I am desperate to hire someone to clear my property of gophers, and then provide regular maintenance. Does anyone have any recommendations besides the gopher guy, who wants me to do my own trapping (which I do not have time for).
Thanks!
Linda
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I am desperate to hire someone to clear my property of gophers, and then provide regular maintenance. Does anyone have any recommendations besides the gopher guy, who wants me to do my own trapping (which I do not have time for).
Thanks!
Linda
Please reply publicly with referral with this much needed service!
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Posted in reply to the post by Quick!Skills:
I have gardened in West Sonoma for 10 yrs; grown most of my food and planted trees and herbs. I was astounded when I got here as to the nature of the gopher problem. It peaked when they ate a hole to the surface through the driveway....
You will not win this one by hiring someone. There is no service that can protect you from the gophers. I have tried everything; I have gone to classes here and a seminar on it at the Org Farming Conference at Asilimar.
Here is what you do. You plant in raised beds with wire stapled across the bottom and you plant in wire baskets or dig out trenches and wire that. Securely. Oversee this as some workpeople do not understand that the gophers WILL FIND any holes or weak areas. They are not random pests. They will circle the wire looking for weak spots. They are good at what they do. Hats off.
I never saw a reduction in population with trapping - which they learn to avoid - until I got hunting cats. Wow. They have the skills and the patience to notice the slightest wiggle in the grass and wait there until the gopher pops up. My cats eat 2 -4 gophers a day. They eat baby gophers like popcorn at the movies. It really makes a difference. They are esp. efficient if you keep the grass weedwhacked down a bit. In addition the gophers will leave areas where predation makes reproduction too difficult. Go to FORGOTTEN FELINES to adopt feral feline hunters that have been neutered and vaccinated. See their link on the top of my website at saferhorse.com.
Best of luck.
Kate
SAFER
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Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Hi Linda,
I got quite good at trapping gophers when I was farming a few years back. Learned some very helpful things from the gopher guy, and then learned more as I did it for several years. We can talk--maybe come to some mutually-favorable agreement for helping you.
Neil
707 829-8938
[email protected]
I already do many of the things you mention below. All my vegetables are in raised beds with hardware cloth bottoms. I landscape with plants and flowers they leave alone; and ones they like are in baskets. And though I love cats, I love birds more. Yes, they are effective at reducing the rodent population, but they will also hit anything that moves. This time of year, fledgling birds are dropping to the ground as they learn to fly. Quail chicks are the perfect snack-sized treat and easy pickings. As a board member of the local Audubon chapter, I am all too aware of the damage cats do to the bird population. Were it not for erosion problems gophers are creating on our sloped property, I would be able to peacefully co-exist with them. I realize I will never be able to eradicate them (we live adjacent to a vineyard, with that incredible sandy loam the gophers can pratically swim through), I just want to reduce and manage the population. I'm afraid trapping is my only viable option.
Linda
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Posted in reply to the post by afinenettle:
You may want to try MoleMax.
You broadcast it on the earth and then water it down.
Seems to be working so far for us.
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Posted in reply to the post by Quick!Skills:
I'm actually not all that woo-woo, but I'll be damned that the period when I went out into my yard weekly and "asked the gopher king" to move his tribe someplace else seemed to actually help!
What do you do to control / accomodate / accept / lament / grieve gophers in your garden?
Barry, could you have a word or two with the Republican King?Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
I, too, share your thoughts about cats in that I love them but they are hunters and will kill not only gophers, etc. but birds too. Last night, a good sized flock of crows landed in a tree and every bird that was feeding at our feeders scattered quickly. So I don't want to encourage predator birds if I can help it either. I believe that gophers are nature's way of aerating the soil so they have a vital function. With that said, they are voracious feeders. I'm going to try two different methods both of which are nontoxic. The first is sprinkling predator scat around my vegetable beds. If you're interested, here's the link for the product. It might require a regular application but I think it's worth trying.
https://www.critter-repellent.com/gopher/getting-rid-of-gophers.php
The 2nd thing I'm going to do is plant rhubarb. A neighbor told me that gophers hate the smell and will steer clear of it. Of course, that would entail planting a fair amount of it. However between the Fox scat product and rhubarb, hopefully that will have some effect.
I have not seen this link posted yet (apologies if I missed it) so here's one highly recommended source of help: https://www.thegopherguy.com/
I know many farmers who swear by his services.
Also, you can put a small bell on a cat's collar to alert birds of its approach. This won't, of course, protect baby birds, but I have found that after a few months of wearing a bell, a cat gets frustrated and turns its hunting attentions elsewhere. At that point, the bell is no longer needed.
My little dachshund made a clean gopher kill the other morning but it was inside, a result of my cat's catch-and-release tendencies. But doxies were bred as badger hunters and I've noticed that my boy will spend quite a lot of time at gopher mounds once he catches the scent.
Are there any west county gardeners who have not experienced the frustration of watching beloved plants pulled underground, or suddenly limp and dead because their roots are chewed off by gophers? I certainly have.
I am trying to learn to garden without enemies, however, and have learned to coexist comfortably with them on my four acres near Occidental. Here is what works for me:
I let go of the hatred and resulting impulses to violence. That felt better right away. I appreciate the gophers for their service as little underground rototillers, loosening and aerating the soil, mixing and moving minerals and nutrients around, dropping pellets of fertilizer in strategic places, and finally sacrificing their little furry (actually quite beautiful) bodies to increase soil fertility. I thank them.
As Kate said, I keep good boundaries. I plant in gopher wire baskets or raised beds with 1/2" hardware cloth on the bottom. These are not contradictory. There are other people in my life that I love, but still have to maintain boundaries with.
One of our premier human projects is to learn to live as if the earth is a wildlife preserve. For that reason, I avoid having cats, but love to see foxes, barn owls, and gopher snakes.
We have to make it good here for the other forms of life, for we want the same things, and if it's not good for them, it won't be good for us either.
Thank you Linda and all for this good discussion!
Male human urine in their holes discourages them. (Female works too, not as strong)
Joy
Maybe it's because we seldom see them---and feel so helpless to control them---that we compile so many legends and folk tales about gophers. They always surface in any gardening discussion. They are amusing, perhaps comforting, but useless: rhubarb, pissing down their holes, sticking a hose down their holes, marigolds, wind machines, razor blades in their tunnels, human hair, on and on.
Gophers can be controlled (not eliminated) by carefully planned and executed trapping. It takes persistence and some hard work. I've been gardening here for forty years and it seems to me that the best trapping methods I've seen (and used) are set out by the Gopher Guy (Google him and "cinch traps") and the older method using Macabee (no relation to Judah, nothing to do with Hanukkah) traps This latter method can be highly effective but often requires extensive digging.
Poison works, but is usually of a type that is slow to kill and remains for some days after ingestion as a threat to other predatory wildlife (barn owls, especially) as well as cats and dogs---who, themselves can help reduce the gopher population.
Shotguns work, but you need feline patience to wait for the gophers to surface---so why not get a cat? We have induced barn owls to our nests, but the owls work over a wide range and may miss your garden. Gopher baskets work only as long as they are intact. Depending on your soil's acidity they may not last two years. Eventually the gopher will chew its way through the not very substantial wire. There is also a device (Rodenator) on the market using propane and oxygen to blow up their entire tunneling system. It costs about $1,500 and leaves your property looking like a battlefield after all the mines have exploded...Only in America....
Badgers!
I'm one who looks to my 2 rescue cats for gopher control. They don't seem to harass the birds, but gophers are hunted and eaten like little gopher burritos...fresh and tasty meals. My one cat is so effective, he's nearly eliminated the population on my 1/4 acre backyard.
Don't discount the benefits of rescue cats.
I've had great results with solar-powered "gopher movers": just stick them in the ground and they emit a sound that the gophers seem to hate! I get them from a mail order company called "Make Life Easier" for $14 each. No need to kill anything!
Badgers?
BADGERS?!!
We doan neeed no steenkeengg BADGERS!!!
Hello:
I'm surprised nobody from West County said this yet. I have heard it is possible to communicate mentally with the gophers on your property, and TELL THEM they MUST LEAVE, that they cannot be on your property, your land is for you, and they must go beyond the border and not return. They are down on the food chain, and must obey, it is said. Then keep the intention that you are gopher-free. Magic DOES work sometimes.
Carol
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Posted in reply to the post by Quick!Skills:
I said that, albeit using my highly evolved diplomatic skills :wink:Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Carol246:
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Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
You may be sparing the gophers' lives, but you're killin' me! ROFLMFAO!!!Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Carol246:
This solution only available on wacco, lol.
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Posted in reply to the post by Carol246:
I have tried every thing! You go to Harmony Farms or any other nursery and get anything that whirls like a propeller on a metal stake or make your own. Gophers hate the sound and leave the area. I have one in my 20' by 80' back yard and two cats, seems to do the trick.
that won't work - gophers take attempts at diplomacy as a sign of weakness.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Gopher Free Forever @_@
I dug a 2-ft.X3-ft. trench with a level bottom all the way around my garden, (40x40). I split a 4-ft. roll of chicken wire in half with a saws all, then rolled the 2-ft. rolls all the way around the bottom. I bought a pallet of hardy board—(1/2 inch, light-cement board, used for backing behind tiled walls) and set them on their sides over the inside edge at the bottom, looking something like a capital L. I covered the wire with about a half inch of dry, ready-mix, then sprinkled it with water and waited for the cement to set up... A gofer or mole that try's to go down and under will find an additional 2-ft. at the bottom, ahh, no way will they come back under. However without at least a 10-12 inch fence all the way around the top, they will climb over -__- Alkaline AL
Oh, I tried that 'power of suggestion' stuff, telling them they had to leave and couldn't come back, but they were an extremely hardy clone variety of some sort. Two days later, a U-Haul truck pulled up on the property, loaded my stuff and moved me off the site. I presume the gophers are still living happily there.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:
Their sign said Gopherville, Pop. 442 on the site, with a big banner reading "Gopher Broke"...Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Dixon:
I think this is flat out the best solution I've heard yet. I'm going to call it the Bill Murray solution. As a general contractor, I've put pencil to paper and come up with a bid. This solution would cost about $27,000. I would have to sub out the 10"-12" fence to somebody else cuz I've got a bad back and can't work that low for that long. The only improvement suggestion is to form up the sides 10"-12" above grade and fill the whole dang thing with concrete, that way if you ever decide to build your dream house the foundation is already in. Thanks, Mr. Bill!!!Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Alkaline Al:
Barry,
Would you send me the address for Wacco, I want to send a thank you check, small as it may be, it's what I can afford now, thank you for your continued kindness, and concern for the community, Beverly Schenck
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Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Certainly! :waccosun::heart::waccosun:Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Beverly Schenck:
Your contributions are most welcome, especially now that wedding plans are underway...
You can sign up for a non-commercial supporting membership starting at just $24/year here.
Any other amount is also most welcome!
Please send contributions to:
WaccoBB.net
P.O. Box 89
Lagunitas , CA 94938
:thankyou1:
I dug a 6 foot deep foundation trench next to my garden and was amazed to notice that the gophers had a city underground. Six feet down and there was a warren of gopher holes, one or two every square foot of the sides of the trench. Unless the entire bottom is protected with wire, I'd say you need a ten foot deep barrier to exclude the gophers.
On another occasion I also used concrete and wire for a barrier and after two years I discovered the concrete rusts out the wire VERY quickly down where it's almost always damp. The gophers then chew through the rusted wire in a flash.
Now, I keep the wire high enough so it can dry out fairly quickly. I don't use any concrete. I use gopher wire and traps. It's a fair amount of work, but it keeps the crops safe.
Best of luck to all,
Joe Hogan
Yikes, that sounds like it would work great but my stomach clenches even reading it. I prefer to stick chewing gum down the holes. I haven't really found it to work but I like the idea of all those gophers underground blowing bubbles with the gum.
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Posted in reply to the post by joehogan:
A friend of mine built raised beds with a 4 - 6 inch thick bed of broken glass (big shards) between two layers of galvanized gopher wire. Lot of work, but it sure kept them from digging in - although there were occasional climbers that were easily eliminated.
Richard
Aviary wire works well for raised beds; chicken wire does not. And it must be nailed down every few inches or a gopher can wiggle in. For individual plantings, commercial gopher baskets are quite effective.
Gotta look out for the juveniles, though. Raccoons steal grappling hooks and then make some evil bargain with the hoodlum gophers.
Gopher wire (avian wire) is so fragile. If you ever use a pointed shovel in your raised beds you run the risk of breaking through and it quickly falls apart, as someone pointed out. I do make gopher baskets out of it and it works great for that. For raised beds we use the larger mesh hardware cloth which has shown no signs of giving out yet, although the gophers can certainly chew through any soft wood it is attached to, so I wrap it around the bottom.
Do you remember when there was great flooding in the Central Valley in the 90's? The dikes were giving away, putting entire communities at great risk and they were dropping cars by helicopters to fill the breaches? I remember one expert saying that the berms were riddled with gopher tunnels and water just washed right in to the center and out the other side along with the dirt. They said that the single most important threat to flood control in the Valley is the western (?) pocket gopher.
Now I have a question. I have dealt with these things dead and alive for years but now in Cotati I'm seeing huge gophers with the gigantic cheeks (pockets?). Are these the same as in Geyserville, just bigger, or are they a different variety? They look quite different.
I bought a roll of what was called aviary wire several years ago and it is anything but fragile. I am familiar with the fragile variety but what I got is remarkably strong and sturdy; the raised beds have lasted many years. Perhaps there are grades; I have a vague memory of choosing in that way.
I have seen a few extremely large gophers here in Sebastopol but do not know anything about them except that one was extremely aggressive and stopped four good hunting cats in their tracks with his hissing and willingness to fight.
I will not forget visiting a Sebastopol plant nursery in the 1980's with my question about how to deal with gophers. I was told that putting Ex Lax down the hole would work. I asked how, and was told, "They just go". I guess they really had NO answer.
I suggest you swale the slopes mulch 6" or deeper with free woodchips, then plant Gopher weed extensively(Euphorbia) careful lt's toxic to animals and humans as well . .NicoQuote:
Posted in reply to the post by Quick!Skills:
I can show you a design for a gopher free raised planting bed that will last a century and is foolproof It is more labor than wood but wood can be unsightly,fall apart in 10 years and in my experience the 1/2 inch hardware mesh only lasts about three years, the chicken wire baskets even less.
You also said you weren't a woo-woo ; >
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Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
I've never seen a gopher that my cat hasn't dispatched and unless I've stopped him, eaten.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by oliviathunderkitty:
Can you post a description of the construction design?
Also, we've had gopher weed AND gophers for over 25 years.
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Posted in reply to the post by nicofrog:
I had a friend who used to 'mark his territory' by peeing in each gopher hole he found. He swore by this method.
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Posted in reply to the post by Imagery:
https://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/u...m/gz120621.gif
Oh Yes they are.........
Eureka! I followed Bob Tomales advice. I got MoleMax, spread it around, watered lightly and the gophers have not been in evidence for two weeks now. This is the easiest regimen I have found. I understand it has to be used more than once, but the application is so easy I don't mind. It is like a new day!
I called Sebastopol Hardware and was told they have the item. I was on my way there and stopped in at Harmony Farms (Graton) and found they carry a 10 lb bag (says it treats up to 5,000 sq. feet) for around $18.00.
Though the next few weeks may find this is not the final answer, at this time I am overjoyed that 32 years of fighting gophers and moles is finally showing the desired results.
Thank you, Bob Tomales!
Fafner
Will gophers dine on perennial vegetables such as sorrel, asparagus etc.?
I have two large raised beds of asparagus. Tthe gopher wire is 15 years old and the wood is warping and cracked. I know gophers live directly under the bed. Gophers have eaten considerable amounts of other vegetables in raised beds only a few feet away when they chewed through rusted wire to get inside. Once every few years I see a gopher hole entrance in the asparagus bed. I have sometimes thought they killed a few plants, but there are so many it's hard to tell. I have more asparagus than I can eat and although I set traps in the walkways between the raised beds, I don't bother even checking the asparagus.
Joe Hogan
I am pretty much Club Med for gophers here in west Sebastopol but they have never eaten my asparagus. They did devour a sorrel plant that had been thriving for years so now I grow sorrel in a raised bed. Asparagus seems ideal here and where I live (near Atascadero Creek) apparently was a successful asparagus farm in the 1940s. My plants are runaways from those.
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Posted in reply to the post by joehogan:
I used to live in west sonoma county and spent years battling gophers. I tried many methods, and found that the poison works best. We had several cats, and the cats were never harmed.
The poison pellets are very effective and most likely will not harm cats or other predators, because cats instinctively will not eat a sick animal. This is one reason why cats play with their captured animals before eating them. They are testing to see if the animal is healthy enough to eat.
Poisoned gophers will typically die in their tunnels, and the smell of their rotting bodies will drive other gophers away. In the event a poisoned gopher staggers out of the tunnel, cats won't eat it.
Poison is the method that farmers typically use, as they have too much land for other methods. That's why you can see acres of squash or lettuce growing in fields. The gophers have been wiped out by poison.
Just a spoonful of the poison is enough, placed directly into the tunnel. then put a rock or a board or something over the tunnel, so that nothing else eats the poison.
Happy gardening.
Michael
I did try the Findhorn method of asking them to eat only out of a certain part of the garden and leave the rest alone and it actually kind of worked for one year. But that might have been my gullible year.
I dunno, all the organic and organic-method farmers I've ever known have used trapping (and possibly dogs/cats) for gophers.
Poison has not been around for as long as predator animals have been. I don't think anyone should assume that poison is "safe," as we do not fully understand the long-term effects of such chemicals on our environment.
There was a post in yesterday's digest about a gopher/mole/vole control workshop.
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Posted in reply to the post by michaelhawaii:
They hate the smell of dead or decaying fish .. Spread it around and bye bye
I bought a bag of mole scram or something similar made from castor beans.
Can you tell me if this would be poisonous to my cats if eaten with a gopher
and would it be harmful to put into planting beds with veggies? How about to the pollinators in a flower bed?
I would really appreciate an answer soon if someone knows for sure.
Thanks.
Never tried dead fish, but if you want to, I suggest getting some fish-emulsion fertilizer and pour it down their burrows. That should be a lot easier than cutting up fish carcasses. They sell it by the gallon.
Claire,
Castor Beans are the source of Ricin. A deadly poison. I would not use them if they can be ingested, or anything that has ingested them, ingested. The poison in Castor Beans is far more dilute than when the Ricin is extracted, but I wouldn't risk it for your kitties.
Should my use of any of the words above be a reason for The Forces Of Order to pay me any attention, just know that I learned all of this from public news, and was reminded of the same in the TV show, "Breaking Bad". An awesome show by the way!
https://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp
While doing some research on the castor bean stuff, I came across some advice to keep the gophers away: flood their holes with water. Uh huh. They just go right back to digging out and this time it's all soft and easy for them. Silly advice.
There was one thing I had never thought of, though, to put used kitty litter down into their burrows.
Try getting a cat or two. we gave our cat to family friends and he takes out at least 1 gopher a day!!!!
make sure to get a semi-ferral hunting cat. a fat lazy pampered cat wont get the job done! let me know if this helps!!!
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Posted in reply to the post by Quick!Skills:
Wow! Some really interesting gopher control ideas on here.:idea: I have seen cats that were good gopher hunters, however, like some others mentioned the collateral damage on the bird and lizard population upsets the balance of other garden pests controlled by these little helpful insectivores.
If you want to really get down and learn some gopher control secrets you should check out the workshop we are having at our farm in 2 weeks!! Perfect timing for this thread. Below is a description and a flyer.
To make things more complicated (as nature tends to be) many people have Mole or vole issues combined with gophers and they misidentify which they are dealing with thus greatly lessening their chances of applying successful controls.
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Is your garden full of holes and tunnels?
Are your vegetables disappearing underground?
Are your tree trunks nibbled on and new roots gnawed through?
Put an end to your frustrating fight with unknown attackers! Come to this engaging and hands-on workshop where you will learn how to identify and control gophers, moles, and voles. Even those with some experience trying to control these tricky critters will benefit from this class.
You will learn the nature of each animal, how to distinguish their signs, how to prevent damage, and how to control their populations with various methods. Different traps and techniques will be discussed in detail and practiced with in a real-life situation and info-packets with photos and diagrams will be distributed.
Guiding you towards a better understanding and better control of these critters will be local rodent control expert and long time gardener Jordan Reed. Jordan has been involved in the market garden, homestead, and ranch scene for the last ten years, busily raising heritage poultry and bringing old time terrier work dogs back to the farm. He currently works at Marimar Estate.
This workshop will take place at Moon-Acre-Farm in Sebastopol. 8150 Germone Rd. 95472
It will take place on Saturday June 21st from 3-6pm
$15 per person, pre-registration required.
For more information or to register visit: moon-acre-farm.com
Or contact: [email protected]
It is recommended that you bring clothes, shoes, hats and gloves suitable for being outdoors on a farm setting traps in the dirt. Also bring water and a notebook if you desire.
Gophers are herbivores and ---for most of us---not very helpful.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Gardenmead:
Sorry, my run-on sentence might have confused you. I was talking about the lizards and birds! Not the gophers. Good lord no! Cats often kill 3-5 lizards and birds in your garden for every gopher or rat.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by redheifer: