gopher gitter

aurthuritis

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i found a piece of black heater hose about six feet long laying in the road. the OD is just a nice snug fit to the inside diameter of my exhaust pipe. i carry a big metal spoon with a loooong handle with me and when i see a fresh gopher mound i stop and open the tunnel , stick one end of the hose in my exhaust and the other end into the tunnel. i then kick some of the dirt from the mound over the hose and let the RTV idle for a few minutes. when i am done i pull the hose out and put a dirt plug into the tunnel and throw the hose in the back. i have almost completely freed 80 acres of gophers in a couple of months spending about 20 min a day.
 

bordercollie

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Good idea Aurthuritis ! That procedure is also good for thawing out frozen Richie type water troughs (the yellow insulated ones) . Down here even , they sometimes freeze especially if a critter has made a tunnel into the opening , allowing cold air to enter. collie
 

California

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I'm surprised that your exhaust process works, many people have tried that here without success. I think the gophers have too many openings or escape routes, so any kill is limited to near where you are injecting the exhaust. Like what you are doing, my grandfather used to run his '39 Dodge for hours - a pre-smog engine and likely much dirtier than anything sold today - with no success at all. Next day, fresh gopher mounds.

Locals have also tried stalking and shooting, massive trapping, poison grain, flooding ... nada. I see ads on Craigslist for something that injects propane underground then explodes it. The ad shows gophers blasting out of their holes and flying through the air. Dunno if its actually effective for clearing an area.

Ever heard of Luther Burbank, plant geneticist? After a few years near where I am, he gave up his experimental farm due to the gophers and moved to Santa Rosa. He deeded the farm he abandoned to the cemetery district.


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aurthuritis

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that is a cute little bugger. california that gopher looks different than the ones i have. i read in an article once that if you put a tall pole with a roost on top of it in the pasture or field that the owls would free that area from gophers. it makes sense because the gophers in my area congregate in the open spaces the most.
 

California

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I have an owl box on top of an orchard tree. Apparently owls don't like to be so obvious, none ever moved in. I see owls occasionally and hear them hooting more often. Also occasionally see coyote and fox, and often see dug up areas where they likely got a gopher. But nothing seems to reduce the population.

When an old apple tree goes down I use the backhoe to dig out an area larger than just the stump. Reason - there is invariably a gopher refuge under the stump filled with soft grasses. Under the tree they killed is the one spot where discing never disrupted them. Hopefully breaking up their tunnels that converge to this spot will give the replacement tree a fighting chance.

Results are variable ...

Photo last week. I filled 15 gallons into this basin then in an instant it was like someone flushed the toilet. Usually the water re-appears from a tunnel nearby but when there is a cavity it looks like this. I wear 'milking boots' for watering and stomp dirt clods down holes like this - but occasionally I've sunk over the top of the boots. Damn gophers.
 

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aurthuritis

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i also have a small china engine mounted to the bottom of an upside down cake pan with the exhaust routed down and into the cake pan. i open the tunnels and set the running engine cake pan concoction on top of the tunnel. the rim of the pan seals around the tunnel entrance and forces the exhaust into the tunnel. i let it run for about five min on each tunnel and then plug the hole. it works flawlessly but the RTV and hose is faster.
 

California

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My latest strategy is to try something I read on Reddit - cayenne pepper powder. The hot version, 70k+ 'scoville units'.

Several people have told me growing chili peppers or similar will work to protect a vegetable garden but absent a vegetable garden, that's too much nuisance. Then I read about pouring cayenne powder down the gopher holes. It was claimed they will never return.

I bought a few $ worth then applied it for a similar problem, raccoons, mice, and rarely skunks that wake me up in the night rummaging around under the house. I sprinkled the cayenne powder around the perimeter and haven't had my sleep interrupted in the night, so far. I'm about to buy more on ebay and broaden my experimenting.
 
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