!!Gophers!!

[kday64]

Gophers really don't like the smell of moth balls. I chased them out of my yard and into my neighbors then he chased them into the woods with mothballs.

 

[roygage]

This thread has convinced me to go at these, we have pocket gophers and I've just let them go. We foster dogs and have our own terriers, over seven years I've seen only three gophers caught by the dogs. The terriers dig and dig but it's the patient dogs that wait that catch them- they just never come above ground. The farmers bait them with a device that looks like a hollow spike with a hopper for bait, but for a smaller area the answer seems to be traps.

Couple weeks after frost out here I was heading west on highway nine to my old home town. Off to my right I noted a high ditch with a south facing bank, gophers had a string of nice fresh mounds strung out east to west.

I got along the last mound of the string to find it dug out by a badger.

Paradise lost. (-:

As for the patient dogs, my son has a young Brittney cross who is keyed into stripped gophers and has the patience of Job. Get the biggest kick out of watching him stake out a hole.

Oddly enough once caught she lets them go.

 

[Guywire]

My cats do a fair job (maybe 3 gophers a week - counting just the ones they bring into the house). In the old days of dirty exhaust and cheap gas, a hose run from your car exhaust to the gopher hole for an hour used to work pretty well.

 

[vanb]

Roygage is right, you will never see a pocket gopher, one gopher can make 10-15 mounds in a few days. We have lots of them here. I've tried a product called gopher gasser (looks like large fireworks) all that did was move them onto my neighbors land. My one neighbor hired someone to come out and trap them, he got 2 of them and that solved the problem. My other neighbor showed me how to trap them, I caught 2 that had been destroying mine and my neighbor's land. haven't seen any in 2 years (lots of them in the 200 acres of hay fields) I didn't want to use poison because I have a staffordshire terrier and he would dig down and follow the holes. There is no way you will ever see a pocket gopher to shoot it.

 

[eastexan]

As to those advising shooting them. Pocket gopher are impossible to shoot as they never come out of their holes. You can live around them for years and never actually see one.

Actually, you can shoot them.
The trick is patience. He comes to the surface pushing dirt as he builds a run.

When you notice a fresh mound, find the plug and uncover the hole.
After a while, he will notice the light and will start plugging the hole again.
Pull up a chair nearby and quietly wait. He's really quick when he's working at filling the hole, and sometimes you have to shoot into the little flurry of dirt.
That's why some like to use .22 rat shot or even their .410 shotgun.

 

[kday64]

2 pitch fork method?

One to block the exit. One to carefully aerate his tunnels with? Think dirty dozen and the hay truck scene.

 

[roygage]

Actually, you can shoot them.
The trick is patience. He comes to the surface pushing dirt as he builds a run.

When you notice a fresh mound, find the plug and uncover the hole.
After a while, he will notice the light and will start plugging the hole again.
Pull up a chair nearby and quietly wait. He's really quick when he's working at filling the hole, and sometimes you have to shoot into the little flurry of dirt.
That's why some like to use .22 rat shot or even their .410 shotgun.

Would have never thought of that.

Had friends went south this winter, they had reported seeing Texans with guns sitting on chairs in hay fields. Guess now we now why.

As a kid I trapped them, aside from one dug into a hole Dad had dug for a basement, and couldn't get back out, and one I once saw back-filling his hole I never saw one save the ones I trapped.

Neat little animal, I recall putting my fingers back into their pouches, smooth as silk and bigger then you would think.

Curious, what is the normal wait time before they come up to fill their holes?

 

[eastexan]

Neat little animal, I recall putting my fingers back into their pouches, smooth as silk and bigger then you would think.

Curious, what is the normal wait time before they come up to fill their holes?

They may be neat in some ways, but they have a face only a mother gopher would love. Little beady eyes and long yellow teeth. :laughing:

Just like us, each gopher has different ways.
Some will come to fix their hole within a few minutes while others may take a few hours.
He may be digging at the other end of his run and not notice it right away. Or he may be a little timid and waits a while first.
A lot probably depends on their past experiences with predators. If you have cats, dogs, etc trying to get at them, then they are going to be more cautious about exposing themselves.

It would probably be best to uncover the hole as quietly at possible. And use gloves or a stick as he may not like human scent.