My Gopher Wars

I've lived with gophers before, but have never seen a property so completely riddled with them as this one.  You can't walk around the yard without sinking down every few steps.

I generally have a "live and let live" attitude toward wildlife, including snakes and spiders, but gardeners and gophers just cannot peacefully co-exist.  An entire row of carrots or a fruit tree's roots can get eaten overnight.  The gophers must go.

I'm not a fan of poisons, as it's easy to see how a hawk, owl, or other predator might eat a poisoned rodent.  Also, the prong-type tunnel traps seem rather gory.  I prefer the black plastic noose traps (Black hole, or Black Box). 

To use them successfully, you need to think like a gopher.  Fortunately, this is not all that hard for me.

A gopher's greatest fear is a snake entering its tunnel, so you will usually never see open gopher holes.  The plastic traps have a small hole at their back end which allows fresh air to enter.  To a gopher, fresh air signals danger so they will come into the trap to check out the opening.  Whap!

So far, I've nailed about 10 of the little diggers, which by my calculations only leaves 100 or so remaining.  Too bad there's no market for gopher pelts - I'd have it made.  I've been leaving the dearly-departed on top of boulders, and they always disappear overnight  (owls? coyotes?  bobcats?).  I see it as a new link in the food chain here.

A couple tips for anyone wanting to try these traps: Set them in the evening hours, as the gophers are leery about light; cover the set trap with loose dirt except for the little air hole; if you run into a reluctant gopher push a little piece of carrot through the air hole after you set it; and run a wire from the trap to a heavy board to prevent a coyote from trotting off with a trapped gopher - and your trap.

We're supposed to be getting a little more snow by the end of the week, I've just started my tomatos indoors under lights, the oaks are beginning to bud out, and I saw the first swallows of the season yesterday.  Welcome, spring!

Cheers,

Don