Gophers-B-Gone!!!

[Tyler Holm]

I have an acre yard and about a month ago I saw we had company. A single gopher had taken residence in our back yard.

Last night while I was mowing I saw 3 of those little buggers and holes dug every which way I looked. Anger and bad thoughts filled my mind, so I went inside and googled how to get rid of gophers. Man there were some fellas that had some nutty ideas, but I thought I would stick to my roots. When I was a kid I use to drown out gophers in the campground when it was too windy to fish. A 5gal pail and a well and some patience.

So I got my hose out and did just that. It took some time and a small learning curve, but I got 3 of those buggers last night!.. YEAH. There's at least 1 more that elluded me and he's atop of my hit list for tonight.

How have you handled gophers effectively?

[Walleyeguy31]

Being it is the 4th of July, put a smoke bomb down the whole and wait for a while, and see if you can see the areas where the smoke is coming out of the groud. These are gopher escape route/holes. If you can, conjur up some 00 traps and trap them.

[harvey lee]

Tyler

For a little fun you could put some gopher food on the end of a circle hook and catch him.I'll bet you have never caught that species.

I know in North Dakota they get in the hay fields bad and really mess it up.There are some type of pellet that you can drop down thier hole and this does a very nice job of getting rid of your friends.

[Hotspotter]

Tyler:

There was a great thread in the Hunting/trapping forum awhile back. Gopher trapping is something I've done since I was a kid. Lots of fun.

Need Gopher Trapping Advice

Joel

[GardenGirl]

We had gophers a couple of years ago--actually we had the mounds--I never actually saw one of the buggers. Someone suggested something called a "mole chaser" to us...essentially it's a piece of pipe that goes into the ground with a windmill type contraction on top--I like it because it's kind of decorative, but it's proven to be entirely functional. We haven't had gophers since we got it (knock on wood). Supposedly it sends a pulse of some sort into the ground that they don't like--they left our yard, probably to set up camp somewhere else!

[Powerstroke]

All the info I found is that trapping is the best way for your time and money. If you've gotten them by drowning then you caught them early. Good job. Sounds like you've got the buggers figured out.

[1luckydad]

A lot of patience and a shotgun after mowing the lawn work pretty well too. Kind of like sitting in the deer stand but your not freezing.

[stmichael]

Harvey,

I think you may be on to something here. Get/Make a little table put a hole in the middle and set a tip up over the hole rigged with the circle hook and bait. I am glad I do not have gophers...or with this idea, am I.... am I really?

ahhhhh to be sitting outside enjoying a beer watching my tip up.

[hoggs222]

Can't you get some kind of explosive, (M-80) type thing for rodents. I don't have gophers, but those things go bang! Some kids were lighting those things off in the street and those were the loudest "fireworks" I've ever heard. Where can you get those?

[Tyler Holm]

2 more fell victum to the wetness last night.

I had another come up the hole I had the hose down, and he went back down. The hole was totally flooded, but as soon as he went down the water started coming out the top of the hole. I'm thinking he didn't make it far and was plugging the passage way.

If infact, I got that last one, that migth be the end of them. I didn't see anymore this AM.

PS. I don't have near the fishing skills it would take to catch one of these crafty critters.

[Tyler Holm]

GardenGirl,

Maybe it was the bassy smell that scared them off... or perhaps the one catching those BASS? J/K:o

[minneman]

fishing for gophers is not to hard, just use the line and make a loop in the end that is adjustable and loose enough to close when tugged, put the loop around a gopher hole and pull out enough line to get to your deck, go back and make sure you havent pulled your loop tight or away, then sit on the deck and enjoy a cold one and wait for them to poke their head out, then just give er a yank! great fun!

[Tyler Holm]

Another 2 bite the dust. I think I got all of them. I havn't seen any for the past 2 days.

[Tyler Holm]

Yet another one last night. Totalling 8 gophers with the hose down the hole trick. That might be the end of them