Any gopher solutions?

And meerkats. They look good wearing red silk ribbons too...

My two cents worth....

We garden on a rather large chunk and are surrounded by open space on all sides. Our gopher battle is ongoing, year-round, but especially so when the native forage goes brown (in about two weeks). We fight it with the Maccabee traps. We catch dozens of the little monsters each week and they keep coming back. Last year they took a rose (Honor), almost ate an entire tree dahlia, ate a Ceiba tree, and nibble about on lots of different things. On any one day there are between 15 and 40 traps checked and placed. I will never say we've got a handle on the doggone things because I'm afraid they can hear my typing and will get that 'oh yeah?' attitude...lol. There is a machine out there that some of the golf courses and schools are now using that is about the size of a weedeater and generates a huge blast of compressed air that is reported to be so violent that the concussion of air crushes their skulls right in the burrows. I used the 'sonic' things a few years back when we lived at the coast and they are indeed a joke. I think the gophers dance to the tune. The gassers just seem to get them high, and although the cages to work on ones coming in from below, they do seem to catch on and just come in from above....oy vey, they're persistent. Candy, please don't tell be they love Eryngium. I've got a huge bed of them this year coming into bloom and would just hate it if those buggers found the bed.

Out here in the rural areas, not a lot of gardeners fight them. We've had some luck chasing them away (temporarily) with predator urine, but stopped using it when we found out that collecting the urine was a rather inhumane act. So back to the traps forever it seems. I'll do some research on the compressed air machine and share it here.

best,
don

I think that was worth considerably more than two cents, especially if it saves someone the price of a "sonic thing." Thanks, DrDon, for sharing your expertise. My cats are like your traps. They also catch dozens of gophers a week. Unfortunately, there must be hundreds of the nasty rose-eaters burrowing around under my poor garden.

Maybe we can get this guy who takes care of Prairie Dogs to come out and help http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9612/16/sucking.dogs/ (be sure to watch the movie!)

LOL, that's so cool George. But I'm not too sure anyone here would want the humane padded landing for the gophers.

Zuzu, when I lived in Scotts Valley the soil was very sandy and we had generations of gophers eating everything in sight. Here was my solution-- the kids in the neighborhood went snake hunting every Spring and I offered to pay them for every gopher snake they would bring me (and put them down the hole for me too), it worked like a charm! I can't remember how many snakes they brought but we didn't have the goplers for a few years after that. We only had 1 acre though, not a lot of land.

That's such a great idea. Unfortunately, some kids came sneaking around the neighborhood a few years ago, caught all of the gopher snakes, and took them to San Francisco to sell. One of them later bragged about it to us. My neighbors and I were furious. The snakes made things so much easier while they were here, except when they pretended to be the garden hose and scared me to pieces by running away just as I reached to pick up my hose.

Hi all,
Yeah , the gopher thing is a problem. It's taken me years to plant the property here because I plant almost everything in wire. The good news is that if you can put up an owl box (or two or so, don't know what amount of spacing they require as far as territory) it's gonna help you out a lot in the long run. There are people here in Fallbrook who have filmed their owls (and babies) in their boxes through the whole cycle and the owls are bringing in something like 8 gophers per night for feeding. Since this has been on the list of things I'd like someone at our place here to get to, we haven't built any yet...But....my neighbors have and we have owls!!! I see them and hear them nightly, so I'm liking the idea that they're out there fighting the gopher problem for me. Good for the owls, good for me, maybe you could check into for your various areas. We need all the help we can get.
Sherry

Owls probably are the perfect solution, Sherry. Thanks for the great suggestion. It won't work for me, unfortunately, because owls scare my cats to pieces.

Yes, Zuzu, Keep the cats safe. Owls are definitely bad for cats. Our cats cannot be outside here, the coyotes like them too much.The most recent addition to our feline menagerie is very stubborn and does go outside for a while in the daytime. He was being difficult about coming back in at night,but he now has what look to be scratches on both haunches (healing now, scars) and he suddenly comes in as soon as it gets dark. I'm hoping for the best> Life gets a little complicated when you've taken in 6 cats and in mid-life your husband becomes allergic to everything.

I get most of mine with traps, and I drown a few now and then, but I think this is what any serious gopher hater needs. http://www.gophernator.com/rodenator_faq

Maybe we could start a co-op!

Our lot is getting dangerous to walk on in some areas because of the squirrels and gophers. Gopher snakes are good - wonder if we can buy them anywhere? We've only seen one in two years here, but it had a lumpy belly. :-) I like the owl idea, too. We hear them occasionally anyway, and if we could entice a pair to nest it would be great.

For special plants, we do use the baskets, and extend them a few inches above ground. However, my husband hates them and it's a battle every time I want to use one, as I need his strong hands.

We have also used the gas cartridges and they work for a time - like anything else, needs repetition. Black hole traps work, but they have to be placed just right. Think I'll try the other traps - a lady in Fallbrook told me she just puts them at the entry to the hole and gets them all the time.

4 Ground squirrels in two days with 'no-touch' rat traps. DH calls me a 'murderer' - you bet I am - hate those destructive little #*%@s!

Welcome to the club, Kayjones - here I'm known as 'killer.'

as to farmerjs' "rodentator" a friend of mine runs a pest control busuness and uses this[or some version of it] in central calif. and he tells me that it is 100% effective on all gofers at home at the time of the treatment but as you know re-infestation is a problem [they breed like,well, rodents] and he has his customers on contracts to maintain a "death zone" by re-bombing them at regular interals.

Well we had a flood last year with all that rain here and I would have thought all those blessed rodents would have drown but Here in the Antelope Valley we seem to be having a blue light special on rabbits, goghers, mice and kangaroo rats which tear up your lawn too. So in retrospect I think all that drown was the preditors. The smoke bombs seemed to help a bit and I poisoned some in the deep holes but then I freaked out because my dogs eat critters so They would be poisoned. I wonder if a house foundation ever caved in from these verman?
Zone 11

oK I did not read all the replies, so this may be posted already.

I had a gopher man come round to our house, it was cool, he explained what where gopher holes, and what were mole holes by the dirt around the hole.

But he sold me these traps called "cinch" traps, they work real great, i have all my plants outside, no baskets....tomatoes, beans, dahlias, you name it, it is all not in baskets, just straight in the soil.

I may lose the odd one, in 6 months they got one pepper plants, but i set these traps and 90% of the time i get something.

I found gophers come in two's, so if you get one caught there is always another running around, normally of the oppersite sex.

Unsure where to buy the traps, but maybe do a search on cinch traps.

It took me around 6 months to see the difference, but well worth it, as i have a huge garden and i hate gopher baskets.

So now i am deer free and gopher free....so it is nice, no chewed upon geraniums or roses and my veg garden is just out there, all happily growing..

Diane

Go Lionel!

A big fat one! I had to toss him over the fence because I couldn't be sure that he wasn't poisoned before Li caught him. But he was still warm so definitely alive before my big guy got him.

The ideal solution, Stella, and such an adorable one!

I haven't tried this but I read it in a book by Jerry Baker. He says that if you pour some used kitty litter down the hole/run the, little pests will stay away as the scent tells them a predator is around. Good Luck! I am lucky enough to have cats that do keep them away.
By the way, either Home Depot has creatures often I was in the store the same day you were Chuck! Small world.

We have been trapping with success for around 2 months, haven't seen any new activity until TODAY tight in the tomato area!!!! OH NO!!! Oh my I hope we can catch it!! I have 200 dahlias planted nearby...There was no evidence of a gopher at ALL!! Derned things!!! Our neighbor told of us an item called this :

www.rodenator.com/

I've tried the kitty litter with no luck, also the castor oil -- liquid and granulated. The gophers were busy at work one or two days after all of these applications. I have found that Pine-Sol will send them in another direction, so I circle my favorite plants with applications of Pine-Sol down at root level. I plunge a stick into the soil and pour the Pine-Sol into the holes.

I see one guy out there dig, dig, digging. I was sitting here wondering if I poured ammonia down the hole when he's that close whether that might gas him out. I know ammonia sure is hard for me to breathe. What think?

Sounds like a good plan, Stella, unless ammonia hurts plants. I don't know whether it does or not.

The only plant near him is a lemon balm, a volunteer. I have lots of volunteer lemon balm and wouldn't miss this one. Otherwise just brown grass. Maybe it'd kill the grass in that region and I'd have a permanent brown spot there but I think maybe I'm gonna risk it. Right now I don't see any action anymore so maybe he's moved on. I'll let Lionel loose on him in a little while; we'll try that first. Right now Li's sound asleep and I don't want to interrupt his beauty rest.

Yes, by all means, use it near the lemon balm. I'm at war with the stuff. As soon as I think I've pulled all of it out, it springs up again in a new spot. I hate the smell of it, so I can only pull up a little of it at a time. Then I have to run away and find some other scent to neutralize my poor nose.

I was kinda hoping that gopher would have a taste for lemon balm, lol. Wouldn't that be great, if the only plants the gophers went for were the ones you hate?

Yes! Unfortunately, they don't like the lemon balm, blackberries, or arum any more than I do.

Nor, unfortunately, the poison oak. Little buggers.

Well the war still rages! I have tried all of the aboved mentioned except the Rodenator I have all the parts but the long igniter. I wonder if I can just buy that? Anyone want to buy a Sonic Chaser? LOL! (My dog just stood & cocked her head back & forth when I put it in the ground, I think they are useless. I tried the traps & they worked for awhile. The gassers worked ...for awhile. Won't use poisions around my animals. I just got some of that Mole Max the Castor oil based stuff. I thought that was working but then today I see they are Baaccck! They are coming up in the bed I just put that stuff in last week! Then I have a mole that is driving me nuts. I think they are worse than the gophers, well maybe not they don't eat plants. Last year I rigged up this tube thing & hooked it to my tractor exhust & they disappearded from that area for the rest of the year, my tube thing melted & I don't wanna go buy the real deal. I kinda like the soda, chair & gun thing, sounds time consuming tho & mine mostly seem to move at night. We have 2 cats & they catch an occasional gopher but mostly field mice. We do have owls, I have heard them, & a family of hawks live nearby, but I still am plauged with these darned rodents. My neighbor says there is some sort of poison worm that his BIL uses to kill burrowing critters, said Home Depo has them but the neighbor can't find them at our HD. I'm about ready to just pour some gas in the hole & light er off! So the war continues!

Well, I dumped a whole bunch of ammonia down that new hole last evening. So far nothing seems to be effected, even the stupid lemon balm. If anything the gopher probably just moved a little further down the pike. I have a family of hawks (peregrins) nearby too, and for a while, while the wee ones were still in their nest mamma hunted my yard every day. Now I haven't seen her nor heard the babies for a week or so; maybe they moved, or maybe they take August off like the French. I've pretty much given up planting any larger plants in the ground. They go in containers now. Containers are soooooo expensive, if you want anything decent looking that is. I have had great success with the small six-pack size plants by wrapping steel wool around the roots. I have a lettuce I'm letting go to seed that has gopher mounds all around it but it's still perky and thriving. I experimented - used steel wool around three plants and not the other three. The ones without were gone within days and I harvested from the other three beautiful, healthy, gorgeous plants all summer. Same with any annual flowers I planted, the steel wool ones made it but the others didn't. So that seems to be an option for small plants. I mean, I can say, no matter how wicked my teeth were, I still woudn't want to chomp down on steel wool. Not very practical for larger plants though - Oh! I have a banana that was lying on its side because half the roots had been eaten. Since it still had a good bunch of roots on it on the other side, I used the opportunity to shove steel wool around those and then replanted it and staked it. The remaining banana next to it (they've already killed three, with only two left) is starting to look maybe like they're working on it now. It'll be interesting to see if the steel wool one stands while the other gets eaten. Then I'll know that just shoving clumps of steel wool down around the roots works pretty good. We'll see.........

4 things I didn't see listed
1 . Juicy fruit gum plugs them up - unwrap a piece and drop into each hole .
2 . Exlac - you know what a little piece does to you . unwrap a piece and drop into each hole .
3 . buy cheap small radios , put on a hard rock station -put in MT can and put in hole at top volume .
4 . go to barber shop and get some hair drop into each hole .

Well, you've all definitely convinced me. I'd been planning on trying the rodenator and the castor oil....last hopes for something that might really work, foolish me! So, I'll continue to buy my rolls of chicken wire. I've been planting in wire on this property for 10 years or so, planted in wire on the property next to it for 10 years, I've forgotten what it used to be like years ago to just go out and put something in the ground. I do have a heck of a lot of plants,so you can see why it's taken me 10 years to do it! You'd think that by now our own little local tribe of critters would have been born with the instinct that there's something wrong with these plants, let's go somewhere else, but no. I also have about 35 whiskey barrels for things like gladiolus and some of my roses, fig tree,etc. Thats where all my small items go also that I can't bother putting in wire, things that are too small that one would normally scatter seed for, annuals and such. The people who don't have gophers can't imagine how difficult it is for us.
Sherry

This message was edited Aug 6, 2006 8:06 AM

Sherry, try the steel wool on those small things. I'd love to see if anyone else has luck with it.

Stellapathic,
Where abouts are you in Cambria? My in laws are on Arlington, right off Main st.
Dayna

Oh hi! I didn't know there was someone in Nipomo on DG. I live right off Burton Drive, as you turn to the right from Hwy 1 northbound. So Lodge Hill, but the town-side, between Hwy 1 and the Cambria Pines Lodge. It's a wonderful area. Gets more sun, less wind than many places here. I don't think I've experienced Arlington yet, but I see it on a map. They're certainly centrally located, aren't they? Probably walk to the farmers market on Friday. I love it here.

I have been on scrapbooking retreats up at the Cambria Pines Lodge. It is so pretty up there. We are going to be up there at some park in two weeks for a family reunion. My MIL's family own some land up there. They have a house, I forget what street. and they own some retail space that they rent out that has apt. on top. That is where they are at. Just a block up from main street. It is pretty up there.
We have another DG'r in Arroyo Grande, his name is Chuck, I haven't seen him on these boards lately though.
Dayna

Dayna, I haven't seen Chuck on the forums for months. Hope he's ok. I'm gonna D-mail you my phone number and address in case you have am minute to drop by so we can meet. I'm literally only a block off of Hwy 1. That would be fun.