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| Every danged day there are new mounds in and amongst the roses. We have a new approach for them now which makes for good family fun, but not sure how effective it is. Dogs take turns opening the hole, I put in the gopher dynamite. New hole appears next day. Iterate.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Looks like my house. Only, here, the rears sticking up have spots. :-)
Jeri |
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| I need something like that for moles. Our pugs are worthless for that. ;-) I've got one in one of my rose beds that's driving me crazy. I can't believe he hasn't killed the roots yet ... probably only a matter of time. We've got several chipmunk holes, but they seem to leave the rose beds alone. |
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- Posted by jacqueline3 9CA (My Page) on Mon, May 28, 12 at 17:07
| I don't think moles eat roots - I believe they eat worms and bugs, etc. So, I wouldn't worry too much if you have moles near your roses. Jackie |
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| We have been fighting gophers here in CA for 26 years. I think it is a losing battle though we occasionally win one. Clare  |
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| Good puppy! F.L. |
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| Clare - that is absolutely the BEST photo. Our little Schipperke has caught one so far, and she was SO proud. But mostly, those danged gophers are just too fast and too smart for her. The micies in the barn though - all of our dogs are awesome mousers. Isn't it wonderful to share the garden with four legged family members? |
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| VERY good work, by a dog doing what he was bred to do! My Dals have caught several. Katie has her eye on one now that is probably aiming for the final destruction of Lady Ann Kidwell -- so I'm cheering for her. They have also caught and killed a very small rat, and a foolish young oppossum . . . Jeri |
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| Dare I suggest a cat? |
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| I probably shouldn't answer this. My solution may not be too popular, but if you are desperate like we were, you may consider my suggestion. We are surrounded by farms and woods. We tried traps, we have dogs, and we have cats. The gophers were eating everything: lilacs, trees, roses, anything that was in there path. We, finally, decided to listen to some neighbors. They suggested poison peanuts. I was concerned because I have 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 cats. I found that if you follow the instructions and dig until you find the tunnel, pour a few peanuts in, and cover the hole with a rock or something large enough to cover the hole, it works. We still find bull snakes around here, the gopher's best predator, so either just putting a few peanuts in the whole is safe, or the snakes are smart enough not to eat them. They would not be safe for pets, however, if you didn't cover the hole. I also warn the kids. Mine are over the constant needing to watch age. |
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| lol...love the pictures of everyone's dogs! No gophers here, but the dogs dig like crazy to get to the moles! They win once in awhile too. Now if they would learn to keep the rabbits out of the vegi garden, I'd really appreciate it! Tammy |
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- Posted by kstrong 10 So Cal (kathystrong@gmail.com) on Tue, May 29, 12 at 0:00
Ha on the cat. I had a gopher the other day who didn't seem to have a hole nearby, so I put my cat next to it, who does love to hunt lizards (bad cat). So, anyway, put the hunting cat there and he pawed it and within a second, it bit his paw and he was loping away shaking his front paw. Enough of that. So . . . got the camera --
Ok, got picture -- now to borrow a hunting dog. Went across street to "borrow" a trained hunting dog -- happens to a be a lab. Nope -- turns out that dog don't hunt, but the neighbor does -- dog just fetches after the hunt -- this is apparently all that hunting dogs are supposed to do. So, comes neighbor with BB gun, and this is now the gopher:
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| The only good gopher is a dead gopher. :-) We don't "do" poison -- not JUST because of our dogs, but because there are in this area a fair number of hunting hawks. A poison-killed gopher can in turn kill the hawk that eats it, which renders the use of poison wholly out of the question. There's a lovely pair of [I believe] Kestrels who are here most of springs/summers. They spend quite a bit of time in our neighbor's huge Italian stone pine. We believe the Kestrels are the source of a dead baby bunny which was dropped (from the pine) into our "equipment yard." The area is gated from the "front lawn" fortunately -- but the dogs told DH something was there. I think there's at least some chance that if they can catch bunnies, they may also be scarfing up some gophers. Hope so! Jeri |
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- Posted by lagomorphmom z10Coastal and z8Mtn (My Page) on Tue, May 29, 12 at 19:29
| kstrong, 'labs' are Labrador *Retrievers*, so he had no job to do. For hunting you would probably use a hound or similar. Likewise, 'Pointers' find birds and point but do not kill. Has anyone tried the Rodenator? Pricey, but the satisfaction part would be priceless, lol! |
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| Harmonyp, I was going to ask if that one view was of a Schipperke. I don't have gophers, but I did have a Schipperke and would recognize one from any angle I think. She was the smartest dog I ever had. |
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| Jeri, are you reading here? I think I remember that last year there was a new product offered that was supposed to act like cement....You would pour it into the gopher hole and it would get solid but then be good for the soil? I also thought you mentioned ordering one/some to try? Any luck? I am still digging out old roses and putting them into baskets, and for two years now have put nothing into the ground without one. But tunnels were still everywhere until this season when I tried the one thing I was so sure would not work: I bought some of the Sweeneys Sonic Spikes because my next door neighbor said they worked for him and I thought I had tried everything. Well, they might actually work. Gopher/vole activity is almost non-existent. I know, I know, I know. Maybe it was something else, but.... I now have 8 of them in the ground and the only gopher activity seems to be in the only part of the property where I haven't put them....and where a very good cat keeps them in check. They might actually be working? Seems unlikely, but that doesn't mean I won't buy a couple more if that cat ever decides to leave. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Sweeney's Sonic Spikes
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- Posted by thahalibut Z-9 CA, SSZ-9 (My Page) on Wed, May 30, 12 at 11:22
| We are lucky & haven't had any gophers in our yard for 3 year. I saw on a local news channel a few years ago about blasting them. Its supposed to be very effective so they say. google gopher blasting for more info, there is a local company in N cal that does this. Only bad thing is if the tunnels go near plants, its probably not too good on them. |
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| We DID order some. We have it, but have not used it. It's been a busy spring. First, we were preparing for a long trip East, while doing "regular" maintenance stuff. Then, we were gone for three weeks, and came home to the tallest weeds imaginable. We've finally starting to catch up -- while also deadheading frantically. And Clay is planting out roses, so we have fewer in containers (tho a lot left to plant). Meanwhile, Katie alerted us to the presence of a gopher heading for Lady Ann Kidwell! She disrupted its tunnel pretty radically, and in her wake, I put dog waste down in the tunnel. THAT oughta hold him for a little while! Soon as we get caught up, tho, that stuff is on the agenda. Jeri |
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| We have every big plant in wire baskets or wire lined beds especially my roses. I would like to use the Rodenator but the neighbors would probably complain. We still use the old standby, Macabee traps, that we have used for 26 years. I use to have a license to use aluminum phosphide tablets because we are in a rural area on acreage, but they changed the law and can't get it any more. I had to pass a written test and inspection every year but it was worth it. And it was expensive so we would try the Macabee traps first then use the tablets when we couldn't catch them. It was the only sure way of keeping them under control. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Wed, May 30, 12 at 14:30
| I wouldn't ask this guy, either. I heard he went to extreme measures & still didn't have any luck.....
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| flaurabunda - LOL. We always loved that movie. The gopher was so fake looking it cracked us up. Clare |
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| I love it that you put that up flaurabunda...exactly what I had in mind while reading all of these posts! I guess I should be grateful that I've only got bunnies and chipmunks at this point, as gophers sound a lot trickier to contend with. |
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| Too funny, Flaurabunda. Reminds me of an hour long conversation my daughters and I had to endure of how my DH and Son were going to make a Gopher Cannon. The longer it went on, the crazier it got. BTW, I haven't killed any wildlife (other than gophers) oh, and the occasional rabbit my husband gets. The hawks around here aren't strong enough to lift the bricks or rocks we cover the gopher mounds with. I have watched carefully to make sure that nothing new has come along and disturbed the areas where we've used the peanuts. If I found any other creature was being harmed, I would discontinue. As of now, I'm enjoying at least one less plant predator. There are many out there. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Fri, Jun 1, 12 at 8:58
| (Giggles). Every time I hear of gophers, I always picture Carl and explosives and hear that darned song ["I'm allright, don't nobody worry bout me...."] in my head. And now we all know why Karl is particular about how his name is spelled...hehehe. I also know what you mean--my main problems are smaller critters and I've never had to contend with gophers. I'd probably lose my mind if they infiltrated our garden! |
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| OMG - for every bomb I'm setting off in a single hole, I'm getting at least 2 new holes. I think the darned killer stuff I'm using is really a gopher aphrodisiac. Maybe gophers are really aliens, and they've created this stuff for humans to put in holes so that eventually they will super multiply, remove human's food source, and eventually take over the earth. |
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