Yesterday I discovered these holes in my backyard.
Every time I checked again there would be a new hole and an old one was backfilled. I assume they are gopher holes though I am not an expert on telling the difference between gophers, moles, and voles. California has all three. Gophers and voles are particularly sucky little beasts and I wouldn’t wish them on my worst enemy.
This morning I went to the hardware store and picked up a pair of Macabee gopher traps. They are nasty little spring loaded traps that I will be in constant terror of impaling my finger or hand on. But I’m not going to mess around and let the little ground burrowing devil find my new plants.
After setting the traps (you can watch videos describing how to do so on Youtube – what did we ever do before Youtube?) I got to work finishing planting and created some more chicken wire protective planting baskets for my plants. A pain in the ass but worth the little extra bit of protection it offers my plants. Hand made gopher baskets are way more economical than the premade ones.
Both traps are set but so far no luck in catching anything. More holes keep popping up all around the first set. The twist tie is so I can easily retrieve the trap. You are supposed to tie string around them but I realized when I got home that I don’t have any. I have to admit I am somewhat skeeved out at the thought of removing the dead impaled corpse from the trap (don’t worry I will NOT be sharing photos). Gophers are actually fairly large and there is nothing cute about them. I just hope the trap does the job properly and I don’t have to finish one off with a shovel.
In other more exciting news I went and picked up that last paver and finished my path! You would not even believe how heavy that sucker was. They are two by two feet and two inches deep and made of concrete. Must weigh about a ton. Not fun getting it in my car. I’m in awe of Victor who brought over twenty of them when he and Gabe where helping me. I’ve already bought a few little six packs of plants to put between the pavers and tonight I am going to sit and figure out an order for the rest. It should be pretty cool.
In other somewhat annoying news I was literally planting my last plant in this part of the garden (I do have a few odds and ends left over that I need to find homes for) and I pierced the irrigation pipe with my shovel. Ugh! So much ugh! So now that has to be patched before I can finish planting. So much of the garden is raised berms that it didn’t occur to me that I was in a lower part. Oh well. At least most of the garden is planted and now my back can recover a bit. More about the garden in future posts including a full inventory of all the plants I used.
I know you want to relocate those cute gofers to another planet… but try “repels all” spray on the soil surface and the granular inside the holes. I suggested it to my brother for his squirrel infestation and it worked. You will have to re apply the solution (buy concentrate and mix with 1/2 the water it suggests…). IF this doesn’t work, try souring some milk and dumping it in the holes. I heard this works for woodchucks as well as gofers… but my wood chuck has been relocated so I can’t try it.
This might make them so uncomfortable they will move out.
I also tried “Repels all” on my resident wood chuck and he moved out too…
Good Luck, Kaveh… at least we are not planting Munchie today! hee hee!
love, cat
They aren’t even cute! They look like evil mutants with fangs and claws!
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, if i had a problem with gophers i would be a very sad gardener.
This is really my fist time dealing with them. I did witness their destruction and my friend Lily’s tears of frustration when I interned in Mendocino (that was the first time I had ever heard of them) but now I am more invested.
The only positive thing about this is I don’t have to deal with groundhogs which are another rodent from the depths of hell.
No deer, no gophers, no groundhogs, moles or voles…thank god! If it were just a little warmer and drier this would be gardening paradise.
Assuming your 2 ft sq/ 2 in thick pavers are the same as ares they weigh 89 lbs each…heavy indeed. My husbands back has never been the same after placing 105 of them in our back yard.
Good luck against the ugly beasts…and thank you for promising no pictures after the fact.
89 pounds doesn’t sound as dramatic as it felt. Let’s just pretend they are 189 pounds. I moved 3 of my 23 or so pavers. 105 would have killed me.
Kill the evil little creatures!!!!! Thank God I have Matti to deal with the bodies (or severely maimed fuzzies). Try new holes if you haven’t caught any right away. We usually catch ours within 24 hours, sometimes it only takes an hour or two. We’ve only had to kill 4 or 5 in the past year. It’s amazing how much damage one little fur ball can cause. I think it might be gopher baby season.
Ugh. I’m a novice gopher catcher. Mine is still at large. In fact yesterday he pushed the trap out of the hole without setting it off. I’m probably doing something wrong. I’ll keep at it.