I live in San Bernardino County, last year I trapped 22 gophers on my 1/4 acre. This year only 2 gophers. The big improvement was made by the presence of an owl. The gophers and ground squirrels are all gone. Thank you Mr. Owl!
I talked to a rancher that had a gopher problem and as he killed them he would drape them over his fence to attract more and more birds of prey. He said it works wonderfully.
I Had a 8 year “pocket gopher” problem, what finally worked for me was dropping a few Decon mice poison pellets down each hole. The kind in the little yellow triangle box, plug hole after dropping in Decon pellets….After using this for a few months they all disappeared eventually. They will tear up lawns and eat plant roots. Most cost effective treatment that worked for me. I tried it all.
One of my bare root apple trees had all it's roots eaten off by gophers and it wilted. I thought it was a gonner, but I coated it in rooting hormone and soaked it for a few days. Then I replanted it (in a "basket" of hardware cloth and quality potting soil), and it made it!! It was early spring when this happened & I had to water and mulched extra that summer-- it struggled, but it caught up to the others in year 2 (that was 8 years ago). It took a bit to get on top of our gopher problem-- 3 rural acres in ID means it's never gone, but once the trees have a few years of growth they can handle a few nibbles. Best of luck, thanks for great content! Also, RatX by EcoClear doesn't poison the secondary animal. Never tried it on gophers though.
Trench warfare. I did appreciate your asides: "Watching that hawk dive bomb the gopher--- was the best show ever!!" and "Wish we could train gophers..." . But trench warfare --- go for it.
I like this plan! Many years ago I asked Marshall out at Summers Past Farms how they kept out gophers, and he told me the first thing they did before ever planting on their property was to trench around the entire place and fill the deep and wide trench with broken glass. I have no idea where he procured that quantity of broken glass, but I've never seen a gopher on their property.
Holy cow, I had no idea what you were dealing with. We have a few MN gophers but nothing like what you have. Good luck with your projects. I’m grateful for our resident eagle, fox, owls, cats and dogs.
The thing to keep in mind Alyson, is that here in CA, (North where I am and South where Brian is), we are a DRY state, so during the summer there is nothing for the gophers to EAT. That’s why they hit our gardens and landscaping so hard. In areas with lush summer growth, there is lots of other stuff for gophers to have, so they don’t have to range far and wide to get enough food.
@@gigihenderson8567 I had to chuckle at your ‘lush green growth’ as we were in severe to moderate drought most of the summer. I live in the western end of the long grass prairie, just 20 miles east of the Red River Valley which is the border between ND and MN, prairie land. I admit living in rural so the gophers have lots of choices. I’m thinking the MN striped gopher is a different animal than the gopher you are experiencing. Our gophers look more like chipmunks and are rather cute when they aren’t dining on tomatoes. The gophers have taken a real decline in recent years though which has me concerned that climate change is taking a toll that isn’t readily recognized. Sort of the canary in the cage. Our bee and bird population has taken a hit. Which makes me grateful I can have a garden for wonderful food.
@@alysonbaker939 Thx Alyson. I will admit that my “view” of MN is from my late husband who grew up in Silver Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior. I only visited once but even in the “heat” of summer, there was rain and dense forest surrounding the town.
@@gigihenderson8567 Thank you for sharing the part of MN you are familiar. I grew up 6 miles from Lake MI in MI and it was lush there. My husband and I did teaching careers in Southeast AK on the ocean where we had little snow and lots of rain, very moderate climate. I didn’t garden there. We retired in MN, go figure, aye? I had no idea how diverse MN is until we moved here. After being tucked away at the bottom mountains in a rain forest, we rather enjoy the openness of the prairie.
I really feel for you, way too many gopher holes! I can't suggest anything and I'm not the praying type, but damn I hope you can find a way to get rid of them without tearing up your whole property.
I am in rural Australia, and the rats (and mice) are a huge problem. Had a nice little cantaloupe coming along, one day it looked weird (deflated) turned it around, half eaten from the back. The rats came back the next night and finished it off. I am thinking about building a water bucket (bin) trap for them, works well on the mice. Mice got many of the smaller younger plants. Cabbage moth are relentless. Netting was the only thing that worked, but has to be away from any leaf growth, or they back up (I assume) and lay their eggs where any leaf touches the net. So next season, building a proper frame, and making sure it is taut all around. The slapped up frame was not good enough, with the net draped over.
Really sorry you have to go through this madness!! Thanks for being so inspiring and upbeat even through difficult times!! You got this so press onward and upward!!❤❤❤
The thing I love about problems in the garden is that we all benefit from your research and trials and “like iron sharpens iron” we can share our losses and victories together!
So, I apparently live in a much more desolate area. So those little solar stick things, they attract gophers like crazy. There is nothing else to eat... I remember one of my neighbors trying one of the gas bomb things, he lit a wildfire. I don't remember exactly what happened with that, but I do know that he owed millions of dollars to put up the fire he started with them. Anyway, people have been asking me to do another farming video, I love physics, so I'm not sure about the farming videos anymore, but growing Castor beans, apparently Gophers will eat Castor beans, not sure why they do that, but they absolutely kill all the Gophers. I have had Gophers chew through the Gopher baskets. And also at the same time you're worry that the roots get messed up by the Gopher baskets, they are equally ineffective as well as breaking the tree. And I know this because I have tried it many times.
Regarding gopher baskets, I put in my home orchard with chicken wire around all the trees down 3’ and it worked great for the 5 years until the wire rusted out, then the gophers ate everything. I have a single apricot tree left. The Diggers Gopher baskets folks have stainless steel chicken wire, but it is NOT cheap at $333 plus shipping for a 4’x 100’ roll. Supposed to last well over 10 years. They also have the shorter 3’x 100’ double dipped galvanized which they say lasts 6-10 years.
My husband got so angry once that he backed our tractor up to the area, lit a gas tube and put it in the hole , then ran a hose from the tractor exhaust pipe into the hole. We could see smoke coming out of holes 2 ft away. I have no idea if it worked. We still have gophers. But we live next to some state land...ergo, an endless parade of gophers and squirrels. Good luck to you. I like the owl box idea.
You were right--certainly is the next level!!! We're watching all this to see what works! Is there a repellent but pretty plant you can plant in all that loose trenched soil when you're finished, as well as the fence?Here is the list I googled: daffodils, allium, onion, garlic, sopher spurge, Crown imperials (?), lavender, catmint, salvia, oleander, marigolds, and euphorbias. Hope that helps! What a pretty border all these would make with your fence!
Thank you for some very interesting ideas 👍 😊. I agree that digging the wire into the ground is an idea I would try. That is why I love your videos so much, and your frustration with the gophers reminds me of my mom's challenge with them and her frustration. Thank you for your time and help
Reading the comments and watching your gopher videos I'm grateful that I do not have an issue with those rodents. I do have a vole problem in my area, but I use a product called PermaTil; looks like crushed gravel but has sharp edges. Apparently the voles don't like to dig through the PermaTil so everything I plant has the product in the holes including my bulbs. It seems to work 90% of the time. I guess we all have different vermin to deal with but I'm grateful mine is a smaller rodent to deal with. Hoping your new idea will work but what a pain to fence in all the area below ground!
Lived for years on 80 acres with high density gophers. Always had barn cats that averaged about a gopher every other day. Never eradicated them but lessened the problem. For those that ventured into my garden or yard i found in-tunnel gopher traps very effective. Be sure to attach a tree foot wire to the trap and a stake. I had one leave with the trap once. Found it two years with the skeleton.
I am a avid gardener & have lived on an acre in San Diego for 20 yrs & have lost $$$$ from gophers!!! They have destroyed huge old orange trees & lemon trees. I make my own gopher baskets now out of hardware cloth including the bottom....don't think you have taken care of the problem without the bottom, I've seen tunnel's more than 3 feet down!! I am now planting agaves in biger pots in the ground just to protect them!! It's an ongoing battle!!!!😣
I'm quite curious if there's any way to train a dog to get gophers and teach them not to mess with the garden, that'd be really nice since dogs will tear them in half easily. But I do agree that cats are "softer" in terms of weight and more mobile and not as destructive, so I think getting a good outdoor hunting/guarding cat is a good idea and I do remember a lotta people recomending you that. Glad your cats are doing great and happy and also are of some use to you.
We had a stray cat come live with us. He was a GREAT gopher hunter and love to eat them. Because of where I live, I would need a colony of cats to keep the gophers in check… and I’ve got coyotes, so all small outdoor animals are at risk.
Great thought process. Good luck on outsmarting them. I just grow in containers to avoid moles/voles. But it is a limited solution compared to your site plans. 🤞🏻
I had a horrible gopher problem after our dog died at 17 years. I think she was keeping them at bay the whole time. I don't remember where I read it but it said gophers don't like strawberry plants. I planted strawberry plants all around my Meyer lemon tree that was eaten by a gopher. It looked like it wasn't going to make it. It's been two years now and I still have gophers but nothing around my lemon tree. The tree looks like I just pruned it funny and it's producing beautiful lemons. Btw, I've never had a gopher in any of my strawberry patches. Hope you get something from this.
Hahahaha gophers ate all my strawberry’s and everything else I had growing I now have no flowers and no veggies also No more grass in my yard just 100s of muddy hills and the ground is sinking about 3 feet in spots.
Glade you still have the spirit. I have given up battling with them. I just sow a lot of seeds n harvest what I can. Plus I try to grow what they hate to eat. Even that sometime they eat too. Haha.. I though a bigger property (23 acres) mean I can grow more and have more but nope. So many wild animals want all of my hard work. I think that’s why large farm do tilling. These ground pest does help get the soil soft for tilling. Tilling would break down their tunnel so they would want to move on their own. We bought a tractor so I’m switching to winter garden because of water situation in ca. Till it now that it’s soft and wet. Sow the seeds. Let the rain water. The pest can thin the crops out but I have enough surface areas to get plenty of harvest. If I work less and spend less , I would consider my harvest a higher yield. Lol
If there is a particular area with lots of gopher activity, that’s probably where the adolescents are coming into your property. If the holes are only about 2” or less, those are the teenagers who just got kicked out of mom’s burrow.
Im not necessarily recommending this but it did work I hooked up my car exhaust to a hose and put the hose down the gopher hole and let the engine run. carbon monoxide sinks and will work it way through the tunnels (I also tried propane a couple of times and ignited it ( DEFINITELY not recommended but fun )
I love your elephant ears! Beautiful! Oh stupid Gophers man. I am so sorry that happened to that avocado tree. Most definitely keep us posted on both of gophers an avocado tree. I have a question for you: how do you keep your dog out of your raised beds?
Boy-howdy, I'd be sitting in my garden with a .22!! 🤬 Wishing you the best of luck. Looking forward to seeing what works. I have a shrew that tunnels in the yard, hoping for some ideas! 😉
Funny how 10A in California has an erosion problem from the gophers and here in 10A Florida, Gopher Tortoises are our problem. They create gigantic holes and tunnels which the heavy rains from Hurricane Ian and Nicole opened up much like your gopher problems. The tortises are protected in FL so you have to just do you best to keep them out of your garden with fencing/poles, etc. Good luck with the gophers!
I did not find the thumpers worked for me, but I’m in sandy soil, so it may not be as effective. Same for the gases. I’ve heard that they may work better in clay soil, which is what you have, and during wet weather.
We just moved here like 2 months ago. Waited to install beds just to see if we have gophers. Saw a stray cat catch one the other day. So, now we'll be installing poultry wire underneath all the raised beds like at the old house. 🙄
I was wondering if the solar stake would work on voles? Voles turned up in our veggie garden this year. We had no issue the summer of 21. But they decimated our tomatoes this year.
I have issues with voles. Seems like some years are worse than others. I don’t know how big your garden is, Amazon sells a natural vole and mole repellent. I bought 4 bags and used two on the dirt before laying down fabric barrier; other two were used on the back of the fence as there is a farm across the road. That seemed to work along with traps
every time I watch your videos & hear the issues you have with gophers, I have to remind myself to be thankful our garden marauders are just squirrels & rabbits. The foot of chicken wire above the foot tall raised beds seems to have solved the rabbit issue & we built an enclosure for the sweet corn, berries, carrots & spinach. it's working against the squirrels & birds. Good luck in your battle & go watch Caddyshack.
Here in Central Oregon there is a couple of guys that hire themselves out and they have a machine they haul around with a quad that gasses the gophers on larger properties. Like our 155 acre hay farm. Craigslist?
the golfer will go out on the surface and will stay within 3-5 meters of a hole for a fast escape, but once an areas food source gets less available they will move across the surface to get to a lusher area
A few ideas: 1) Did you say that you feed your cats at night? You might instead feed them only in the morning only, as a lot of gopher activity happens at night. My best gopher-killer cat was out all night every night killing multiple gophers. If you feed your cats at night, they might not be hungry enough to "work" at night. 2) On your barrier method: you do know that gophers also travel above ground, right? I think that gophers will walk right in to your "protected" area OVER the top of the ground., unless you also have a fence that is more than one foot tall, otherwise they will also scale a short fence. 3) I'm glad you renamed your cat.
On Amazon you can buy 4' x 100' pvc coated hardware cloth through a company called Landmark for $163. Then you could use the extra foot to fold over the top and bury it to "garden over" it for a border planting. Just a thought! Also, used cat litter really does help and it's a better use for it than throwing it in landfill!
You have the Crocodile Dundee version of gophers!! I will give a thumbs up for owl boxes, our neighbor put one in and it has made a difference. The sound spikes could work too. It is true gophers don't go where there is noise and thumping. The area in the yard (the fruit trees) where our four ducks run around all day rarely has gophers. In the fenced off garden where the ducks are not allowed is where we get most of the gophers. Best of luck!
I did that when I had couch grass invading my borders, but that was just a few feet and a million miles away from your problem. I used galvanised lawn edging, seems to be working. Hope you get yours sorted Brian.
The gopher bombs worked wonders for me with my groundhog and rat problem. The groundhogs had dug the system of tunnels years ago, and other burrowing animals occasionally take up residence in there, which makes it easy to smoke them out. The one issue you might have is you need to plug up all the burrow entrances airtight, to make sure the smoke doesn't leak out and dissipate. If you have a means of covering all the gopher holes though, then go for it.
The absolute best experience in my control for voles and gophers is using propane to flood the burrows and displace the oxygen. Propane is heavier than air, and infiltrates all the burrow space, displacing the oxygen and killing the voles and gophers. The simplest way to apply it is with a weed burner attachment on a portable propane bottle. Since I started using this, I have had 100 percent success.
I had seen a YT video on a guy who dug a shallow hole and placed a radio in it and then turned music on, and that scared away the critters. Might surf for that one. I'm dealing with voles. What is working for me is a granular urine that is chasing them away. It has to be spread on my garden weekly. I'm seeing fewer trails but still working on the main holes. The three foot trench idea, I think they could tunnel under it. Get a box of garden snakes and dump around the area with gopher holes. Get the big dog or the hawk/owl boxes going.
Gophers are no fun! So glad you found a solution. I don't know what is killing my avocado trees. Could you help me with a strange problem I am having? My sister and I were so excited that we were able to sprout several (6 and counting) avocado seeds and now have trees from about 8-12 inches tall!! But my two trees have a very strange thinge happening - the leaves have starting turning reddish brown at the tips and along the sides starting from the bottom and going up successive leaves on my baby trees. And gradually the leaves die and fall off. We live in Colorado, so we have them in pots indoors. I can send you pictures of them if that is helpful. Thank you for your feedback.
We don't have gophers in my area, but squirrels have been a huge problem for my little porch / patio garden. They destroy everything I plant. Rabbits and deer are also a big issue in this area. Can't wait to see how your efforts work. Looking forward to the next update on this topic.
It could be a lack of light or it's too cold. But I should tell you in advance, growing an avocado from seed like this isn't easy and even if you get the plant to grow will most likely never give you fruits.
Did you by any chance buy your Avocado tree from Lowes? They have a 1 year guarantee for trees and shrubs(not anything on clearance). Take it back and you either get a new tree or credit! It's interesting where the gophers habitats are and the areas they have almost left untouched. .. There must be a reason why but I could not say. I don't have gophers in my yard but my next door neighbor traps those that pop up. Two houses down and the yard is full of gophers. The neighbor with all the gophers has let his yard go, doesn't water, doesn't mow etc., but that is not the case through out the neighborhood. So all this to say I have no idea why you have such a big gopher problem unless it has to do with the noise;/vibration level.
I just took road flares. dug into the ground and stuffed the road flares into the holes and covered them. A couple rounds of that burning for 20 minutes each and I don't have any more issues. But that is just what worked for me. :)
I saw a documentary about a large farm in central Cali that had a huge gopher problem. The owl boxes made a big difference. My dog will dig for days trying to get a gopher. Sweet girl made huge holes but, last year she got 3. Of course that freaked me out trying to get them away from her. Try the owl boxes. I would but, I don't have a big enough tree or barn.
My suggestion would be to purchase one of those metal garden beds, IF you can afford it, 16-18in diameter would be enough. It is going to be an expensive investment because you will have to fill it in with good quality soil mix and by good quality I mean sandy loam, SANDY being the main point here, especially for something like Avocado trees. I purchase garys best Top Soil from Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana. AND for the gophers, before you assemble that bed, you need to place galvanized steel cloth on top of your ground. And that is how your tree root ball will survive. When the tree is mature enough it may survive any gophers. I am still planting stuff in gopher baskets myself and leave the above mentioned method for the trees that I would absolutely feel devastated to lose.
Okay Brian, when you video tape trying the gas bombs, you HAVE to dress like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack!😂 Good luck with it all! Sometimes it makes you wonder why God ever created certain creatures 🤔 Sending prayers and good thoughts for “Adam” (being the first) the avocado tree. I’m anxious to see how the gopher proof island works. Love and hugs to you, Emilie and Noah. ❤️🤗❤️
@@BettyBoopBarnes i know right!!!??? That gopher dancing to “ I’m alright” was always soooo cute. What a pest though. Now whenever we see that show or hear the song, we will associate it with Brian….poor guy!🤣🤣🤣
The underground "gopher fence" is a great idea. My garden-destroyers are deer and as soon as I put in a 7ft high "invisible" deer fence around my entire backyard (~1/2 acre), it was like a miracle. The herd moved on and all of my roses, planters, perennials, and flowering shrubs came alive !!! The bees, butterflies, and humming birds returned to our property. Suggest you go ahead and surround the entire property with the gopher barrier ... it would be an excellent investment for what you are trying to achieve with your property. All the best !
We have a huge gopher problem every year. We kill with traps which is hard work but the best thing so far. I don’t let my dogs in the garden because they tear it up. We got gopher repellent for around the pool. It’s such a pain in the neck. You would be wise to lay some chicken wire on top of your plants too if you can. They will pop up and run across the top and dig down especially if they have any cover from foliage.
We use aviary wire. Looks like chicken wire but the holes are much smaller. All of my beds are lined with it, stapled on the bottom of the raised beds and we make wire cages with it. They put it under our sod when they installed it, no gophers in the lawn, ever, in 20 years and the wire is still going strong. The holes are big enough for roots to get through. I have trapped gophers for almost 30 years, we put them out for the birds of prey.
Good luck Brian! I had the same issue and unfortunately I ended up having a poison put down the tunnels after I had exhausted all attempts to rid them myself.
Ok....Love your idea for the area by the cottage house. Yep, kind of pricey but if it works it would be worth it's weight in gold. I am so sorry about your Avacado tree. I hope it has the strength to make a good comeback. I was blown away by how many gopher holes you have. 😳 I wish you good luck but gee that is a ton. I also love the owl house idea. I live in a city in Missouri. We live in a neighborhood where we are the last house next to a large field with a small patch if woods. We had a a mom hawk and her baby living in the woods last summer. They used to take baths in our bird bath. So maybe you could add a nice large bird bath to attract them. Lunch and a bath.....what a deal. Thanks for the update. BTW are those elephant ears in the pots behind you and beside you in the video? I loved them. The pink ones really makes the pots pop!
Jan M@ I believe the reddish plants are Caladiums, not Elephant ears. The leaves look alike but Elephant ears are bigger and all green. I'm not all sure so let's see what Brian says. Good luck gardening 🌻🦋🥰
I've found that the best way to control gophers is to trap them but i have never seen the type of damage the you show in your video. First off I would rake the area that they are working in to determine which runs they are using by finding their fresh dirt piles. Then I would dig down into their run and set a trap on each side of it. Sometimes you will need to enlarge the hole so the trap will fit. Make sure each trap is tied with a string a few feet long and tied to a stake that you shove into the ground to keep the gopher from running away with your trap. You will need to cover each hole so that there is no light coming in and check your traps every day. If you haven't caught a gopher after a couple of days then move your traps to another area. Sometimes you will find the trap sprung and dirt pushed in. You now know that the gopher is actively working that run. All you need to do is relocate the run a few feet from your original position and reset your trap. I always worry about using poison bait because a pet or some other animal might get at the bait or dig up the dead gopher and eat it along with the bait. Good Luck!
One way I keep vermin down - make a compost pile that you add scraps to every night. The key is location. Make it out in the open, ie no trellis or fences for quite a space, so hawks and owls can swoop down and get them. You have trees they can perch in and swoop down. Give at least a 12 or 15 feet wide path. The birds wingspans can be 6 to 10 feet wide.
Our property is much smaller, but we had the same problem this past season proportional to yours. Honestly, I used castor oil. True, it was easier here to walk around 1/3 acre and pour castor oil in holes or spray it around. But I did it and they left. Anything new I plant gets a dose of castor oil - a dash in the bottom of the hole and some around edge of the
Do SanFran KSFO AM Sunday radio gardener Bob Tannem's suggestion for any underground critter. Oatmeal, peanut butter, and plaster of paris. Mix to an even consistency - not oily, not pasty. Roll into small ball - marble size, and drop into holes - away from pets. Critters eat the oatmeal and peanut butter. Oatmeal and plaster of paris sucks up water - making plaster in stomach - critter dies from dehydration, starvation, and eventual death in the hole - away from other critters, owls, etc. Totally safe as plaster is firmly set and not chewable for another critter. It works !!!
No gophers in the UK but plenty of other crop pests. I used a trail camera to set up overnight and see who was damaging my crops and how many I was dealing with. Trail cameras aren't expensive and would help you see where the gophers were and how many you need to remove. You might also find you have a few predators creeping around overnight and helping you. You would also get some interesting footage to show on your UA-cam video's.
Emilie's idea sounds great, it's honestly the best bang for your buck. I would do some more research on the depth you need to bury them though cause a quick Google showed that they can have their food and shelter holes 6ft under. Just so you don't spend all that money and work for nothing.
Gophers and moles, I get both, yay me! I made my own baskets with a bottom and planted peppers, cucumbers and squash in them. They tunneled around and underneath the plants, plants did not survive long 😢. The next year I made a brick raised bed with the metal cloth on the bottom and not 1 gopher or mole got in! Along a fence line I buried buckets and had great success in out smarting them but obviously that won’t work for you. Good luck can’t wait for updates on what you’re going to try!
Yes, that is they type of super gophers that I am dealing with on the far side by the field outside of our fence line. The vibrator sticks worked well until they didn't, I think they got use to the noise and realized that they were going to be attacked by it. My husband used the smoke bombs and didn't tell me. The gopher's tunnels must run under the house and the only thing that got smoked out by the sulfur was me. It wasn't pretty. My cat use to kill the gophers and leave them for the Ravens and the Ravens would protect him from the Hawks. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it. That same cat was poisoned 15 years ago by eating a mouse that had been poisoned by bar bate. Luckily he threw up the mouse but it still cost us $1550 to save him. I hope you find the solution that is right for you. Me? I went to container gardening. So far so good. Wishing the best for your Avocado tree, you are giving it it's best chance of survival.
Still think a well placed windmill would be more cost effective and honestly more effective. When I lived in California we had problems with them and my father put in windmills and that was the end of the problem. Luckily I don't have them in Washington but if I did that would be my first choice
I'm in Riverside County and gophers are my nemesis. They've killed more than one tree of mine. Anyway once the tree gets a little older, they seem to leave them alone. What I find that works, is rosemary. Whenever I see a gopher hole, I plant some in the ground and the gophers leave. I'm not sure why. Cats did catch them sometimes, but rosemary works better.
I installed a wooden owl box but got bees instead! The bee remover guy said he sees that all the time with wooden owl boxes but never with plastic owl boxes. I worked at a facility that had a huge gopher infestation problem, they hired a professional exterminator. First they set traps everywhere, not just where they were active at that moment but the entire property and kept checking and resetting the traps until the gopher activity was no longer. evident. Thereafter, they visited to check the traps every week until the contract expired.That seemed to work. So maybe you should consider professional help as well?
Is it possible to plant a sacrificial crop somewhere that would draw them away from the ones you care about? Maybe a big line of carrots on the other side of the property?
I support your attempts to remove or exterminate those dastardly critters from your gardens and plant!! What they did to your avocado tree is terrible!! I have two out of the six I planted in my teeny back garden and they are flourishing. I PRAY yours survives in the pot for future transplanting! God Bless!!!!
You need the black hole trap. It works. Your method matters but it works. I've gotten rid of individual gophers in no time with it. Wear gloves when handling it. Find a mound and expose the tunnel. Set the trap and use loose soil to prevent any gaps between the trap and the soil. You will have the gopher next day. Just saw how many holes you have. Get a few black hole traps.
The Gas bomb sticks are great but, 1) Follow the instructions well, 2) Do NOT use them close to any vegetables, shrubs, or small trees as the gas bomb gets super hot and will burn the roots close by. I used them for 1 year and was surprised at how well they work and after the second year only my neighbor had the rodents, Good luck, and keep up the great work!👍
OMG, that's a lot of gopher!!! It makes my squirrel battles look like nothing in comparison. Good luck and thanks as always for your upfront presentation and for sharing your downs as well as your ups :O)
It would be cool if you could bait them with underground traps! Like something they can crawl into but can't get out of then all you have to do is put some food in there with a camera or something so you know when you catch one. I like the owl box idea too maybe if you put out bird feeders some of the larger birds will naturally stay close by. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You should've gotten after gophers years ago, over the last 20 years I've trapped over 300, last year 28...they all come from my neighbors. Cinch traps work the best for me. I inspect our property daily during gopher season, mainly spring when the ground is soft and the babies are kicked out of the nest. Best of luck
We don't have gophers where I live. I do however have a vivid memory of my grandfather catching a gopher once. He held it to a stump and whacked it's head with a spade. That is something I will never forget.
A gopher got my avacado tree. I protected it for 2 years, my brother in law said I couldn’t do it but I did until that menace. They seem to come where you water. I put wire in the holes now first. Hopefully when the tree is larger it won’t kill the tree.
I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but just in case…. Be sure to have all your lines flagged before you trench, I seen something by your gate there, when you were describing about doing the trench. Wouldn’t want to cut something already buried in the ground!
I would not want to have a gopher problem. I have a similarly frustrating problem. We had a 6' wooden fence installed around my garden to keep the racoons out. Especially when I used fish emulsion. They dig everything up when you use it. This fence wasn't cheap. You know who got the last laugh. The racoons did, they just climb over the fence.
I just suggested something on your other video on mad about gophers but I just thought of something. Pest control has these underground system for termites pretty much invisible green small square flat with the ground. My neighbor (my daughter) got them for termites but company said kept all rodents away. We had gophers and just kept putting out cages and driving them elsewhere but since neighbor put them in and they are right next to our property divided by a wall, we have seen very few gophers holes. Just a thought. Good luck. Don’t turn into Elmer Fudd like my husband did. It was pretty funny for awhile it was like caddy shack and cartoons at our house UNTIL I planted fruit trees and they went to town eating everything and inviting squirrels 🐿. Yeah not funny for me anymore. But we finally got them all with cages and daily checking and crushing their holes. We haven’t seen any around in awhile but as soon as ONE hole pops up you have to go to war. Good luck and hi to your lovely wife.
Great ideas but when trenching the front garden make sure you know where the power, water and gas lines are. I see the gates are electric so be very careful. Good luck with it.
I haven't been following the gopher vids but when I moved to the high Desert we had them. I got a trap. The way to catch them is to put the trap in the hole and cover it. They go to uncover their hole cuz they like their holes open...catch! Kinda gross and not always dead...that was how I got rid of them.
I live in San Bernardino County, last year I trapped 22 gophers on my 1/4 acre. This year only 2 gophers. The big improvement was made by the presence of an owl. The gophers and ground squirrels are all gone. Thank you Mr. Owl!
I wonder where I could get an owl. Mmmm
@@joycepappan4796 Build an owl box and they will come.
I talked to a rancher that had a gopher problem and as he killed them he would drape them over his fence to attract more and more birds of prey. He said it works wonderfully.
strategy of the gopher wars
I Had a 8 year “pocket gopher” problem, what finally worked for me was dropping a few Decon mice poison pellets down each hole. The kind in the little yellow triangle box, plug hole after dropping in Decon pellets….After using this for a few months they all disappeared eventually. They will tear up lawns and eat plant roots. Most cost effective treatment that worked for me.
I tried it all.
One of my bare root apple trees had all it's roots eaten off by gophers and it wilted. I thought it was a gonner, but I coated it in rooting hormone and soaked it for a few days. Then I replanted it (in a "basket" of hardware cloth and quality potting soil), and it made it!! It was early spring when this happened & I had to water and mulched extra that summer-- it struggled, but it caught up to the others in year 2 (that was 8 years ago). It took a bit to get on top of our gopher problem-- 3 rural acres in ID means it's never gone, but once the trees have a few years of growth they can handle a few nibbles. Best of luck, thanks for great content! Also, RatX by EcoClear doesn't poison the secondary animal. Never tried it on gophers though.
Trench warfare. I did appreciate your asides: "Watching that hawk dive bomb the gopher--- was the best show ever!!" and "Wish we could train gophers..." . But trench warfare --- go for it.
I like this plan! Many years ago I asked Marshall out at Summers Past Farms how they kept out gophers, and he told me the first thing they did before ever planting on their property was to trench around the entire place and fill the deep and wide trench with broken glass. I have no idea where he procured that quantity of broken glass, but I've never seen a gopher on their property.
Ha…I know Marshall. I do their shows. Thanks for sharing that.
Holy cow, I had no idea what you were dealing with. We have a few MN gophers but nothing like what you have. Good luck with your projects. I’m grateful for our resident eagle, fox, owls, cats and dogs.
The thing to keep in mind Alyson, is that here in CA, (North where I am and South where Brian is), we are a DRY state, so during the summer there is nothing for the gophers to EAT. That’s why they hit our gardens and landscaping so hard. In areas with lush summer growth, there is lots of other stuff for gophers to have, so they don’t have to range far and wide to get enough food.
@@gigihenderson8567 I had to chuckle at your ‘lush green growth’ as we were in severe to moderate drought most of the summer. I live in the western end of the long grass prairie, just 20 miles east of the Red River Valley which is the border between ND and MN, prairie land. I admit living in rural so the gophers have lots of choices. I’m thinking the MN striped gopher is a different animal than the gopher you are experiencing. Our gophers look more like chipmunks and are rather cute when they aren’t dining on tomatoes. The gophers have taken a real decline in recent years though which has me concerned that climate change is taking a toll that isn’t readily recognized. Sort of the canary in the cage. Our bee and bird population has taken a hit. Which makes me grateful I can have a garden for wonderful food.
@@alysonbaker939 Thx Alyson. I will admit that my “view” of MN is from my late husband who grew up in Silver Bay on the north shore of Lake Superior. I only visited once but even in the “heat” of summer, there was rain and dense forest surrounding the town.
@@gigihenderson8567 Thank you for sharing the part of MN you are familiar. I grew up 6 miles from Lake MI in MI and it was lush there. My husband and I did teaching careers in Southeast AK on the ocean where we had little snow and lots of rain, very moderate climate. I didn’t garden there. We retired in MN, go figure, aye? I had no idea how diverse MN is until we moved here. After being tucked away at the bottom mountains in a rain forest, we rather enjoy the openness of the prairie.
Wow! So many holes!!! That's a large chunk of change for gophers, I hope it helps! 🤗🤗❤
I really feel for you, way too many gopher holes! I can't suggest anything and I'm not the praying type, but damn I hope you can find a way to get rid of them without tearing up your whole property.
That was a lot of holes! lol smh
Here I am in Australia where we don’t have gophers but I’m still watching and finding it fascinating. My worse pest is scale and the cabbage moth 😂😂
I am in rural Australia, and the rats (and mice) are a huge problem. Had a nice little cantaloupe coming along, one day it looked weird (deflated) turned it around, half eaten from the back. The rats came back the next night and finished it off. I am thinking about building a water bucket (bin) trap for them, works well on the mice. Mice got many of the smaller younger plants.
Cabbage moth are relentless. Netting was the only thing that worked, but has to be away from any leaf growth, or they back up (I assume) and lay their eggs where any leaf touches the net. So next season, building a proper frame, and making sure it is taut all around. The slapped up frame was not good enough, with the net draped over.
Really sorry you have to go through this madness!! Thanks for being so inspiring and upbeat even through difficult times!! You got this so press onward and upward!!❤❤❤
Thank you!
The thing I love about problems in the garden is that we all benefit from your research and trials and “like iron sharpens iron” we can share our losses and victories together!
So, I apparently live in a much more desolate area. So those little solar stick things, they attract gophers like crazy. There is nothing else to eat...
I remember one of my neighbors trying one of the gas bomb things, he lit a wildfire. I don't remember exactly what happened with that, but I do know that he owed millions of dollars to put up the fire he started with them. Anyway, people have been asking me to do another farming video, I love physics, so I'm not sure about the farming videos anymore, but growing Castor beans, apparently Gophers will eat Castor beans, not sure why they do that, but they absolutely kill all the Gophers. I have had Gophers chew through the Gopher baskets. And also at the same time you're worry that the roots get messed up by the Gopher baskets, they are equally ineffective as well as breaking the tree. And I know this because I have tried it many times.
Regarding gopher baskets, I put in my home orchard with chicken wire around all the trees down 3’ and it worked great for the 5 years until the wire rusted out, then the gophers ate everything. I have a single apricot tree left. The Diggers Gopher baskets folks have stainless steel chicken wire, but it is NOT cheap at $333 plus shipping for a 4’x 100’ roll. Supposed to last well over 10 years. They also have the shorter 3’x 100’ double dipped galvanized which they say lasts 6-10 years.
My husband got so angry once that he backed our tractor up to the area, lit a gas tube and put it in the hole , then ran a hose from the tractor exhaust pipe into the hole. We could see smoke coming out of holes 2 ft away. I have no idea if it worked. We still have gophers. But we live next to some state land...ergo, an endless parade of gophers and squirrels. Good luck to you. I like the owl box idea.
20 ft away.
You were right--certainly is the next level!!! We're watching all this to see what works! Is there a repellent but pretty plant you can plant in all that loose trenched soil when you're finished, as well as the fence?Here is the list I googled: daffodils, allium, onion, garlic, sopher spurge, Crown imperials (?), lavender, catmint, salvia, oleander, marigolds, and euphorbias. Hope that helps! What a pretty border all these would make with your fence!
Thank you for some very interesting ideas 👍 😊. I agree that digging the wire into the ground is an idea I would try. That is why I love your videos so much, and your frustration with the gophers reminds me of my mom's challenge with them and her frustration. Thank you for your time and help
Reading the comments and watching your gopher videos I'm grateful that I do not have an issue with those rodents. I do have a vole problem in my area, but I use a product called PermaTil; looks like crushed gravel but has sharp edges. Apparently the voles don't like to dig through the PermaTil so everything I plant has the product in the holes including my bulbs. It seems to work 90% of the time. I guess we all have different vermin to deal with but I'm grateful mine is a smaller rodent to deal with. Hoping your new idea will work but what a pain to fence in all the area below ground!
Lived for years on 80 acres with high density gophers. Always had barn cats that averaged about a gopher every other day. Never eradicated them but lessened the problem. For those that ventured into my garden or yard i found in-tunnel gopher traps very effective. Be sure to attach a tree foot wire to the trap and a stake. I had one leave with the trap once. Found it two years with the skeleton.
I am a avid gardener & have lived on an acre in San Diego for 20 yrs & have lost $$$$ from gophers!!! They have destroyed huge old orange trees & lemon trees. I make my own gopher baskets now out of hardware cloth including the bottom....don't think you have taken care of the problem without the bottom, I've seen tunnel's more than 3 feet down!! I am now planting agaves in biger pots in the ground just to protect them!! It's an ongoing battle!!!!😣
Sorry..but if I,,ve.worked to hard in my garden I to allow gopnher,s to ruin it. .I,ll use any method to get rid of them. Sandra. As Grce
I have moles. Grr. Have put out poison underground.
@@joycepappan4796 It's VOLES . Moles just eat grubs, etc., not vegetation.
Not hard to deal with a pest set a trap then pop with a 22lr done
I'm quite curious if there's any way to train a dog to get gophers and teach them not to mess with the garden, that'd be really nice since dogs will tear them in half easily. But I do agree that cats are "softer" in terms of weight and more mobile and not as destructive, so I think getting a good outdoor hunting/guarding cat is a good idea and I do remember a lotta people recomending you that. Glad your cats are doing great and happy and also are of some use to you.
We had a stray cat come live with us. He was a GREAT gopher hunter and love to eat them. Because of where I live, I would need a colony of cats to keep the gophers in check… and I’ve got coyotes, so all small outdoor animals are at risk.
If the dog start ripping up the garden you add few more goffers to keep him busy. 😄
Oh, the SAGA!! I feel your frustration! What a monumental pain. This will be a great service you are doing for gardeners. Luck to you!!
Great thought process. Good luck on outsmarting them. I just grow in containers to avoid moles/voles. But it is a limited solution compared to your site plans. 🤞🏻
I grow in wine barrels. This year first time small and large holes in barrel. Eating cucumbers zucchini 😢
I had a horrible gopher problem after our dog died at 17 years. I think she was keeping them at bay the whole time. I don't remember where I read it but it said gophers don't like strawberry plants. I planted strawberry plants all around my Meyer lemon tree that was eaten by a gopher. It looked like it wasn't going to make it. It's been two years now and I still have gophers but nothing around my lemon tree. The tree looks like I just pruned it funny and it's producing beautiful lemons. Btw, I've never had a gopher in any of my strawberry patches. Hope you get something from this.
Hahahaha gophers ate all my strawberry’s and everything else I had growing I now have no flowers and no veggies also No more grass in my yard just 100s of muddy hills and the ground is sinking about 3 feet in spots.
Glade you still have the spirit. I have given up battling with them. I just sow a lot of seeds n harvest what I can. Plus I try to grow what they hate to eat. Even that sometime they eat too. Haha..
I though a bigger property (23 acres) mean I can grow more and have more but nope. So many wild animals want all of my hard work. I think that’s why large farm do tilling. These ground pest does help get the soil soft for tilling. Tilling would break down their tunnel so they would want to move on their own. We bought a tractor so I’m switching to winter garden because of water situation in ca. Till it now that it’s soft and wet. Sow the seeds. Let the rain water. The pest can thin the crops out but I have enough surface areas to get plenty of harvest. If I work less and spend less , I would consider my harvest a higher yield. Lol
If there is a particular area with lots of gopher activity, that’s probably where the adolescents are coming into your property. If the holes are only about 2” or less, those are the teenagers who just got kicked out of mom’s burrow.
You sound like a segment of "Caddy Shack". You are Bill Murray. LOL
Im not necessarily recommending this but it did work I hooked up my car exhaust to a hose and put the hose down the gopher hole and let the engine run. carbon monoxide sinks and will work it way through the tunnels (I also tried propane a couple of times and ignited it ( DEFINITELY not recommended but fun )
My neighbor did that & it worked great on his small area or they movrd over to my property!!😣
I love your elephant ears! Beautiful!
Oh stupid Gophers man. I am so sorry that happened to that avocado tree. Most definitely keep us posted on both of gophers an avocado tree.
I have a question for you: how do you keep your dog out of your raised beds?
I really feel so bad that you're going through this obstacle, but I know you and that means you WILL find a solution that works. No doubt.
Thank you Paulla 😊
You and your props. I thought you might come out dressed like Bill Murray. Lol
Boy-howdy, I'd be sitting in my garden with a .22!! 🤬
Wishing you the best of luck. Looking forward to seeing what works. I have a shrew that tunnels in the yard, hoping for some ideas! 😉
Funny how 10A in California has an erosion problem from the gophers and here in 10A Florida, Gopher Tortoises are our problem. They create gigantic holes and tunnels which the heavy rains from Hurricane Ian and Nicole opened up much like your gopher problems. The tortises are protected in FL so you have to just do you best to keep them out of your garden with fencing/poles, etc. Good luck with the gophers!
I did not find the thumpers worked for me, but I’m in sandy soil, so it may not be as effective. Same for the gases. I’ve heard that they may work better in clay soil, which is what you have, and during wet weather.
We just moved here like 2 months ago. Waited to install beds just to see if we have gophers. Saw a stray cat catch one the other day. So, now we'll be installing poultry wire underneath all the raised beds like at the old house. 🙄
I was wondering if the solar stake would work on voles? Voles turned up in our veggie garden this year. We had no issue the summer of 21. But they decimated our tomatoes this year.
I have issues with voles. Seems like some years are worse than others. I don’t know how big your garden is, Amazon sells a natural vole and mole repellent. I bought 4 bags and used two on the dirt before laying down fabric barrier; other two were used on the back of the fence as there is a farm across the road. That seemed to work along with traps
I tried those solar stakes on voles, found burrows right next to them!
Way to go Brian❣️👏🏼 It really sounds like you have it well thought out. Kudos to Emilie for her gopher solution around the English cottage island.
Thank you!
every time I watch your videos & hear the issues you have with gophers, I have to remind myself to be thankful our garden marauders are just squirrels & rabbits. The foot of chicken wire above the foot tall raised beds seems to have solved the rabbit issue & we built an enclosure for the sweet corn, berries, carrots & spinach. it's working against the squirrels & birds. Good luck in your battle & go watch Caddyshack.
Here in Central Oregon there is a couple of guys that hire themselves out and they have a machine they haul around with a quad that gasses the gophers on larger properties. Like our 155 acre hay farm. Craigslist?
the golfer will go out on the surface and will stay within 3-5 meters of a hole for a fast escape, but once an areas food source gets less available they will move across the surface to get to a lusher area
A few ideas: 1) Did you say that you feed your cats at night? You might instead feed them only in the morning only, as a lot of gopher activity happens at night. My best gopher-killer cat was out all night every night killing multiple gophers. If you feed your cats at night, they might not be hungry enough to "work" at night. 2) On your barrier method: you do know that gophers also travel above ground, right? I think that gophers will walk right in to your "protected" area OVER the top of the ground., unless you also have a fence that is more than one foot tall, otherwise they will also scale a short fence. 3) I'm glad you renamed your cat.
Best of luck with your efforts. I felt so bad for you when I saw what was left of the avocado roots.
Thank you
On Amazon you can buy 4' x 100' pvc coated hardware cloth through a company called Landmark for $163. Then you could use the extra foot to fold over the top and bury it to "garden over" it for a border planting. Just a thought! Also, used cat litter really does help and it's a better use for it than throwing it in landfill!
You have the Crocodile Dundee version of gophers!! I will give a thumbs up for owl boxes, our neighbor put one in and it has made a difference. The sound spikes could work too. It is true gophers don't go where there is noise and thumping. The area in the yard (the fruit trees) where our four ducks run around all day rarely has gophers. In the fenced off garden where the ducks are not allowed is where we get most of the gophers. Best of luck!
I did that when I had couch grass invading my borders, but that was just a few feet and a million miles away from your problem. I used galvanised lawn edging, seems to be working. Hope you get yours sorted Brian.
I like the Solar stake idea better, several will be best, than the marshmallow idea I mentioned before. Thanks for the video update on the tree...
If that avacado tree survives, you sir are the avacado whisperer!!!!
The gopher bombs worked wonders for me with my groundhog and rat problem. The groundhogs had dug the system of tunnels years ago, and other burrowing animals occasionally take up residence in there, which makes it easy to smoke them out. The one issue you might have is you need to plug up all the burrow entrances airtight, to make sure the smoke doesn't leak out and dissipate. If you have a means of covering all the gopher holes though, then go for it.
OMG! My heart goes out to you. Good luck with the underground fence in the front garden. That sounds like a good plan.
Thank you!
The absolute best experience in my control for voles and gophers is using propane to flood the burrows and displace the oxygen. Propane is heavier than air, and infiltrates all the burrow space, displacing the oxygen and killing the voles and gophers. The simplest way to apply it is with a weed burner attachment on a portable propane bottle. Since I started using this, I have had 100 percent success.
I had seen a YT video on a guy who dug a shallow hole and placed a radio in it and then turned music on, and that scared away the critters. Might surf for that one. I'm dealing with voles. What is working for me is a granular urine that is chasing them away. It has to be spread on my garden weekly. I'm seeing fewer trails but still working on the main holes. The three foot trench idea, I think they could tunnel under it. Get a box of garden snakes and dump around the area with gopher holes. Get the big dog or the hawk/owl boxes going.
Gophers are no fun! So glad you found a solution. I don't know what is killing my avocado trees. Could you help me with a strange problem I am having? My sister and I were so excited that we were able to sprout several (6 and counting) avocado seeds and now have trees from about 8-12 inches tall!! But my two trees have a very strange thinge happening - the leaves have starting turning reddish brown at the tips and along the sides starting from the bottom and going up successive leaves on my baby trees. And gradually the leaves die and fall off. We live in Colorado, so we have them in pots indoors. I can send you pictures of them if that is helpful. Thank you for your feedback.
We don't have gophers in my area, but squirrels have been a huge problem for my little porch / patio garden. They destroy everything I plant. Rabbits and deer are also a big issue in this area. Can't wait to see how your efforts work. Looking forward to the next update on this topic.
It could be a lack of light or it's too cold. But I should tell you in advance, growing an avocado from seed like this isn't easy and even if you get the plant to grow will most likely never give you fruits.
Did you by any chance buy your Avocado tree from Lowes? They have a 1 year guarantee for trees and shrubs(not anything on clearance). Take it back and you either get a new tree or credit!
It's interesting where the gophers habitats are and the areas they have almost left untouched. .. There must be a reason why but I could not say. I don't have gophers in my yard but my next door neighbor traps those that pop up. Two houses down and the yard is full of gophers. The neighbor with all the gophers has let his yard go, doesn't water, doesn't mow etc., but that is not the case through out the neighborhood. So all this to say I have no idea why you have such a big gopher problem unless it has to do with the noise;/vibration level.
I just took road flares. dug into the ground and stuffed the road flares into the holes and covered them. A couple rounds of that burning for 20 minutes each and I don't have any more issues. But that is just what worked for me. :)
I saw a documentary about a large farm in central Cali that had a huge gopher problem. The owl boxes made a big difference. My dog will dig for days trying to get a gopher. Sweet girl made huge holes but, last year she got 3. Of course that freaked me out trying to get them away from her. Try the owl boxes. I would but, I don't have a big enough tree or barn.
My suggestion would be to purchase one of those metal garden beds, IF you can afford it, 16-18in diameter would be enough. It is going to be an expensive investment because you will have to fill it in with good quality soil mix and by good quality I mean sandy loam, SANDY being the main point here, especially for something like Avocado trees. I purchase garys best Top Soil from Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana. AND for the gophers, before you assemble that bed, you need to place galvanized steel cloth on top of your ground. And that is how your tree root ball will survive. When the tree is mature enough it may survive any gophers. I am still planting stuff in gopher baskets myself and leave the above mentioned method for the trees that I would absolutely feel devastated to lose.
Okay Brian, when you video tape trying the gas bombs, you HAVE to dress like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack!😂
Good luck with it all! Sometimes it makes you wonder why God ever created certain creatures 🤔
Sending prayers and good thoughts for “Adam” (being the first) the avocado tree.
I’m anxious to see how the gopher proof island works.
Love and hugs to you, Emilie and Noah. ❤️🤗❤️
I can't wait to see him go full Caddyshack 🤣 every time I watch a video I start singing "I'm alright, don't nobody worry 'bout me"
@@BettyBoopBarnes i know right!!!??? That gopher dancing to “ I’m alright” was always soooo cute. What a pest though. Now whenever we see that show or hear the song, we will associate it with Brian….poor guy!🤣🤣🤣
The underground "gopher fence" is a great idea. My garden-destroyers are deer and as soon as I put in a 7ft high "invisible" deer fence around my entire backyard (~1/2 acre), it was like a miracle. The herd moved on and all of my roses, planters, perennials, and flowering shrubs came alive !!! The bees, butterflies, and humming birds returned to our property. Suggest you go ahead and surround the entire property with the gopher barrier ... it would be an excellent investment for what you are trying to achieve with your property. All the best !
We have a huge gopher problem every year. We kill with traps which is hard work but the best thing so far. I don’t let my dogs in the garden because they tear it up. We got gopher repellent for around the pool. It’s such a pain in the neck. You would be wise to lay some chicken wire on top of your plants too if you can. They will pop up and run across the top and dig down especially if they have any cover from foliage.
We use aviary wire. Looks like chicken wire but the holes are much smaller. All of my beds are lined with it, stapled on the bottom of the raised beds and we make wire cages with it. They put it under our sod when they installed it, no gophers in the lawn, ever, in 20 years and the wire is still going strong. The holes are big enough for roots to get through. I have trapped gophers for almost 30 years, we put them out for the birds of prey.
Good Luck! By all means, keep in mind that gophers do move over ground. I’ve seen them scurry across our driveway!
Good luck Brian! I had the same issue and unfortunately I ended up having a poison put down the tunnels after I had exhausted all attempts to rid them myself.
Ok....Love your idea for the area by the cottage house. Yep, kind of pricey but if it works it would be worth it's weight in gold.
I am so sorry about your Avacado tree. I hope it has the strength to make a good comeback.
I was blown away by how many gopher holes you have. 😳 I wish you good luck but gee that is a ton.
I also love the owl house idea. I live in a city in Missouri. We live in a neighborhood where we are the last house next to a large field with a small patch if woods. We had a a mom hawk and her baby living in the woods last summer. They used to take baths in our bird bath. So maybe you could add a nice large bird bath to attract them. Lunch and a bath.....what a deal.
Thanks for the update. BTW are those elephant ears in the pots behind you and beside you in the video? I loved them. The pink ones really makes the pots pop!
Jan M@ I believe the reddish plants are Caladiums, not Elephant ears. The leaves look alike but Elephant ears are bigger and all green. I'm not all sure so let's see what Brian says. Good luck gardening 🌻🦋🥰
When my dad used to rototill the yard we didn't have a gopher problem. He stopped, now it's gophers city.
I've found that the best way to control gophers is to trap them but i have never seen the type of damage the you show in your video.
First off I would rake the area that they are working in to determine which runs they are using by finding their fresh dirt piles. Then I would dig down into their run and set a trap on each side of it. Sometimes you will need to enlarge the hole so the trap will fit. Make sure each trap is tied with a string a few feet long and tied to a stake that you shove into the ground to keep the gopher from running away with your trap.
You will need to cover each hole so that there is no light coming in and check your traps every day.
If you haven't caught a gopher after a couple of days then move your traps to another area.
Sometimes you will find the trap sprung and dirt pushed in. You now know that the gopher is actively working that run. All you need to do is relocate the run a few feet from your original position and reset your trap.
I always worry about using poison bait because a pet or some other animal might get at the bait or dig up the dead gopher and eat it along with the bait. Good Luck!
One way I keep vermin down - make a compost pile that you add scraps to every night. The key is location. Make it out in the open, ie no trellis or fences for quite a space, so hawks and owls can swoop down and get them. You have trees they can perch in and swoop down. Give at least a 12 or 15 feet wide path. The birds wingspans can be 6 to 10 feet wide.
Yikes that is a crazy amount of holes. I wish you luck.
Thank you!
Our property is much smaller, but we had the same problem this past season proportional to yours. Honestly, I used castor oil. True, it was easier here to walk around 1/3 acre and pour castor oil in holes or spray it around. But I did it and they left. Anything new I plant gets a dose of castor oil - a dash in the bottom of the hole and some around edge of the
....edge of yhe hole. So far, so good. Won't be any more effort than you're already putting in
Do SanFran KSFO AM Sunday radio gardener Bob Tannem's suggestion for any underground critter. Oatmeal, peanut butter, and plaster of paris. Mix to an even consistency - not oily, not pasty. Roll into small ball - marble size, and drop into holes - away from pets. Critters eat the oatmeal and peanut butter. Oatmeal and plaster of paris sucks up water - making plaster in stomach - critter dies from dehydration, starvation, and eventual death in the hole - away from other critters, owls, etc. Totally safe as plaster is firmly set and not chewable for another critter. It works !!!
No gophers in the UK but plenty of other crop pests. I used a trail camera to set up overnight and see who was damaging my crops and how many I was dealing with. Trail cameras aren't expensive and would help you see where the gophers were and how many you need to remove. You might also find you have a few predators creeping around overnight and helping you. You would also get some interesting footage to show on your UA-cam video's.
Emilie's idea sounds great, it's honestly the best bang for your buck. I would do some more research on the depth you need to bury them though cause a quick Google showed that they can have their food and shelter holes 6ft under. Just so you don't spend all that money and work for nothing.
Thank you!
Gophers and moles, I get both, yay me! I made my own baskets with a bottom and planted peppers, cucumbers and squash in them. They tunneled around and underneath the plants, plants did not survive long 😢. The next year I made a brick raised bed with the metal cloth on the bottom and not 1 gopher or mole got in! Along a fence line I buried buckets and had great success in out smarting them but obviously that won’t work for you. Good luck can’t wait for updates on what you’re going to try!
I love the plants in the blue pots behind you. What is the name of that variety?
It is hilarious to hear Mr. Rooster in the background....
Yes, that is they type of super gophers that I am dealing with on the far side by the field outside of our fence line. The vibrator sticks worked well until they didn't, I think they got use to the noise and realized that they were going to be attacked by it. My husband used the smoke bombs and didn't tell me. The gopher's tunnels must run under the house and the only thing that got smoked out by the sulfur was me. It wasn't pretty. My cat use to kill the gophers and leave them for the Ravens and the Ravens would protect him from the Hawks. I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it. That same cat was poisoned 15 years ago by eating a mouse that had been poisoned by bar bate. Luckily he threw up the mouse but it still cost us $1550 to save him. I hope you find the solution that is right for you. Me? I went to container gardening. So far so good.
Wishing the best for your Avocado tree, you are giving it it's best chance of survival.
Still think a well placed windmill would be more cost effective and honestly more effective. When I lived in California we had problems with them and my father put in windmills and that was the end of the problem. Luckily I don't have them in Washington but if I did that would be my first choice
I'm in Riverside County and gophers are my nemesis. They've killed more than one tree of mine. Anyway once the tree gets a little older, they seem to leave them alone. What I find that works, is rosemary. Whenever I see a gopher hole, I plant some in the ground and the gophers leave. I'm not sure why. Cats did catch them sometimes, but rosemary works better.
I installed a wooden owl box but got bees instead! The bee remover guy said he sees that all the time with wooden owl boxes but never with plastic owl boxes. I worked at a facility that had a huge gopher infestation problem, they hired a professional exterminator. First they set traps everywhere, not just where they were active at that moment but the entire property and kept checking and resetting the traps until the gopher activity was no longer. evident. Thereafter, they visited to check the traps every week until the contract expired.That seemed to work. So maybe you should consider professional help as well?
Is it possible to plant a sacrificial crop somewhere that would draw them away from the ones you care about? Maybe a big line of carrots on the other side of the property?
They are likely to breed up faster with a food supply...
I support your attempts to remove or exterminate those dastardly critters from your gardens and plant!! What they did to your avocado tree is terrible!! I have two out of the six I planted in my teeny back garden and they are flourishing. I PRAY yours survives in the pot for future transplanting! God Bless!!!!
Thank you!
Best of luck with your war on gophers. It will take be interesting to see if you can save the avocado tree, hope it makes it.
You need the black hole trap. It works. Your method matters but it works. I've gotten rid of individual gophers in no time with it.
Wear gloves when handling it. Find a mound and expose the tunnel. Set the trap and use loose soil to prevent any gaps between the trap and the soil. You will have the gopher next day.
Just saw how many holes you have. Get a few black hole traps.
yup!
The solar powered stakes work great for me. Since installing them in my granddaughter's butterfly garden, they have been 100% effective.
The Gas bomb sticks are great but, 1) Follow the instructions well, 2) Do NOT use them close to any vegetables, shrubs, or small trees as the gas bomb gets super hot and will burn the roots close by. I used them for 1 year and was surprised at how well they work and after the second year only my neighbor had the rodents, Good luck, and keep up the great work!👍
OMG, that's a lot of gopher!!! It makes my squirrel battles look like nothing in comparison. Good luck and thanks as always for your upfront presentation and for sharing your downs as well as your ups :O)
Where did you get 20 years for the lifetime of the hardware cloth? My experience would put it closer to 3-4 than twenty.
It would be cool if you could bait them with underground traps! Like something they can crawl into but can't get out of then all you have to do is put some food in there with a camera or something so you know when you catch one. I like the owl box idea too maybe if you put out bird feeders some of the larger birds will naturally stay close by. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Honestly, how long do you think this guy can hold out before he starts making little gopher statues out of C4?
New merch idea! 🤣🤣🤣 I feel his pain. Fighting the same.
I don’t have gophers (roof rats instead in Arizona) so I feel your pain.
You should've gotten after gophers years ago, over the last 20 years I've trapped over 300, last year 28...they all come from my neighbors. Cinch traps work the best for me. I inspect our property daily during gopher season, mainly spring when the ground is soft and the babies are kicked out of the nest. Best of luck
We don't have gophers where I live. I do however have a vivid memory of my grandfather catching a gopher once. He held it to a stump and whacked it's head with a spade. That is something I will never forget.
I'm north of you... When you see lots of holes in an area, it may be rats. Gophers tend to tunnel underground a lot but have few surface holes.
A gopher got my avacado tree. I protected it for 2 years, my brother in law said I couldn’t do it but I did until that menace. They seem to come where you water. I put wire in the holes now first. Hopefully when the tree is larger it won’t kill the tree.
Good luck! 🙂
I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but just in case…. Be sure to have all your lines flagged before you trench, I seen something by your gate there, when you were describing about doing the trench. Wouldn’t want to cut something already buried in the ground!
I would not want to have a gopher problem. I have a similarly frustrating problem. We had a 6' wooden fence installed around my garden to keep the racoons out. Especially when I used fish emulsion. They dig everything up when you use it. This fence wasn't cheap. You know who got the last laugh. The racoons did, they just climb over the fence.
We had a dog do more damage to our lawn than the gopher. The gopher trails through the lawn were 3-4 inches wide, the dogs dug trails 12 inches wide!
Oh wow!
The gas bombs work great. Cover the hole after you light one off.
Thanks!
I just suggested something on your other video on mad about gophers but I just thought of something. Pest control has these underground system for termites pretty much invisible green small square flat with the ground. My neighbor (my daughter) got them for termites but company said kept all rodents away. We had gophers and just kept putting out cages and driving them elsewhere but since neighbor put them in and they are right next to our property divided by a wall, we have seen very few gophers holes. Just a thought. Good luck. Don’t turn into Elmer Fudd like my husband did. It was pretty funny for awhile it was like caddy shack and cartoons at our house UNTIL I planted fruit trees and they went to town eating everything and inviting squirrels 🐿. Yeah not funny for me anymore. But we finally got them all with cages and daily checking and crushing their holes. We haven’t seen any around in awhile but as soon as ONE hole pops up you have to go to war. Good luck and hi to your lovely wife.
Great ideas but when trenching the front garden make sure you know where the power, water and gas lines are. I see the gates are electric so be very careful. Good luck with it.
I haven't been following the gopher vids but when I moved to the high Desert we had them. I got a trap. The way to catch them is to put the trap in the hole and cover it. They go to uncover their hole cuz they like their holes open...catch! Kinda gross and not always dead...that was how I got rid of them.
Yup! That's what I'd do too!