Mole/Gopher Problem

At Elk, Mooch and I encouraged Ty to hunt them with a pole spear. He managed to get one!

My methods around the ranch vary:
Water house and shovel
Tractor with rippers to tear the ground up and the bucket loader to smash
My version of the gopher blaster
Exhaust hose from tractor.

They come back every year.

Put Juicy Fruit gum in the tunnel. Leave it in the foil wrapper. Gophers love the stuff, but it doesn't love them. I tried trapping them in my yard with no success, then baited the trap with Juicy Fruit and bam! Confirmed kill. I haven't seen signs of a gopher in my yard in over 5 years. I'm told that the gum alone will do the job without a trap because the gophers can't pass it, but I like the visual confirmation. Another bonus - it's non-toxic. I learned this from a friend who owned a small market. He sold a lot of Juicy Fruit to the old timers in the area just for this purpose.

When we lived in Auburn we had a big ground squirrel problem.

I sat on the back porch picking them off with my .22 - didn't dent the population.
Traps... their reporductive rate was still faster than the rate at which we trapped them.

Warfarin down the holes.... 3 years and not a single ground squirrel.

Macabee traps!

I use the hose to find the hole entrances, then like Yakuza said, cover the loaded hole with wood or cardboard.  They can't help but try to repair the breached hole, and whammo.

Call me, we can do this and get rid of them, and, aerate your lawn.

You might try burying you fish guts and heads in different spots that border your property. This will keep them away!

Is it in your grass or in a feild? I'm a organic farmer and deal with gophers daily. The black hole seems to work the best out in the fields, though you do have to do some digging. Usually, it's one gopher doing a lot of damage (they are territorial). Whatever you end up doing, just try a keep your scent from the hole. Also, peak times to trap are before 9 am and after 4 pm. Check for new dirt mounds around those times. Happy trapping!

I have trapped a lot of gophers which are easy to get and moles which usually are harder.  I do it professionally for a few schools and houses.  There  is a lot of wrong information around, and I have a strong preference for trap types.
First you need to know if you have gophers or moles. You can tell by the shape of the mound.  A round raised mound like the top half of an M&M sliced thru the equator is a mole.  There may or may not be ridge shaped runs around it.  A U shaped mound is a gopher.  Gophers dig on an angle and that is how the dirt splays out above ground. Use a larger trap size for gophers, and smaller for moles. I set 6 traps for moles last night and had 2 by this morning, and I am sure that is all that there are at that location. Gophers are much easier.  Mostly you  get them overnight.  Always check the area in the morning to see where the fresh digs are.
Wrong info #1  " Carefully cover and seal up the holes where you set your traps"
 This is just wrong.  You can still get critters this way when they wander by , but they have no incentive to go by your traps, so it is much harder to get them quickly. If on the other hand you leave your trap sets open, it pisses them off and draws them to your traps.  They like a controlled dark environment and an open hole creates drafts and insecurity, so they come and try to repair their runs.  If you set the trap carefully and just at the right depth you will get them. 
Wrong #2   "You should set your traps in runs"
Don't set gopher traps in runs. Rather open a fresh mound and set them there leaving the hole open.  There are mounds that require 2 traps, and ones which require one.  How to tell the difference is a longer discussion.
Wrong info #3,  "Use bait and keep your scent off the traps."
No bait is necessary for either moles or gophers, and unlike trapping fur animals, your scent has no effect on your trapping success.
Traps
Macabee traps work fine but are very inefficient to use. They are mainly good in runs, but the only way to tell if you got one is to pull them out which is very time consuming.
Black Hole traps work great also, but they are too expensive to make a lot of sets with, and there is too much to go wrong or jam up from dirt if you are not carefull.
The best traps are the cinch type mentioned in this topic like http://www.gophergoner.com/gopher_goner_trap.shtml.  The plate is always exposed, and you can tell in an instant if you have one just by looking.  If the lever is half way over when you come back, you got one.
Be sure to sharpen the movable jaw tip.
Now if I could just figure out how to trap my first halibut on a fish hook.

Wrong #2   "You should set your traps in runs"

Whoa there Mr expert!     Wrong?   

Maybe say something like " I find this works better" but I assure you I'm not wrong.   There is a lot of gopher blood on my hands.   


Eric Morgan
Trident Ultra 4.7
Not the guy selling the Outback
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi,
Sorry,  Wrong was a little over the top.  I just need to be as fast as possible so of course I mean better, and easier for me.  Whatever works is whatever works.  My wife got one with a pitchfork. I have gotten them with macabees in a re-sealed runs. The open strategy is what works for me in my area.

Hi,
Sorry,  Wrong was a little over the top.  I just need to be as fast as possible so of course I mean better, and easier for me.  Whatever works is whatever works.  My wife got one with a pitchfork. I have gotten them with macabees in a re-sealed runs. The open strategy is what works for me in my area.

Exactly.   

I wonder what Rhyak will do? I think there is a lot of good advice in this thread. 

You are the only one that addressed the difference between mile and gopher.   Pretty important distinction there.   


Eric Morgan
Trident Ultra 4.7
Not the guy selling the Outback
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

purchased a trap and set it at the top of the whole and first night got the sucker, this was on friday night and have not had a fresh mole hole since.

PS was a mole... Damn bastards...

Thanks for all the tips, now just to keep another from moving on in.

Going to beat a dead horse.  This is a website that I use for continuing education.   I think the information presented here is a great tool.   Browse around the site for other cool (dorky) information.  The medical entomology is interesting for sure.

http://www.drkaae.com/content/vertebrates-chapter-1-pocket-gophers


Main Website is http://www.drkaae.com

I have had a small mole population in my back yard at one time. I got a box of mothballs from Wally world and put it inside the hole and got rid of them all. I left the opening uncovered so the odor could circulate into the chamber. I checked the hole everyday to be sure none of the mothballs were pushed out. A few days later they packed up and gone. None were seen afterwards. Not sure if this method would work on gopher as the chambers are much larger.