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And no, not Minnesota athletes...
Since my last dog died, the gophers have infested my field, and are encroaching on my yard. I want to keep the little fuckers from getting into my garden. I’ve tried a few poisons , but nothing seems to slow them down. I don’t want repellent, that crap doesn’t work; I want them to die.
What works? And no, I’m not getting a Jack Russell.
Garden hose down the hole and a pellet gun or shotgun always worked for me. Try to find all the holes and block all but two. One for the hose, another for the gun.
It's easy, you just have to think like a gopher
https://youtu.be/GvdHXnuaho4
Find the holes? Fuck, there are hundreds; where to start?Quote:
Originally Posted by neufox47
I'd try dry ice in the holes. Displaces the oxygen, they go gently to sleep, long sleep. In theory. Makes Peta upset, so probably works. When driving it home, keep a window cracked.
Or this looks more fun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzApW0WsVfs
Hmmm, seems like a quick way to turn your soil if needed.
Same thing happened to me when my dog died. You can’t win, trust me I’ve tried everything, including flooding the entire yard, booby traps, etc
Get the solar stakes that vibrate. Send them to your neighbors yard. They work.
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You can’t kill golfers!
They're tunneling in from the construction site over yonder. You should slap an injunction on them so fast it'll make their head spin.
Google Beruit. Gopher free since Mon.
Haven't we been down this road before? or was that wasps?
Yep, and I’ve been Yellowjacket free since last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberridge
And my yard didn’t burn down.
Win - win.
Nice. Use explosives and flammables judiciously. Being overzealous is a recipe for disaster.
What about contacting the CDC and asking them to send you a gopher specific pathogen? They probably have something left over from the Plum Island days.
If that fails I'm sure the Chinese can cook something up.
Hire some boogaloo boys?
Licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. A man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit -- ever. They're like the Viet Cong -- Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that's all she wrote.
Put up some barn owl boxes and get some cats
You can’t kill gapers!
This works.Quote:
Originally Posted by LongShortLong
And yes, if you drive with it in the car, open a window or you can suffocate inside your car.
Rodent smoke bombs. Same idea as the dry ice, removes all the O2 from the burrows. They’re pretty cheap.
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Use several small plastic bottles, cram them down the burrows.
You can if they don't replace their divots, or drive onto the greens. They are more destuctive then gophers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Core Shot
we don't even need a permit for thatQuote:
Originally Posted by Peruvian
For large areas, this is the best way to go.
https://gopherx.com/gopher-x-pest-control-devices
Friend of mine runs landscape maintenance for dozen of large Palm Springs projects and swears by this. Not cheap, but effective. Cheaper version are available, but a hose attached to the exhaust of a leaf blower or lawn mower would probably work. Just don't do it too close to houses as the CO can travel throughout the burrow and possible come up in 90 year old Aunt Matilda's bedroom, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you are in her will.
Mr Gopher meet Mr Bunny...no, he's not plastic explosives.
Start with the ones you know. Cover / fill them in, then use a non lethal smoke bomb to find the ones you don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyoverland Captive
22 longs work great. Never tried dry ice but it sounds a lot better then poisons.
You need a multifaceted approach. And they will try to come back. After you kill them all the deterrence phase kicks in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peruvian
Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
Has anyone yet told you to hire Carl Spackler? Because that's what you should do.
How big is the garden? Wire mesh under the soil and small electric fence.
Are these shit-gophers? Maybe you should ask Mr Lahey.
If all else fails tillage works pretty well.
Or a reason.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marshall Tucker
https://www.goerie.com/storyimage/PA...-180309709.jpg
Around here our local Audobon society will come put up barn owl boxes for free. You might check with your local association.
Here's an article re: Bend barn owls from 2010. At the end of the article the guy says he'll send you free plans to make your own. Who knows if he's still doing it 10 years later but might be a start if you're interested:
A Better Mousetrap: Why Barn Owls Might Be Better Pest Control Than Poison
So cool to see them flying at night. Hate their screech (not a nice hoot like a Great Horned) but you can't have everything I suppose.
Also effective for controlling chihuahua infestations.
Not Barn owls but Great Horned yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by PB
A Barn Owl cold probably carry a 7-8 lb chihuahua (a short distance?), as a Great Horned got half-way down the barn road with our 23 lb (screaming) JR
African or European Barn Owl?
We HAD a huge bunny problem in my neighbor hood. Owls should work on gophers too.
First it was the red tailed hawks, then the gray owls now, I have a pair of great horned northern owls now.
They eat about half of something then drop it in my yard. The pile is terrifying. These things are more lethal to rodents than anything else I have seen and mess up every other lone bird to come around.
"The relationship between great horned owls and other raptorial birds in its range is usually decidedly one-sided. While certain species, such as the red-tailed hawk and northern goshawk, might be seen as potential competition for the owls, most others seem to be regarded merely as prey by great horned owls. The great horned owl is both the most prolific and diverse predator in America of other birds of prey"
"Both young and adult great grey owls, despite their superficially superior size, are apparently hunted with impunity by great horned owls"
"In the boreal forests, the great horned owl's prolificacy as a snowshoe hare hunter places it second only to the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) among all predators. Although locally dependent on the hares as their main food, northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), red-tailed hawks and golden eagles apparently do not have as large of an impact on the hares, nor do mammalian carnivore generalists that also kill many hares, like the fisher, bobcat, wolverine (Gulo gulo), coyote and larger varieties (i.e. wolves (Canis lupus), cougars (Puma concolor) and bears (Ursus ssp.))."
Unless mobbed by many other birds, horned owls are usually going to win. Then they eat every little bunny they can find.
I was really digging the idea of getting abarn owl till I got to the last paragraph and the hazmat suit required to clean the nest every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by KQ
Barn cat FTW. And when the gophers are gone, call in the Barn Owl to remove the Barn feline.
I used to have a Great Horned owl who would visit in the evenings; it sat on my roof, watching my field for varmints. Haven’t seen it this year. I’ve got mesh under all my raised beds, but the little bastards can crawl right up the sides.
And I’m not inclined to get a cat; tootsie rolls all over the garden beds sounds awful.
I'm just going to leave this right here.
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