Comments on: How to Trap Gophers

By: Will

Will — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:11:24 +0000

Thanks for all that info I.S. I have been so busy for the past week I have not even looked at the garden for gopher damage. I did get out there last night and set a trap and got one. It had tunneled right under one of my tomato plants. My tomatoes are finally ripening like crazy. I seem to have some raccoons in one of the gardens that are eating them though.

One of the guys I worked with swears his father used to give his 4 kids shovels and then stick a garden hose down the hole. When the gophers surfaces, they were attacked with the shovels.

By the way, here is a link to the famous legend of the fatal wienie, or marshmallow, roast. It is interesting how long the story has been told. Its odd because I swear I heard that same story about the boys back in the 1980’s in California. It grows all over there. In some freeway median strips it is so thick it stops out of control cars from going through to the opposite lanes.

Thanks for your comment!

By: Carrot Love | Carrot Art ~ Trade Show Guru

Carrot Love | Carrot Art ~ Trade Show Guru — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:23:57 +0000

[...] themselves with the moles. My gopher traps are catching a lot of dirt. I read Will’s post on trapping gophers, but I’m still catching dirt. However, I did notice something very cool on Will’s post, [...]

By: Squirrel Problems

Squirrel Problems — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:58:24 +0000

Regardless if it was stolen or if a bigger animal walked off with it, I’m really wondering if this contraption will work for squirrels. I have a tremendous problem with squirrels where I live. They dig up everything I plant!

dave
Squirrel Problems´s last blog ..Yellow Fish Road – Sewers go straight to streams

By: Internet Strategist @GrowMap

Internet Strategist @GrowMap — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:29:55 +0000

A friend of mine does animal rescue and we ended up with the perfect solution to gophers but not to huge holes all over the place! We have a dog that is a gopher hunting fool. She digs them up. They don’t have a chance to get into the garden because she gets them on their way across the pasture underground.

I have a strong aversion to anyone planting Oleander. It is to toxic that Santa Anita racetrack once had two of the Budweiser Clydesdales die when a groom let them nibble on it. There were numerous Veterinarians on the grounds but there is (was?) no antidote. A few leaves can drop a full grown horse.

Decades ago I remember a couple of boys almost dying when they used a branch off an Oleander plant to roast marshmellows.

I would try the onions and garlic and if that doesn’t work I’ll tell you about another method I have heard about but never used. They say you can find a hole, light a road flare and stick it smoking end into the hole and then mound the dirt around it. What happens next I can’t say. I don’t know if that flushes them out or they did of the smoke.

When I was young my Mom got so frustrated with gopher holes she stuck the hose into one. It flushed them up out of the hole and our dog cornered one and we caught it. Then you have the problem of what to do with it though.
Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Add a Twitter Field to Your Comments

By: Wilson Pon

Wilson Pon — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:31:37 +0000

Will, instead of trapping and killing the gophers, why don’t you plant the Oleander, garlic or onion inside your garden? As I knew, the gophers hate these plants and will surely away from your garden!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:52:54 +0000

Hey Will,
I feel your pain, brother. I have lost many a plant to the gophers.
For every time a trap has worked, I have had ten or more traps filled with dirt.
As to your disappearing trap, I had the same thing happen to me at a different house several years ago, with a red wooden box trap that I had borrowed from a friend. The trap was supposedly really old (maybe handed down through the generations?), and he called it “old faithful”. I felt REAL bad losing it. I think maybe a coyote hauled it away after it got the gopher, but we’ll never know.
Anyway, good luck with your gopher war. I’ve got a bit of a battle going on here this year, and have had little luck so far. Steve
Steve´s last blog ..Spam My Blog – Win a Free Link

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:01:51 +0000

Hey Will I need one of those, one for the chipmunk, one for the raccoon, and one for some rodent that sits in my window frame, lol. Great post, and glad I don’t have those gophers on my property, lol, Good luck, Anna
Anna´s last blog ..A Bit of Knowledge: What a Habit, a Forest and the ISO Setting Have in Common

By: Brooke

Brooke — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:04:36 +0000

Think you can come capture the mystery monster that has taken up residence in the backyard under the bedroom window… It’s got to be a pocket gopher but we can’t get rid of it.. Only one and no garden so not sure why it picked there to live.. Plus we have the dogs so it must be insane to pick the backyard as a new house… Good Luck with your removal of gophers… Sounds like ya got your hands full..
Brooke´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday – Hallowed Ground