[Bleep] Pocket Gophers!

[dennishoddy]

I have moles and gophers really bad. The only way I can control them is with firearms, a rubber boot that attaches to a hose and your tailpipe that gasses them, or some traps. The traps are highly effective. This website gives lots of good info on trapping them.

http://www.thegophinator.com/

 

[PUMPKIN]

I have this same problem. I seemed to have got rid of the last one. I use a small propane bottle and a hose off of one of my heat lamps. Find a fresh dirt pile and locate the hole, insert the hose off of the propane bottle and pump propane into the hole. Propane is low lying and goes down. It will kill the little bastards. If you have nice new sod like i do the last thing you want to do is blow it up.

 

[Perplexed]

Thanks for the responses thus far, folks - even those references to Carl Spackler and Aliens The Rodenator looks like it'd be quite entertaining, but like Dave70968 said, I'd worry about cracking the foundation of my house, as the critters are under there, too. Pretty expensive as well. So I'll probably try trapping the gophers.

Oh, and I've got several dogs, including a Dachshund. They've taken care of the moles, even though I had to go back and fill in the trenches the dogs dug to get at the moles The gophers are another story...

 

[Istandalone]

Dachshunds and Jack Russels will tear your yard up trying to dig them out.

 

[CHenry]

Dachshunds and Jack Russels will tear your yard up trying to dig them out.

So will german sheperds... mine got 3 moles that were in the garden... but destroyed the squash all three times too.
Use the poison aplicator, much less time consumming that any other method. I have tryed them all (other than blowing them up with propane BUT I WANT TO) and the poison applicator is the cats pajamas and very effective.

 

[Perplexed]

Interesting thing happened yesterday while I was out walking my dogs up the lane. We came across one of the neighbors digging in a corner of his yard with a trowel. Turns out, he was opening a gopher tunnel to place a trap, and he had just set the trap down in the hole when we saw him. He left the trap exposed (no dirt over it) to come and explain the trap to me, about 10 feet away. After about five minutes, I resumed my walk and he went back to the trap. Immediately he called me back - and showed me a gopher that had just been caught in the trap. It was impressive

 

[Shoot Summ]

We've had a mole in the area for a couple of years. I've smashed down it's trails, tracked it, and never seem to get anywhere. I had the local yard guy spray a castor oil based product which seemed to send it packing for awhile. I understand they are eating the grubs and that if you apply a product that kills grubs it can sometimes help get rid of the moles as well.

 

[nofearfactor]

Dachshunds and Jack Russels will tear your yard up trying to dig them out.

I have a 35lb male Boston inside dog and my kids have 2 female Beagles that live outside and our backyard usually looks like a warzone after they get thru digging for critters. They get em but they make a bad mess doing it. And the Boston almost daily shows up at the door with one of them,a bullfrog or bird he's chewing on.

 

[nhgsr]

The dog method is hilarious to watch. My ex's parents had a great dane that would unearth the little buggers in about one second. They would go flying through the air with the scoop of dirt and then meet their demise.

 

[dennishoddy]

Interesting thing happened yesterday while I was out walking my dogs up the lane. We came across one of the neighbors digging in a corner of his yard with a trowel. Turns out, he was opening a gopher tunnel to place a trap, and he had just set the trap down in the hole when we saw him. He left the trap exposed (no dirt over it) to come and explain the trap to me, about 10 feet away. After about five minutes, I resumed my walk and he went back to the trap. Immediately he called me back - and showed me a gopher that had just been caught in the trap. It was impressive

This is how I trap mine. Use a rod around the mound pushing it into the ground until you find the tunnel, open it up with a small shovel, set a trap in both directions, and stand back.
What I have found is that you need to use one of the surveyors flags with the wire and attach it to the trap with string.
Sometimes it only catches a non-lethal part of the gopher, and if you don't have it staked out, it will drag the trap back into the hole and you'll lose it.

Plus, if you see the flag bend over while your on the porch enjoying a beer, you know you just caught one