Getting Rid of Gophers

[g]

Does anyone have any sure-fire advice on this? Do those electronic spikes work?

[Old Fangled]

"g" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Poison or traps.

No

[Roger]

I find traps hard to set in the right place, and my gophers tend to stuff it full of dirt before they get into the trigger plate, even after cleaning trap and rubbing with herbs to mask the human scent. Poison works pretty well - I use phosphide granules. The wayfarin and green wheat kernel types seem less attractive to gophers, in my area.. I locate tunnels by poking ground with a 3/4 inch rebar. When the soil "gives", I drop a tablespoonfull down the hole and cover with a stone. I do this in a dozen or more locations. Usually works. These baits are extremely toxic to birds and pets, so keep this in mind. For moles, I use multiple smoke bombs at the first signs of digging, but this approach works rarely with gophers.

>

[G. Morgan]

Subject: Getting Rid of Gophers Newsgroup: alt.home.repair => g Does anyone have any sure-fire advice on this? Do those electronic spikes

Carl: "Licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint, and a varmint will never quit, ever. They're like the Viet Cong, Varmint Cong."

[Dr. Hardcrab]

I would just hire Bill Murray. He did a pretty good job in Caddyshack.......

[Dr. Hardcrab]

OOOPS!

Didn't see this one before I posted.

(Someone's mind is on the same road as mine....)

;-]

[Martik]

Lots of cayenne or hotter chilli pepper down the holes

[Duane Bozarth]

Concur w/ pocket gophers...traps are a pita at best...

For around the house rather than in the fields, baiting at the exit hole is most effective home-owner solution. After a little practice you will find you can see which side of the mound they packed the plug in and hit it w/ a hand trowel almost every time, first time. Carefully remove the plug, put some bait as far down the tunnel as you can get it (don't touch anything w/ your bare hands to leave scent) and then carefully re-plug the hole w/o knocking the tunnel full of dirt.

I find the laced peanuts seem to attract them here...warfarin baits for mice/rats don't.

[m Ransley]

Gophers eat grubs. Grubs can be best killed by Milky Spores a 5 year treatment product, and Nematodes [ a double punch] No grubs no moles. Of fight them without satisfaction with Gopher Bombs , stakes, traps, etc. Remove the food and they leave.

[Roger]

Gophers are vegetarians and eat plants and plant roots, not grubs.. Killing the grubs does nothing but poison your soil and kill beneficial things as well like worms.. Moles are carniverous and eat insects, salamanders, grubs, but in my area, mostly earthworms.

[ioc]

In a few areas 'gophers' means moles shortened from the slang of 'pocket gophers' for moles. In my area, gopher means gopher and mole means mole. If folks in areas that call moles gophers ever dropped a hay wagon wheel in a gopher hole around here they'd change that term real quick and they wouldn't be talking about a teaspoon of poison to dump in it!

[geoman]

I have read in Mother Earth news or another mag like it that the next time you go to the barber tell him you want your hair. You put it in their holes every couple of feet and they go crazy, they hate it and will leave the entire area for some reason. I can't remember if it was for moles or gophers. I don't even know if it really works since I never had either problem. They stated however that it was a 100% solution.

Rich

[Duane Bozarth]

ioc wrote: ....

??? slang for "pocket gopher" --> "mole" ???

I don't think it's slang, just total ignorance of the difference--anything that burrows underground is a "mole", more likely.

Doesn't take much in an indivdual burrow, you just have to be persistent in working on the new mounds where they're currently working. A yard can be cleaned up in fairly good time. An infested field is another story....they're even popping up in the middle of the county roads here, now. That takes a pretty bit of digging even in the sandy ground we have.

[Duane Bozarth]

There's that's a 100% solution....

I have tried it, it doesn't work for diddly unless the "totally leaving the area" encompasses a circle of about 20 feet from the previous mound the night before.

Placing it in stocking nets and hanging on particular specimens of interest seem to deter the deer for a few days, however...

[davefr]

[Ross Mac]

I have heard that putting up a barn owl house will attract barn owls who will grub those pesky varmints. Here is a link for one .....

luck getting rid of the "gopher cong" ....Ross

[Duane Bozarth]

We've had both barn and great horned owls for years...while they do prey on gophers as the opportunity affords itself, I can assure you they aren't sufficient in of themselves to eliminate them (or even keep them in limited numbers)...

At last count I know of roughly 3 or 4 pairs of barn owls and a pair of great horned (they raised four young last year, but will not tolerate them in the near area so the young have to find their own range once the next season approaches which is about now...they're starting to "talk" to each other at night, now).

[Eric]

If you live in the right area and its safe to do so, just sit outside quietly in a chair with a 12 gauge pump across your lap and plenty of #8 skeet loads - should be fun. Eric

[Ross Mac]

There ya go Eric....I met an engineer once that said he didn't want to live anywhere that he couldn't shoot his shotgun from the porch or piss in the yard....I know...a bit rude...but it was funny over lunch....enjoyed your post...Ross

[Stormin Mormon]

Hire Bill Murray. Make a movie.

More seriously, did you try a web search?

is your best friend.