Gopher Control

The score so far:

Gophers 15 - Chuck 0 - Ties 5

Does anyone know of a good method for controlling gophers? So far they have eaten everything I've planted in the ground except daffodils. The ties are bamboos I've put in hardware cloth cages and the gophers don't have wire cutters right now.

Hi Chuck! I found the following posts about gophers. Maybe you can use some of their suggestions. Good luck!

Terri

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:tgtwft5Yu4E:forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ipm/msg1219400029742.html+how+to+get+rid+of+gophers&hl=en

Hi Chuck ,
I've had the same problem for several years here. We've tried the poison peanuts, bombs, spearmint chewing gum wadded up fresh out of the paper. They supposedly choke on it. It did deter them for awhile. My husband flooded one tunnel the other day and the mole came out and he killed it. Jerry Baker has a tonic where you mix dishwash liquid, water and castor oil. This will do the trick but I've lost my recipe as to proportions. You can try planting the castor beans also as they hate anything resembling the smell of castor I've been told. I'll look for my castor oil recipe and post it asap. Other than that, I advise you to hire Bill Murray " The Groundhog" He has ample experience with dynamite. LOL You have to laugh instead of cry or get mad at these big nuisances. LOL

This may sound gross, but a neighbour got rid of a groundhog by pouring human urine at the entrance of its burrow. Never know, this may work on gophers too.

Years ago I read a hint about putting a cup of garden lime into the tunnel. Lucky me I don't have gophers. Dee

Well, they have finally discovered my perennial bed!!! We have had mounds out in the hayfield for the last couple of years. Yesterday, I looked out the window and about cried. There was a mound right next to the garden. We’ve tried many times to find their runs, but they really are evasive. I got out one of my books and started to read about the pocket gophers life cycle and habits. We will be out in the yard and field today with a probe and try again to find runs. I complained last year about the coyotes, now I find out that they are one of the gopher’s enemies! Someone killed about 15 or so coyotes and dumped the carcasses about a mile from us. I was glad at the time. They got one of our calves last year. Now I don’t know what to think. Anyway wish me luck in my hunt for the horrible POCKET GOPHER!! (Any reliable suggestions would be appreciated)

I live next to open space and have six or seven gophers working most of the time. I have put all my plants in homemade gopher baskets. They rust out after a year or so but by then the plants are pretty well established. I have only lost one plant to gophers in four years with the baskets. I use the 12" rolls of chicken wire. You can get a hundred baskets out of a 150 foot roll. You slit the bottom third and fold it over to make the bottom. I use electric tin-snips to do the cutting. After a while you get to where you can make about a hundred in three hours. I currently making them for our homeowners association, about 1800. They lost almost all the new plantings done a year or so ago, so we are replanting in baskets this time. This way the gophers can coexist, as there are plenty of weeds and other plants they can gnaw on without killing them. The ground squirrels help themselves as well, but they are not much of a problem, more entertaining. The deer come through, but there is so much that they never take very much of any one plant. Good luck with the gophers.