To Kill a Gopher

A few months ago I noticed that my four-foot-tall sweet olive tree was all shriveled—like it needed water. I pushed on it and it the whole plant fell over. Its roots had been chewed off at the soil level.

At that moment, I really hated gophers

I’ve tried nearly everything to get rid of gophers. Although there is one thing I won’t do and that is to use poison. I have dogs and kids and poison always seemed to me a bad idea.

Four years ago we bought our home, and it came with a free gopher infestation in the lawn.

My husband and I got right down to business of getting rid of the little varmints. First we tried drowning them. We would stick a hose down a hole thinking when we turned the water on it would run through the gopher’s little underground city and that would be the end of the gophers.

Wrong.

We ran the hose down a gopher hole all right, then turned the water on full blast. For an hour we pumped water into that hole. We live near a lake and I could have sworn the water level was higher on the lake the next day.

I also had an uneasy feeling the entire time we were blasting water down that hole that at any minute our house would disappear into a giant sink hole and the gopher would have the last laugh. We never could figure out where the water was going.

We had four new gopher mounds the next day.

After our first failed attempt with water, my husband Rich and I went down to the local hardware store and purchased some Gopher bombs. Bombs. It sounded so promising. We lit them, stuck them into the gopher hole and watched it smoke.

The next day there was a brand new gopher mound.

Rich became obsessed with this smoke thing. The whole idea is to choke them to death or them or drive them away. After several smoke bombs someone told him road flares worked even better.

Now, flares are fun. They are very dramatic and they burn a long time. The flares seemed to work at first, but within a few days we would notice another new gopher mound. Even though I could tell that the flare thing wasn’t working my husband believed it was. His fixation with flares grew. He scoured the Internet. Until at last he found what he considered a really efficient contraption for getting rid of his little nemeses. It was called the Super Smoker. It was easy to build. It consisted of a flare, a five-gallon bucket, a small computer-type fan you attached to a hole in the bucket bottom, and an extension cord.
You stick a lit flare in the gopher hole; you put the bucket with the fan over it and turn it on. The fan would blow the smoke into the gopher hole. Smoke would come out from every crack and crevice of the gopher’s underground maze.

This method was very cool and it drove my husband into sort of a Caddyshack frenzy. He figured he had finally found the answer. How could that little critter survive in all that smoke? But survive it did. Again the gopher was quiet for a few days and then up would pop one or more new mounds. This drove my husband crazy. Bill Murray would have been proud as Rich spent every spare moment he had moving the Super Smoker around the yard to the location of the newest hole and then turning on. This all came to an abrupt stop when he set my four year old son’s hair of fire with a flare My son still brags about it. “ My daddy set me on fire once.” Then I have to explain to all the other horrified parents that Rich was only trying to save my garden and my son’s inquisitive head accidentally got in the way.
We had to eventually rip out all of the lawn to make way for a new septic system. And when we finally put in a new lawn, we installed it with gopher wire. I highly recommend this.

The gophers did come back, however, everywhere else.

So I started planting everything in wire gopher baskets, which also work but can be costly depending how much garden you have--not to mention the time and energy involved. I even made my own baskets for a while but again I just don’t have that much time. And the gopher is still there…just waiting.

I finally broke down and called the gopher exterminator that my friend had recommended. This worked great and I learned a lot from the guy. He told me that even though it appears that there is more than one gopher that there usually is only one. Gophers have a large territory and they are very industrious. He talked about gophers so fondly that I almost hated to kill them. I said almost. He was an honest guy and he only charged $50 per gopher and there have never been more than one at a time. Great. My gopher exterminator was the least expensive of every other exterminator I called. Great. But the problem was he was flaky and his receptionist was rude.

I could never get him to show up after the first day.

So, I was watching a gardening show recently. On this show I learned about a product that contained castor oil. Gophers evidentially hate the smell of castor oil and it keeps them away for months without killing them. I was so excited I ran out and bought two kinds from different manufacturers. I used them according to the directions. On the bottle it said that after use of the product I would probably see increased activity and then the gophers would leave. Well I did see increased activity. I kept rereading the label thinking maybe this was a product developed by some animal rights activist that was really trying to develop a super gopher. I kept thinking isn’t castor oil good for you? Don’t they give it to babies? Had I been fooled?

The sweet olive was the last straw. I called my gopher exterminator again he never showed. I was wining to my husband for the hundredth time. In the course of the wining session Rich told me that the gopher guy used Macabee gopher traps and he just happen to have one in his workshop. What? You have one? You never told me you had a gopher trap? Had Rich been on the gophers side this whole time hoping to drive me crazy and lock me up in some mental institution and gain control of my trust fund? Remembering I didn’t have a trust fund, another thought popped into my mind. Did I finally have the answer I had been searching for? Could I set my own trap and get this gopher for good and for free? No, I had better than that. I had a husband who would do it for me. I don’t think I ever loved my husband more than at that moment.

I knew just the hole to set the trap in. It was a big new mound that I could stick my whole hand in up to my elbow. You need to find a hole like that to get the trap to work. It has to be a place the gopher is guaranteed to be using. Rich followed the directions that said you should tie a string to the trap, and then shove it into the hole without letting the tunnel collapse. This didn’t work.

Our friend Max came over the next day and showed us that if you attach a wire coat hanger to the trap you not only have a handle to pull the trap out but you also have a handle to push the trap way into the tunnel.


Then you carefully cover the hole up, and come back the next day.

We did.

And the next day we had our gopher.

Comments

[Rich Binell]

Chigiy!
You did it!
Congratulations on getting your very own onramp on the information superhighway.
You go girl.
Glad I married you.
r

[WANNA GOPHER]

HAVEN'T LAUGHED THAT MUCH IN MY LIFE!!! DO GOPHERS REALY EXIST???? THEY DO WE HAVE SEEN THEM AND HEARD THEM IN POTTEN END, ENGLAND. MMM SCARED I WAS DEFINATELY. CANT WAIT FOR YOUR NEXT EPISODE OF THE GOPHER TRAPS...... XX

[andy]

Confirmed kills=the only solution. I trap as many as eigthy per year but still need baskets. Dry ground is the big enemy. Keep scent off your traps. Try dipping them in dry fire ash as you set them. Use an old golf club as a stake. (So you don't forget where they are.) As gophers get smarter, I use a box or round trap behind the macabee. They focus on the second item in the hole. Use a five gallon dark palnting container to cover the hole if they get wise to the two trap set up. Persistence. And by the way, it's called dirt fishing. No license needed, just a few nice plants in baskets for bait.

[Deana]

LMAO - my boyfriend wants to use his 500 mag smith and wesson for the problem. I am suggesting to just get a trap (as you described)

[chigiy]

Deana,
I think my husband was wishing that the road flares he was sticking down the gopher holes were sticks of dynamite. However, those aren't good for my garden either. Good luck with the traps.

[Herb]

I can remember my mom laying on the living room floor with a pellet gun all morning when I was a kid, she eventually got her gopher. When I was older, I watched my dad hit one with a bow and arrow as it popped up. I still brag about what a good shot he is. He modestly claims he was lucky. Recently, a gopher hole in my back yard has become a conduit for stormwater, so I guess I have been drafted into the war! Hooaa!

[kulotski]

This is the most entertaining story about getting rid of gophers. I'll follow your advice on the trap with coat hanger. Can't afford to spend more money on useless poisons.

[claudia]

Thanks for the info on trapping those little pesky rodents. It was very entertaining.

[chigiy]

Claudia,
You're welcome. Thank you for visiting.

[carlw]

I found a great way to kill gophers. I smear peanut butter on the end of a strip of cardboard. Then I sprinkle strycnine-laced small wheat pellets on the peanut butter (careful to not let any get on the ground), push them into the peanut butter, and shove the cardboard into the tunnel. Then I block off the tunnel and fill the hole. I have had outstanding success in killing gophers this way, and it is much easier and more effective than traps or just using poison alone.

I bought the poison at doyourownpestcontrol.com but possibly any small-sized gopher poison would work. Give it a try!

[Zach]

I had some trouble with Macabe traps not getting the gopher. The bigger gophers actually spring the trap then get away! I found fur left in the trap jaws once and another time a Macabe barely worked, the gopher died a terrible death with only his paw caught in the trap, he had ALMOST wriggled free.

But most of the gophers were wise to the traps and I gave up planting them. I was beaten, and sadly watched them destroy garden plant after plant. Squash, artichoke, beets. It was a dark time.
Several months and one fig tree later I tried these:

http://www.traplineproducts.com/

awesome!

Got FIVE gophers in a week on our one acre lot. The traps don't rust at all, I've had them in muddy soil for two or three weeks now and when you rise them off they are shinny and still perfect.

There are at least 2 gophers on the lot that are wise to the traps (older guys, bigger burrows) now but I saved a lot of the garden and I'm working on these smarties with flares.

The web site has a great video that basically taught me the smart way to plant the traps. It's definitely worth a look. (use a 1 ft screw driver to probe for holes, then a trowel to gently uncover them, some peanut butter as an added treat)

Remember to tether and stake your traps or a big gopher will drag them through the tunnel before he gives up the fight and you'll need to go on a @#LL of a hunt for it!

Those little steel wire flags like in the video are very handy for this purpose.

Viva la resistance!

[Matt Mead]

I'm late to the party on this but I have been dealing with pocket gophers for about the past five years. Early on, I wasn't very successful; now I do all right.

We own 3.5 acres with orchards bordering two sides, a nearby neighbor on one side, and some vacant property (partly mine) on the other.

I have about an acre of grass and when we first moved in, gopher activity was spread all around the grass.

I've tried several methods. Smoke bombs, poison, water, exhaust gas and traps.

Smoke bombs were ineffective as noted. I'd find the remains of the cardboard from the bomb dug up by the gopher within a couple of days.

Poison I could never verify, but rarely did activity cease.

Water never seemed to work. I could run it for days down the holes and then the gopher would dig again within a couple of days. It might work with a new gopher network before it gets expansive.

I've got an adaptor that allows you to hook a garden hose to your car's exhaust and then you poke it in the hole with the idea of putting the little creatures to sleep forever. I tried hooking it up to my truck and it was too restrictive for the engine. Our little commuter car worked OK, but it didn't get ride of the gophers.

Traps are the only thing I've found that work. But not all traps!

My first traps were the Macabee, or a good knock-off. These work... sometimes. I think the biggest problem for me has been the diamter of the gopher holes. If the hole is big enough for the trap to be inserted freely, they seem to work best. Many of the tunnels I deal with are a bit tight though.

I tried the Victor 0611 Easy Set and these FAIL. I've caught one gopher in all the times I've tried them. I think that gopher was drunk or something.

The BEST trap I've used is the Victor 0625 Blackbox. It just plain works. BUT... and it is a big but... this trap takes a lot of real estate to set. I hate setting them in my lawn because I have to dig a big chunk up to set them.

A few notes.... Traps should be set in pairs - aiming in each direction of the tunnel. Sometimes if you are near one of the little mounds, you can find a single tunnel that dead-ends at the mound to set in, but I have better luck with setting two in a main tunnel.

Most things I read said you need to cover your traps to keep it dark, but one guy said it wasn't necessary. His explanation was that an open tunnel will receive attention and as the gopher starts pushing dirt to fill it will be trapped. I've found this method works well with the Blackbox traps. I basicall cover most of the trap with a layer of loose dirt, but leave the hole in the back of the trap open.

I've also found I have the best luck if I bait the traps with a dab of peanut butter and part of a green onion. (I poke both through the hole.) I don't know if this really matters, but I seem to have better luck when I do it. (So I keep doing it!)

Tonight I just ordered a pair of Gophinators and will give them a try. It would be nice to have something to use in my lawn that would require less tearing up of the yard.

Overall, I've done quite well on the gopher front. I've pushed (killed) them out of my nice lawn out to the edge of the orchard. They try and sneak back, but I usually get them before they get too close. Of our 3.5 acres, 1.5 is undeveloped and mostly just dirt and weeds. I have quite a few in this area, but have been working to eliminate them. I'm making progress and figure I'm down to about 10-20 left.

When I'm on 'gopher patrol', (and I only seem to be serious about it in spurts), I quietly check my traps every 2-4 hours. Sometimes that is all it takes to catch one. Doing this, I've found that the little guys aren't always dead when I find them. Because I don't want them to suffer any longer than they need to, I drown them when I find them. I really don't enjoy doing it and feel a little bad. But at the end of the day, it is a sanity issue for me. Finding their piles of dirt, ruining my grass, REALLY bothers me. It's either them or me!

[chigiy]

Wow Matt,
Thank you for the great info. I wrote this post almost five years ago. It is time to write another one. I may have to use some your advice. I still have trouble with gophers. I hate them. I have a dog now who is really good a killing them. I have watched her do it many times. The only problem is she wont do it in my yard:( She only does it on hikes. Oh well, I better get some of your Victor 0625 Black boxes. Thanks again for your great gopher tips.

[Cheryl Hendron]

Pee on the mounds! It really works. Had my husband and three sons do it for years, our yard was mole free while all the neighbors suffered with them. We did live in the country, but have them do it at night if they are shy.

[chigiy]

OK Cheryl, I like your approach, or shall your guys approach. Hmmm, I have never heard of that but I think I like it. As a matter of fact I think I feel an article coming on. Yes, the Caddyshack music is playing in the background and I can see my three boys all lined up peeing the mounds, heck maybe I'll even try. I'm not as good of aim though. Thank you for the idea.

[David]

We have tried our contributions to the underwater aqua-duct and we are having a hard time finding the smoke bombs here in south central Los Angeles. I am going to build a pneumatic golf-ball cannon and then build an urban blind with ice chest and a small cooking grill and then the I will lay in wait for the cute little furry critter to pop its inquisitive head out into the line of fire. This could be a new Olympic sport. I hope I get gold.

[chigiy]

Uh-Oh David, I hear that Caddy Shack music playing. I love the sound of that new Olympic sport. I would like to join the team. a gopher popped it's little head up the other day when I was gardening and I when at it with a shovel until sweat was pouring down my face and I noticed my dog was staring at me like I had rabies. Your way of extermination sounds like more fun.