you know you can get the Strichnyne bait and any other stuff such as poison for mice etc for free through you RM office here in good old Sask. For the best results you should start using the Strichnyne bait in the early spring just after they come out and there is not much for them to eat. Also needs to be put in the hole abt an hr before sunset and the hole covered. BTW we have Richardson Ground Squirrels in Sask.

http://saskpcab.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/rgsfactsheet.pdf

 

[charlz]

I assume you know you can get the Strichnyne bait and any other stuff such as poison for mice etc for free through you RM office here in good old Sask.

Here I can get the county to come out and put poison bait in the tunnels. I really didn't see that it made much of an impact. Probably about as effective as trapping, which was 'not very'. Blasting with propane though I got a good 80-90% kill the first pass through. That last 10-20% took me over a year though. One corner of my hay field, between them digging it up and me blowing it up, almost looked like it had been tilled

 

[SARG]

Gotta admit this has been one of the most entertaining posts I've read in quite awhile.

Made me laugh in multiple places ........ and think about Caddy Shack as well.

 

[AHNC]

Many years ago, when I was a tad more impetuous, I had put a lawn in. I was proud of my lawn and would get home from work and crawl from the driveway to the house pulling weeds. One day I came home and the lawn had gopher tracks all over it. I was prohibited from solving the problem as I wanted by my wife who is much more tender hearted than I, so I tried the have-a-hearts...with little success. One day I returned home and she was not home and the problem if anything was worse than when it started. I went up to the shed and got my big cutting torch rig with a large Rosebud tip. Got it burning just right, snuffed it and buried it in a the hole. Went inside for a lb of gunpowder for a fuse. Let it run for a while, ran the fuse, went and got my neighbor, because he understood and wouldn't have wanted to miss such goings on.

Well, I touched off the powder and and I had flames coming out of holes all over the place. It was amazing. Took care of the gophers for sure. Took care of the yard too, but by then I didn't care. She came home and the neighbor and I were admiring our work!