Gophers

Gophers have attacked my raised bed garden. Does anybody have thoughts about the effectiveness of gas bombs and/or the safety of growing vegetables in the area where they are used? Active ingredients are sodium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal. TIA

Z

I have no idea what sodium nitrate would do to the soil, but sulfur is used to make soil more acid and charcoal is harmless. I would think one would not want to add any sodium to one's soil. On the other hand, I don't know what products are left after the bomb explodes. Of course, sometimes they are duds and don't explode and then one has a buried bomb.
Locally there seems to be a plan to use a $2000 machine called a Rhodenator. It injects propane and oxygen into gopher holes then ignites them remotely. This is our county planning to do this. I think our head of Parks and Rec saw Caddy Shack one too many times, but I am pretty sick of gophers myself. It is my understanding that trapping them is the most effective method of gopher riddance. I have done that, but find it time consuming and frustrating.
Best of luck. I have had enough gophers to last a life time already and think I have a fair number of years to go. Guess I better hone my trapping skills.

How close are the holes to the garden? If you are using a product like Revenge or other similar product like a smoke bomb, then not a whole lot is left in the area. It basically produces the carbon monoxide and then all that is left is the cardboard tube ingredients. If it is not in the garden it should not be a problem, especially since you are pushing the bomb into the hole. I have found that duck taping the bomb to a stick provides the necessary length needed to get the instrument deep inside the hole.

That being said, I have tried a lot of methods to get rid of my groundhogs and they always come back. If you are able to rid them from a wide area like a couple acres it will be a long time until them come back. I live in the city, unfortunately, and some of my neighbors think they are cute. I am sure my wife would frown on me sneaking into the little old lady's yard next door to smoke out the little suckers, so I am stuck with a never ending recurring issue.

The one thing that might work for you and has for me in the past is trapping. My city provides free cages for nuisances animals and will come a take them away. You could check to see if your city has the same program.

Thanks jessums. All the mounds were right in the garden. I decided to throw caution to the wind, as it were, last evening and went ahead and set off one of the smoke bombs. There were no new mounds this morning. I hope they migrate to the one neighbor I am less than fond of. :-)

Sodium nitrate is the fertilizer sold as nitrate of soda. Extracted from the Chilean deposits of fossilized bat manure. sold in late 19th and early 20th century as Guano. NPK is 16-0-0. Those bombs are similar to Black Powder used in early firearms. They are designed to smoke not explode. That said they are not as effective as advertised but will move small rodents out of the area.

Thanks Farmerdill. I feel a bit more at ease now knowing I have mostly recreated bat crap. I was less than optomistic but if I can safely make life uncomfortable for them, and maybe even drive them off, more power to it. They can even have a different section of the yard, just not my garden. I imagine the grubs and worms and loose dirt make life easy for them. If I were a gopher I'd want to live there. :-)
Z

Gophers aka woodchucks are edible, you know. They're certainly cute little devils, and we were charmed the other day to see fifteen gophers, about eleven little ones and four adults, scampering across the road, because they were many miles away from our home and garden. We would have been appalled if they were closer. My husband shot the only one we've ever seen on our property, but we didn't try cooking it. However, here are some recipes for the adventurous among you:

http://www.wildliferecipes.net/Game_recipes/Small_game_recipes/Woodchuck_recipes/index.asp

Viewing them as a delicacy and acting accordingly could deplete their numbers fairly quickly, I'd think. In New Jersey, in the current year you can shoot them with a bow, rifle or shotgun from March 2nd to September 30th with no daily bag limit.

Gophers (Thomomys talpoides)are different critters than woodchucks (ground hogs)(Marmota monax) The gopher is a small rodent running 5-7 inches long. In the East, mostly ground hogs, big rodents, 20- 27 inches . In the east we are mostly plagued with woodchucks (groundhogs)but in Oregon they have pocket gophers. Grounds hogs I have eaten, never met the gopher.

Woodchucks SUCK. You can gladly take all of mine at any time. Feel free to come on over and remove them. Permission granted. If I could shoot them here I would. Although I don't own any guns. I trap them and take them miles away and release.

Illegal my butt, I take them OFF my property.