Gopher Control An Introduction
Pocket Gophers and their natural function
Pocket gophers, or geomys, have a fairly large family line. Usually named for their locality, they represent a very large, and slightly diverse portion of the tunneling rodents in the country. Pocket gophers have an important function in the natural world as plows and aerifiers of the plains areas, with the exception of true blackland prairie, which seems to prevent the geomys altogether.
Why are gophers a problem?
They create annoying, unsightly mounds. They cause trip hazards for your children, especially the athletic ones. They can even cause erosion problems, which can result in damage to your home and property. Their function in the wide open spaces need not be disputed, but when it comes to having them in your Saint Augustine lawn, they have got to go!
Given the right conditions, gopher populations can expand exponentially. This can become a very serious problem on an athletic field, a golf course, or in your lawn. Taking them out at the earliest possible stage is important to keeping that invasion from becoming a reality.
How To Deal With Gophers: Gopher Prevention
There are very few options when it comes to preventing gophers from attacking a lawn, with exclusion being the most practical, but also, very difficult. This involves installing an underground barrier, usually of galvanized hardware cloth around the area to be protected. Proper installation requires the out turning of the barrier at the bottom for several inches, to discourage the rodent from digging under the barrier. The gopher will dig to the barrier, find the barrier, and try to go under by digging parallel and downward. When he reaches the out turned edge, he will move away from the barrier.
How To Deal With Gophers: Treatments
A variety of ideas and gadgets have been created for the elimination of pocket gophers. There are methods, involving incendiary devices, explosive gasses, chewing gum, you name it! Following is a list of the most common.
- Strychnine laced grains
- Smokers
- Electronic devices to ward them off
- Repellents
- Devices to fill the tunnel with explosive gasses, and ignite to kill them with explosive shock waves.
- Devices which attempt to suffocate the rodents with carbon monoxide.
- A million home remedies, most of them being as useless as they are amusing.
Most other methods pose additional problems.
You can run a garden hose down the tunnel and flood the critters out, and possibly wash away a substantial portion of your lawns sub surface in the process, and the gopher may not even be present.
You can pump carbon monoxide down the hole from an exhaust pipe, which, granted, will kill any critter present, but the gopher may no longer be in the vicinity, or may plug the hole to block the airflow. There are several other dangers inherent to this method.
There are devices to fill the tunnel with propane, and ignite it to blow the gopher to kingdom come, and tales of gasoline used in a variety of ways, some endangering the user more than the prey.
There are tales of chewing gum, castor oil repellents, (or poisons,) and other home remedies, that may, or may not, have some validity, some of which are confused with methods used to rid the lawn of moles, which is another story entirely.
Catching Gophers
The best way to deal with pocket gophers, is to trap them. This provides solid proof that at least one of the lawn terrorists has met his match.
The poisoned grain has some good results in reducing populations, but does not offer the security of knowing for certain that they are gone, and not recuperating in a nest somewhere. There is also the slight risk that one of the poisoned creatures could make it to the surface only to be eaten by the family pet, who could then suffer the fate intended for the gopher. This is a pretty small chance, but it has happened.
The smoke method has some validity, but is rarely conclusive. I have used it in conjunction with flooding in a last ditch attempt to get rid of one that had proven to be the most elusive of my long career. The animal never returned, so I must assume success.
Repellents, electronic devices, and the home remedies, while being amusing, are mostly ineffective, and some downright dangerous. I think that some of these things may have had a background as an elaborate practical joke, which replays itself to each new generation, with roots similar to those of catching a bird by pouring salt on its tail feathers, or putting nothing in your ear except your elbow.
In conclusion, trapping is the only sure fire, safe method of getting rid of pocket gophers.
Introduction to Catching Gophers
Southern Pocket Gophers, are the nemesis of golf course superintendents, athletic field managers, and home lawn enthusiasts throughout the South. Tunneling is what they like to do, and, what they do best. They can drive you to insanity with the tunnels and the tell tale mounds cropping up in the most unexpected and inconvenient places on your property. Every year they are responsible for numerous ankle and knee injuries, some career ending, in young athletes, on athletic fields throughout the South.
They do provide a certain recreational aspect to life in the South, it involves a six pack of cold beer, a folding lawn chair placed downwind from a fresh mound, and a shotgun! Recreational value aside, they can be pretty destructive to lawns.
There are several methods of dealing with them, ranging from a propane gadget, that fills the tunnels with gas, ignites the gas, and blows the toothy little vermin to “kingdom come,” to various types of strychnine laced grain, and of course, the beer and shotgun method.
There is another way. The least expensive, and least hazardous route is by using gopher traps created for the job. Let me warn you from the outset, that this is not a job for the squeamish!
Gopher Prevention Gopher Trapping Gopher Treatments
