Is your new grass or old lawn being destroyed by those nasty gophers. Not sure about you but where I live if you call someone to kill those gophers their service costs an average of $60.00 . Then you are told if they kill the gopher and another one shows up you have to pay another $60.00 to get rid of that one. Why not follow the lead of someone who has gone through different ways to get rid of the gophers. For the past 6 months I have been perfecting a way to get rid of the gophers and save you at least $60.00 or more.
This is what you do. Once you see a new gopher hole appear start setting a trap. If you wait for several holes to show up on your grass it will be a harder job to get rid of them. The best way I found to clear out the dirt and discover exactly where the tunnel is is to use a shop vac.
Place the shop vac hose directly on the dirt mount and suck away the dirt that the gopher pushed up. Stick the shop vac hose inside the hole to clear any dirt left in the tunnel. Usually you will only have to stick the hose down into the hole about 6 or 7 inches. When you take the hose out your gopher hole will be clearly seen.![6999.jpg]
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If you try to take the dirt covering away by using your hands you often push more dirt down into the hole which will only show you up in clearing the hole. The shop vac is easy and fast and really cleans out the hole well.
Now reach down into the hole and check to see where the gopher runs are. In most cases you will find more than one run.
If you find there is only one run that is where you will set the trap. If there are two runs obviously you will have to set a trap in each run and this is how you do that.
The photo below will show you exactly how to place the traps in the gopher run. Notice the part D is facing inside the run. Push down on the hook so it is firmly in - bedded in the ground and won't move. Keep in mind the gopher has a great sense of smell so if you set the trap with your bare hands the oil from your hands will be picked up by the gopher and, he may not take that trap because of the human smell. There are two things you can do to prevent this from happening. You can wear gloves or, you can get some grass or plant from the yard and rub it all over the trap. It's best just to wear the gloves. Before you actually put the trap in the gopher run place a little food right in front of the piece labeled D. What will happen is the gopher will see the food run up the bar toward the part labeled D hit that part and the trap will go off. The other end of the trap is the part that will catch onto the gopher.
Once the traps are set in the hole or holes put a cover over the hole and put dirt on the cover. You want to keep the hole dark. You can use anything to cover the hole. I use card board most of the time unless it is raining in which case you should use something that will repels water.
Before you walk away check around the yard just to make sure you didn't miss another hole. If there are no more holes you will now face the hard part. What is the hard part? It is called patience! I just tried showing someone how to trap these gophers. This person set the trap but had no patience. The next day he took the cover off the gopher hole to check if there was a gopher on the trap. All he did was make more work for himself and had to reload the trap again and cover it as well. He came back and did the same thing the very next day with no luck. What you need to do is set the trap or traps. Check the next day to see if there are any new holes that have appeared in the yard. If none just walk away and wait. Check the next day again. If you see another hole set another trap in that hole just as I have instructed you. Keep checking each day to see if there are any new holes. If it is only one hole I have trapped I usually wait 3 days. If there are no new holes I will take the cover off the hole and look into the hole to see if a gopher is on the trap. In most cases you will see you trapped the gopher. If you check the trap and you see the trap was set off however, there is no gopher on the trap just pull it out and set it again. Remember to use gloves to keep your scent off the trap. The last gopher I trapped I set one trap. I came back the next day and spotted another hole so I set another trap. The following day I checked again and there was yet another hole. I didn't bother checking the traps I already set because I knew from the new holes that the gopher had not gone down the runs I had traps in. It ended up that I had to set 5 traps. I waited 3 days with 5 traps in the ground. When I checked after the third day I found that I had trapped the gopher. When you take the gopher off the trap put it in the hole you trapped it in. You do this to discourage other gophers from staying in that location! The best thing anyone who wants a nice yard without gophers is to set a trap or traps right away. The longer you wait the more you have a chance that gopher who has just invaded you land is carrying babies who are just waiting to eat up your yard.
If you do what I said in this article you will be happy with the results unlike Mr. Gopher.
