Gophers galore!

[CountAllVotes]

I have a new guy tending to my yard and have been advised it is infested with gophers as there are mounds of dirt in the backyard (none in the front luckily).

His plan is to shoot them with a pellet gun and leave them in the far back of the yard in a pile to be the food of scavengers.

I don't know anything about getting rid of gophers, do you?

Any/all advice is welcome!

Thank you!

[DURHAM D]

1. Seems it would be hard to kill all of them that way.

Trap them instead.

[CountAllVotes]

4. Plan is to sit in the yard for several hrs.

Sit there with a pellet gun.

He figured he'd get about all of them this way.

Seems odd to me.



Any other ways to get them to move along elsewhere besides trapping them?

What kind of traps would be needed, do you happen to know?

Thanks for any help at all (I'm a complete novice at such things I'll admit and I don't like the idea of a pile of dead gophers rotting away in the backyard!).

[multigraincracker]

2. Chase em away with Poison,,,,,,turn em up.

[Beachnutt]

3. This guy be able to help

https://www.tylermolemasters.com/

[CountAllVotes]

7. Is he located in Texas only?

I'm in NW Calif.

Please let me know.

Thank you.

[whathehell]

5. ..Really?

What a kind, humane plan.

[CountAllVotes]

6. I'm not fond of his plan either!

Believe me.

Its a giant

[Kali]

9. more humane than the fool-yourself catch and release that too many think will work

with pests and vermin. a quick death if you can't simply live with them is the best way to deal.

[FirefighterJo]

8. A gopher but not so neighbours friendly solution...

You get some sticks and empty water bottles. In the bottles you cut 4 wings. Every yard or 2 around your enclosure, you put a stick firmly in the ground and slide a bottle onto it. You do the same at the mounts. The bottles will act as little windmills and start turning on the sticks, thus vibrating the sticks. Gophers hate vibrations with a passion and will claw their way out of your garden.

[CountAllVotes]

14. Interesting

I guess you'd need a lot of plastic bottles and sticks if you have a 5,500 sq. ft. yard which is what I have.

I'm beginning to see I wont' be able to stay here forever and maintain this.

Its way to much for an old disabled widow.

Nothing I can do about it either.

Thanks for the reply.

[FirefighterJo]

15. Well, it takes some time.

We had about the same size garden, but it was worth it

[Kali]

10. cats and coyotes will catch them

not all cats are good at it, gophers are bigger than mice and will bite viciously.

[CountAllVotes]

11. I had three cats last year at this time

Now I have just the one.

Maybe this is part of the reason for all of these gophers.

I'm personally not offended by them but others sure are!

[Kali]

12. they don't really hurt much, (unlike ground squirrels) but will kill garden plants

and trees by eating roots.
I mostly see them in late winter and early spring. they seem to disappear during most of the year.

[CountAllVotes]

13. Frankly, I never gave a damn

They were in the front yard and it was destroyed by dandelions and Feed & Weed (!). It took 3 years to come back. There were a couple of gophers out there at one time.

My late husband tried all of the *tricks* to get rid of them ranging from rabbit urine to dumping various things into the tunnels. No luck.

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad I'm not alone!

[Retrograde]

16. Where are you, and what kind of gophers?

I have Western pocket gophers, which are small enough that cats can catch them (and eat them: my best hunter didn't like to share, which was fine with me). I don't know about leaving them for miscellaneous scavengers - they might attract the wrong kind!

[CountAllVotes]

17. Far NW Calif.

About 120 miles from the Oregon border.
I don't know what kind of gophers they are but I've never been particularly worried about them as I never see them, so ?????

[Emile]

18. Helpful video to identify mole or gopher.

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