Any gopher solutions? Part 2

I have never been burglarized, but that is how i felt when the gopher came in and chopped down that big beautiful Arichoke plant, so I was really driven to exterminate them. My place is still free of them, but i know it is just temporary.

I did a lot of work for CalTrans between 1954 and 1979 as a Highway Paving Contractor, mostly on the Arterial Highways for the L A and Orange Counties, but joint ventured the Asphalt on a couple of the Freeways. They were good to work for until Jerry Brown got the idea that if he stopped building highways, that people would stop moving to California. Since Freeways were a small part of my work, it did not hurt me much, but Contractors that specialized on the Freeway work were just wiped out. And it did not work, as people kept on coming.

Ernie

Can't afford to build them now. Thanks Jerry Brown and all your croanies since then. Gophers and wild hogs are taking over the world apparently.

I need to trap them. I need to find a cheap trap and catch the squirrels under my house too.

Hellnzn, If you can send me a contact email address, i will put you in touch with Heather, my granddaughter, and she can share what she has learned about trapping them. Last year when we moved here, we saw squirrels all the time, either a few moving fast or a lot moving slow, not sure which, but trapped some, using peanut butter for bait, and probably the dogs and activity discouraged them, but for whatever reason, i have not seen any the last month or two. Maybe the feral cat has learned how to catch them.

Ok sounds good. Thanks.

I plan on building an owl box to try and keep down the gophers.
http://www.scvas.org/pdf/cbrp/BuildingBarnOwlBoxes.pdf

For the first time, i think i have my gophers under control. Temporarily, of course as my neighbors are letting them propagate and multipy, but in addition to the poison which i put in the tunnels, [I have not seen a single instance of collateral damage,] I have been using a digging bar with the nob on the end to crush and compact the tunnels as far as i can follow them while the ground is soft from the winter rains. By reducing the ready made tunnels as much as i can, it forces the immigrants to reveal their presence by digging new tunnels instead of sneaking into the old existing ones. I am hoping that once the ground dries out, it gets so hard here, that the gophers will not be able to dig new homes. I will still have to keep a close watch on my irrigated areas, but i do that in the course of gardening, anyway.

Amen, but meanwhile I am planning my attack with the jalapeno mix to put around the roots of their favorite dishes.

To follow up on my last post, i have had two episodes of transient gophers moving in and trying to re-establish. With the maze of old tunnels partly crushed, they are not able to move in without doing some excavating which reveals their presence. So, now with the shorter tunnels we are getting more help from the water hose, and have flushed out the last two. Smacking one, and drowning the other.

This last big rain we had probably softened the ground again, but it was drying out and getting very hard before this storm, so hopefully, that will help. I am really pleased with how well the grain type poison works but do not care much for the pellets. They dissolve in the gun when moist, and i imagine they dissolve soon in the damp tunnels too.

But the digging bar with the tamper on one end is an important factor in control, too, as that is much less work than trying to dig the tunnels out with a shovel as they are so hard to follow.

Ernie

Ernie,
I so totally am with you on the rodent issue, We've even gone to the point of planting some trees with glass around the chicken wire wrapped root ball. Rotten rodents.
However, last year we spotted a burrowing owl on our farm. We know that they build their nests in squirrel burrows. So unless I can catch me a gopher snake, we'll be using both traps and poison to keep them out of the garden.
You don't know the heartbreak of growing the perfect pumpkin until you go to harvest it and find it full of dirt. Sigh. : - (
They ate my artichokes too. : - (
My YB#1 has a twisted sense of humor. He sent me this link, along with a message saying that while it seems rather sociopathic, it also seems sort of satisfying. I don't think I could recommend it because of the other wildlife out here. OCCAROL and Ernie, what effect do you think it would have in an urban setting?
Here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umEFHeo6mw
I have to admit it was kind of fun to watch them blow up the tunnels, but you know, I think my black, long haired tom cat is much better and more environmentally friendly. He generally brings me a rodent every morning. Good kitty! : - )
It never ends. LOL!
WIB~
SW

Jules,

I saw that video of the tunnel explosion when you posted it before, but agree it would do too much damage to plants, pipes, innocent victims, etc, to be worthwhile. But since you live on a farm, perhaps you have one of those six foot long tamping bars that are used to dig post holes and compact around the posts. If you do, try running water into your gopher tunnels and after it soaks a bit, try to follow the tunnel by the feel of the tamper knob crushing the tunnel. It will go down easily where the tunnel is, but hard if you get off course.

They do keep coming back, so it is a never ending battle. I probably loved that big Artichoke just as much as you loved your pumpkin, so i do understand the heartache. I am not normally a hater, but i did hate that gopher. I was sorry i could not know for sure which one of them that i killed did that dirty deed.

Back in 1950, i lived in Norwalk, which was country then, and i adopted a big Siamese Tom cat, that was a gopher killing machine, and he changed the eye color of all the neighborhood kittens to Blue, but he became so addicted to catching and eating only gophers that he finally lost weight and died. The vet said it was strictly from eating only gophers.

Ernie

Ernie

Haha! I've seen the video before too, and I have to admit, it would be satisfying. That being said, I think it would do more damage than the gophers. At last count we had 79 ferral cats in the park (they're working on it), and we havent had any gopher problems lately.

OCCAROL,

We only have one hunting cat here in the area and one big fat one that probably does not hunt. But the one cat does not keep up with the gophers so several of my neighbors do not even bother treating for them.

I do a gopher patrol every morning, and hope they give me a sign before they kill anything else.

Incidentally, i bought some beautiful daylilies today from Amaranth, who is forced to give them up to go take care of her Mother that has Alzheimers. I brought down more than i can use, and would like to sell some of them with the money going to Amaranth. She paid a lot for them, but i think 10 dollars for them would be a good bargain, as they are in one gallon to 3 or 5 gallon pots, expensive metal name tag holders for each one, the best names, etc. Kind of bargain for us buyers and a chance to help a fellow flower lover. Jules is going to auction some off at the reunion, so if anyone else sees this and is interested, email me. All of the proceeds will go to Amaranth.

Ernie

Good for you, Ernie! If I had room for more daylilies, I'd be there, but alas, I live in a mobile home park and have a very small garden area.

Carol

OC, I understand, and while i have a big lot here, i am running out of sunny spots, so i am coming to the end of my planting phase, too.

I do think i have found a new way to help with gopher control. We had a gopher pile here, and we ran some water down there, and then used the digging bar to mix the dirt and water into a kind of Mudshake, and so far the gopher has not dug his way out of it. So, since this dirt does make good mud, i am going to start doing this along with my other control efforts. Possibly the gopher is not equipped to handle the slurry. It would not work in sandy ground.

Ernie

I thought that while it might be satisfying that the concussive force would be too much for the other ground dwelling critters. I know that OCCAROL has worked for Cal Trans and me being me and having just repaired a (PVC) water pipe, I can't help but wonder that the gophernator thing would do more damage than good. I can always watch the video if I need to. Heh, heh, heh.
I realized after I posted the link the first time I had posted it on the wrong thread. Ooops!
Ernie, if it works, it works.
OCCAROL, we had a problem here with feral cats and had to resort to trapping them and then spaying or neutering them. Good luck with them. Now we are having other cats show up. Arrgghh! Not to mention the dogs. : - O
I think some daylillies are in my future. : - )
Ernie I have used your method of collapsing the tunnels before. They run them into the rocks on the farm, but every once in a while we can get one. DH usually uses poison grain, or a trap. I let my big black furry guy bring me presents. : - )
He doesn't eat the gophers BTW, he just brings them to me. I thank him, and then the dogs disappear the gopher. I really wish they wouldn't eat them but I am not arguing with a dog over food.
Got to feed my DH and kids, speaking of food.
WIB~
SW

I hate them but one was blindly running around after I flooded him out and I drown it. I cried after a while because I hate them but don't like to hurt animals and especially blind ones who die in terror at my hand. The alternative is too bleak to imagine not killing them though.

helen,
I do not know if it will make you feel any better, but i think it is Moles that are blind and that gophers can see, but if he had mud in his eye, he might not see very good. There is a neglected easement across the fence from me, and i mowed it this morning to check for gophers, and there are some over there, but have wait until they get closer before i will do anything about them.

Ernie

hellnzn,
Don't feel bad about the gopher. I despite joking about it, abhor violence. I whacked the one that popped out of the hole I was covering with a shovel and put him out of his misery. The cats were waiting at the other entrances. They like to play with their food.
It's okay to feel bad about it too. But remember that gopher was costing you time, money and energy.
I'm a softie too, and with the exception of ants, and rodents, my philosophy is live and let live.
Hugs~
WIB~
SW

Yeah I know. You definitely have that kind of yard too, where they can easily take over your garden and ruin your lawn. Did you end up deciding to do the RU? I saw you were having an interest thread at one time. It's too much for gas right now for me to go down there or I'd go. I loved your place and never forgot the cool old house and all the antiques in it and the cool shady giant tree on the back 40.

hellnz, I wish you could catch a ride with someone. The RU is coming up April 14th, and there is a sign up thread. We hope to have it under that giant CA Live Oak tree. : - )
You know you are always welcome here. I wish that we weren't so far apart, it's really difficult to get together anyway, but it seems that there is so many other things to do that are closer to home. Besides unless you can carpool it is sometimes financially impossible to go places. Sigh . . .
I'm glad you enjoyed your last visit and hope that you'll come visit again, sometime. : - )
The gophers I'm sure will always be here. LOL!
I console myself with the knowledge they are part of the food chain. : - )
Nice hearing from you hellnz, I was wondering where you got off to. : - )
WIB~
SW

I was spending more time doing other things for a while and planning my Class reunion.
I will not be able to go though because my sister is coming up from Washington for a week and my dad is about to move back east.
Thanks. I love my RU plants, they have been so cool to have all these free plants that you can try out. If you lose them, you lose nothing and if they do well, it was an experiment you would otherwise not known about, that does well in your area. Thanks so much for the include. I did enjoy the RU there.

I always feel like such a parental failure when any plants die, nursing them along best I can. I don't get how people can just get 'bored' with a plant and rip it out.

Me too. I had a large cl. rose. Josephs Coat. Gopher ate it almost to nothing a couple of years ago. I somehow cut it down to nothing and it came back as good as ever. Last year I was not so lucky. I had a little green still , so I ripped it out and put it in a container, it made it for months, but I could see one side of the canelooked like brownness was climbing up half of the cane. Winter came and it has not shown a sign of life. I keep trying to see if a root sucker popps up but I don't think it is going to. : (

I have a mandarin orange I received at the RU last year that Heather said she had only had in the big pot it was in. Looked like just ground dirt in the pot and not much of it. I put it into the ground last summer, in an anti-gopher cage of course, and it was doing great, new leaves and in fall a bunch of blossoms. Then, it just appeared to have died as the cold came - even before it hit 32. I put a tomato cage over it ( and the Meyer lemon), draped them in non-LED Christmas lights and a flannel sheet, but it was dead (not dwarf lemon).. Neighbor said too bad it didn't make it. I stopped watering it a couple weeks ago and gave up. This Sat, post RU, while giving my visiting friend a tour, she noticed a little shoot of green coming from the side!!!! Maybe.....

Oh yes. It has been so dang cold still for citrus.

Does anyone know how Donna is doing? Please tell me in a dmail if you can.

Dawn

Dawn, Donna passed last Jul 12, 2011 :-(
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1196437/

Here's how I deal with my gophers around here, I posted this a few years ago. Maybe it will help some of you:

I went outside, the full moon was blazing in the sky like a big silver dollar. I sat there on a rock freezin' my behind off, but even so I ended up falling asleep and when I fell over, my crossbow went off. The arrow hit the wall, ricochet into a light post, then ricochet off the bumper of my truck (I have 2 new parts in my hair, you know, those fancy zigzag parts like on tv?) and lo and behold! it nailed that gopher right between the eyes. Just before it happened, I saw his peepers gleaming bright red, just like the garden demon he is/was. He knew I was out to get him. I knew, he knew I knew and once that arrow bopped him, that red gleam faded like dyin' embers. But once I got up close, I couldn't be 100 percent sure that it was that arrow that killed him, he fell on a stob and it went right through his heart, so he could have been stobbed to death for all I know. So I did what any self respecting gardener would do. I grabbed him by the hind legs and flung him over my shoulder. Did I mention that he weighed almost 30 pounds? Anyway, I lugged him to the back yard. (I had anticipated I'd win this fight) so I threw his carcass into a hole I had dug earlier. I threw some dirt over him, just a few inches, you see. And then I planted some tomato plants on top of him. He's now fertilizer.

That's how I did it minus the bow, when I caught them in the black trap that I seem to have forgotten where I buried it some time.

Here's a new tip. At least I think it's new, but this thread's so long that I can't remember everything in it.

According to Hidden Valley Hibiscus, one grower succeeded in protecting his plants from gophers by stuffing fabric softener dryer sheets in every new hole he found in his garden beds. I personally have used dryer sheets to line my plant containers and have learned that they repel (or kill?) earwigs and sowbugs, so maybe there's something to this.

That will be an easy gopher fix if it kills them, but if it just drives them over to your neighbor, they will have a lot of babies that will be back to see you in a few months.

I have successfully cleared them out from my property by poisoning with a gopher gun, flooding, and stomping the tunnels closed, but still get a new visitor once in a while. The gopher gun seems to get those new ones pretty easy if used before they get extensive tunnels built.

Good luck,
Ernie

Hmmm, gopher guns....

Sue,

Wrong conclusion. A gopher gun is a device that pokes a hole in the ground to reach the tunnel, and then releases some poison bait. Sorry just the word, "gun" alarmed you.

Ernie

No, I knew exactly what you meant Ernie, I had Googled it a long time ago to check it out but it just reminded me of this photo I came across. Trying to inject some humor in this frustrating business of trying to keep the gophers out of our gardens! :-)
Thanks for contributing so much to this informative thread!

Sue,

When we moved here a year and a half ago, the entire neighborhood was crawling with them and as i had the only garden the gophers along with the rabbits and squirrels were just eating garden as fast as i could plant it, so it took me a while to get good at it, but i am very satisfied with the procedure now.

Ground in this area gets very hard and dry in the summer unless it is irrigated, so unless they can find an abandoned tunnel, not many move in during the summer, but now that the ground is getting wet, we will have more, i am sure. But i watch closely for them, and hope to be able to keep them under control now.

There are two types of bait for the guns, and if you can find it in a farm store, the more powerful works the best. It smells like they flavor it with anise seed.

Ernie

Well I have a whole new house in the woods in the mountains in Tehachapi to contend with so I'm really going to have my hands full. I'm thinking of how to rid myself of gophers, squirrels, voles, moles, groundhogs, deer, raccoons trying to get in my dog door. Just shoot me with some of your gun bait.

I have an idea. If it works I'll let you know it may help on top of the stuff you guys do, but the deer are another issue all together. I'll be the one with the garden hanging from a giant cage from old Oak trees.

Helln, Iearned the hard, expensive way the ONLY thing that works for deer depredation, too.

When i started the Ornamental tree Nursery in Idaho, Deer would do thousands and thousands of dollars in damage to my flowering crabs and such, just by biting a few small branches off one side as they ambled all over the fields.

The Game department furnished a propane canon that would explode every minute or two, and stink bait. I tried all the home made remedies that people had heard about, and nothing worked, so i built an 8 foot tall electric fence with a powerful New Zealand fence charger on it. That did work, but the wires were difficult to keep charged as different things could short them out.

So now they are using a woven wire fence that does not need to be electrified. If you plan to have any garden near where deer are, you can save your self a lot of grief and frustration by building an 8 foot fence first.

The other, smaller critters can be handled with conventional methods that work well.

But of course if you create hanging gardens, you will not need earthly measures to control the ones that do not climb.

Good luck with your projects,

Ernie

I know the hanging garden is a fantasy. I have a patio above ground, it would keep deer off, but climbing stuff that scurries over the roof from trees is another issue. I know we need taller than 7 feet walls but it may be a tricky thing with ccr's there. I may have to buy a few dog kennels and load them up with plants or invest in cattle fence and tall poles to add hight to the 4 foot fences that are there now. Grrr

Helln,

I am sure you will have a better climate up there than you had in Rosamond, so that should be a big plus.

Ernie

Yes, but I thought I had critters here, this will be a whole new challenge. Especially because we won't be there all the time.

Wow Hellnzn11. Hardly a critter left off your list of predators! There is one we have here that I have been lucky enough not to see in our yard and that is javelinas! Have seen a herd of deer on road in front of house las July and antelope in nearby fields. Neighbor spoke of when she was new here and a large family of javelinas went through her yard at night screaming and
bumping into house. Almost called 911 before turning yard lights on.

This house has been here 10 years with 2 previous owners and NOT ONE PLANT has been put in ground or one cf of concrete! Hard dirt with lots of rocks should keep gophers and moles away but need fence against bigger critters.