Pocket Gopher Control

[jyoutz]

Can you train the owls and coyotes to prefer the gophers?

Do gophers come out at night?

 

[the old grind]

Pet mink or ferret?

 

[Torvy]

Do gophers come out at night?

True gophers are nocturnal. What many of us grew up calling gophers are ground squirrels and they are diurnal.

 

[the old grind]

Minks and ferrets hunt in tunnels as well as above ground. They're good in rat holes/hides and muskrat dens.

 

[zzvyb6]

I use my FLIR themal camera at night to find warm spots. Then a frog spear to finish the job. Pretty amazing how much tunneling exists and how much traffic they generate.

 

[cdaigle430]

A heart trap? B

Have-a-Heart traps its their name brand. I got mine at Tractor Supply Store.

 

[LindenBruce]

I will check them out thanks. I got three cinch traps delivered today. So, tomorrow morning I will be a trap setting fool. B.

 

[jwmorris]

We had problems spread over many acres up front we bale, where they would mound up dirt with rocks that were great at dulling the blades cutting the hay.

The one at a time methods were not even a consideration, I made this device.

Gopher plow

For years my father has been killing gophers with a modified pry bar and cups of poison, baiting tunnels a few hours at a time as he felt like it. We just finished a machine that baited the problem spots over 32 acres in under two hours. I had the 3 point hook up leftover from another project...

www.tractorbynet.com

It creates a tunnel under ground and drops a few poison covered seeds into the tunnel every 3ft. Drop it down around active areas (where you see mounds) then raise it and go to the next spot.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

We had problems spread over many acres up front we bale, where they would mound up dirt with rocks that were great at dulling the blades cutting the hay.

The one at a time methods were not even a consideration, I made this device.

Gopher plow

For years my father has been killing gophers with a modified pry bar and cups of poison, baiting tunnels a few hours at a time as he felt like it. We just finished a machine that baited the problem spots over 32 acres in under two hours. I had the 3 point hook up leftover from another project...

www.tractorbynet.com

It creates a tunnel under ground and drops a few poison covered seeds into the tunnel every 3ft. Drop it down around active areas (where you see mounds) then raise it and go to the next spot.

That's pretty cool, thanks for the link to the old thread.

Does anyone still market one for sale? I'd be curious.

 

[jwmorris]

I have not been looking the last few times I have passed by but https://www.hootensteel.net/ and Potts Feed Store - Homepage have both had a number of them in stock.

 

[LindenBruce]

Well I got some three cinch traps and am having better luck with them so far. Got one over night but the other two were dry. Will try different locations and see how it goes. B.

 

[the old grind]

When trapping any type critter, if it works keep doing it. Give tunnel traps time to be visited. I go 2-3 days with similar mole traps set in pairs bidirectionally and pull them up as such. If I catch one in five pairs withdrawn I'm doing well. Doubles are rare but I've had a few. There is no battle, underground trapping is a war.

 

[ultrarunner]

When I moved here the rear yard was a mine field...

It took several months the get a handle and now if I see fresh dirt a put Answer down the hole and done.

 

[tstex]

Cinch traps are the way to go for gophers...get about 3-4 of them.

If you are going to leave then traps set and be gone for x days, it's wise to attached a small flexible chain and secure the chain w a metal rod. Otherwise, an animal will pull trap up to get the gopher and run off w them both....good luck !!

 

[LindenBruce]

Yes, I got three cinch traps. Been having good luck with those. Thanks guys. B.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Rodenator

this thing is deadly

 

[Gord Baker]

Does it kill them with concussion or just wreck their tunnels? Big Pressure tank, 120 PSI?

 

[Spike56]

Hello All,

Ok, I am hell bent on getting this gopher. I have tried flooding it out three times. I tried a 15min. road flare. Nothing. It is still there tearing up a section of my hill. I can't use baits or poison because of my pets. I can't seem to find the gopher gassers locally. Stores are telling me they have not been able to get those in months. I'm going to try a trap next. But I am pulling my hair out over this one. It is being very sly. Any ideas? Would the exhaust from my gas riding mower work? How about from my newer diesel tractor? Thanks, B.

//www.amazon.com/Yard-Butler-Applicator-Eliminate-IGBA-1/dp/B00EOMCJE0/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3S2DFSOY0C71F&keywords=gopher+getter&qid=1652378137&sprefix=gopher+ge%2Caps%2C618&sr=8-3

Works like a champ for me

 

[mapper]

I second(or third) the exhaust gas. No gophers in western wa, but lots of moles. My dad was from mining country and used to put carbide pellets into the holes and it worked, I can't get that so i tried mower exhaust and it works. I use a piece of flexible metallic electical conduit that fits inside my mower exhaust outlet. stick it in the hole and somewhat seal it with dirt. I leave for prob 20 minutes depending on how many mounds there are. Usually after one go at it I get no more mounds for quite a while until a new critter moves into my yard. I did it in the summer once and the exhaust ended up frying the roots of the lawn where the tunnels ran and i had a network of dead lawn that looked like a road map for a while.

We do have pocket gophers in Western Washington, they inhabit the rocky prairies in the south sound area. More specifically the Mazama pocket gopher, which is listed as an endangered species and is illegal to kill.
Absolute bane of existence for property owners and developers. If you want to build a gopher survey has to be done, and if found they may let you build but restrict what can be done on the rest of the property (nothing!).
Where I live is not rocky prairie and I have moles, lots of moles! Gopher hawk traps work fairly well.
Friend of mine lives on the prairie near Yelm, his father used to trap pocket gophers on that land, he claims that he only has the occasional mole that he traps now.

 

[KWentling]

My last go around with a pocket gopher ended with the use of a Macabee Snap Trap. Got him the very first try with that trap. This was after multiple attempts with the smoke bombs. Also was an area with no safe direction to shoot, which is how others have been dispatched. That trap worked great.