Gophers! Ahh!

[theOEGBman]

I've been blessed.

I never have gopher problems, ever. Well the other day, my dad killed one and now we have them popping up all over. I planted ten tomatoes recently and was out checking them. One of them was cut clean in half about an inch down in the soil. Im guessing gopher.

Question here is, what do I do to kill the little punks?! My dad used a pellet gun and we've been known to use a shovel, but are there any traps or surefire ways to get them? Besides poison, I wont poison anything.


Let me know folks, my veggies are at stake!


Thanks,
Jordan

 

[lesa]

Is your garden fenced in?? If not, you really need to do that. Just the old fashioned rabbit fencing works fine... Good luck!

 

[theOEGBman]

No, its not. I need to because when the tomatoes come on, the chickens like to peck at em. The thing with the gophers is, they're coming up from under the ground! The place is way too big to bury wire.

 

[dickiebird]

Are you sure they're gophers and not moles?
Sounds more like the work of a mole!!!

THANX RICH

 

[theOEGBman]

Hey Rich,

Im not sure, no... we just have a ton of gophers and I dont know about moles, so Im just assuming, lol. I've seen the work of gophers and this sure looks like it.

 

[digitS']

Hateful things . . . oh yeah, they are just one of the little creatures in nature .

I've taken a piece of rebar and driven it into the ground about every 4 inches, spending about 15 minutes doing this. Still lost an entire bed of potatoes, one year.

I showed up while a gopher was dining on the tubers of 1 plant. Sacrificed the plant by throwing a brick into it. All for naught . . . 1st time I'd grown potatoes for decades and it took me another 4 or 5 years before I'd try growing them again.

The 1/2 inch rebar has worked well in other settings - maybe they just luv, luv, luv spuds. I seriously doubt that I've actually hit the gopher with the rebar but he decided that I wasn't a nice neighbor, and moved. I have "popped" one out of the ground with a cultivator and hit him with that.

Here is something that was strongly recommended by a horsewoman who has had lame horses because they have stumbled into a gopher village. Black Hole Trap

I hope you are successful at guarding your garden, Jordan.

Steve

 

[theOEGBman]

My apologies for not replying to this earlier, life has been pretty hectic lately!

Thank you, Steve. Since I made this post, I have lost a total of 4 tomatoes to this monster. I flooded his hole today but he found another exit. I know I should not be so hateful towards an animal, but these are my plants! If this garden was the only thing that produced food for my family, we'd be dying pretty soon. I dont have any spare money for expensive traps right now, due to my father losing his job and my job earns credits for school, but no money. I've resorted to my trusty shovel, but Im going to check out the local feed stores for traps. Im getting pretty fed up with this thing. My dad saw one of the local feral cats carrying away a large gopher yesterday, but I lost a tomato this morning so apparently that wasnt all of em!


If I lose most of my plants, it wont kill me because my grandma planted about 35 tomatoes this year, but I just hate knowing my produce is being destroyed.