Help, I’m in Trouble!

Are they pocket gophers or striped gophers ? Pocket gophers leave a mound of fresh black dirt… like some said, remove the mound, find the entrance (a rod poking around the area will find it) dig it out and set a trap in a indentation above. Put a piece of plywood over the whole set-up and cover with dirt, it nees to be dark. Wait a couple days then check it For striped gophers, they just have small holes all over… for that use the garden hose and wait with your favorite utensil… baseball bat, 9 iron, pellet gun… dog at the ready…

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NEVER! Grubs are bull sunfish and bullhead candy!

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That’s what I have neighbors with moles for.

step 1: observe my avatar
step 2: watch training video
step 3: obtain explosives and duplicate strategy

jp

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step 1: observe my avatar
step 2: watch training video
step 3: obtain explosives and duplicate strategy

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That movie is still dam funny!! But, for my issue, the gopher is still dancing at the end!!

I wonder if I blast Kenny Loggins out the back window if they’ll pop up just long enough to ……

First thing I would do is go rent Caddyshack! Great movie example!

Do not poison them if you have dogs that could possibly access the carcass! My dog was lucky enough to survive the neighbors’ stupidity…..

As stated before, best bet is to trap them.

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Baitcaster, 20# line, lawn chair, cooler full of your favorite beverage. Tie a hangman’s noose in the end of the line and set it around the hole. When he pops his furry little head up for a look around, Fish On! Great fun on a slow afternoon.

Rootski

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I laughed so hard out loud!

Must be a difference between cats and dogs when it comes to poisen. I have 4 open boxes of decon in my shed and that #### cat is still walking around. Now, if poisen was mixed into food I can see where a dog would chow it down.

Dogs can/will eat the poisoned gopher. Decon or most of the poisons out there work by being a blood thinner. They begin to bleed internally into their urine stream. The contaminated carcass will pass the poison off to whatever consumes it. That is a major killer to hawks, eagles,…when people put poison out for rodents.

I ended up ordering some traps from the link from Suzuki. I’ll post back on how it goes. Too much to risk on poison. Figured the worst that could happen with a small trap is an injured dog, compared to worst with poison……

Still like the spinning lawn ornament idea however…….

Update:

Ok, I got the traps from trapline products and have caught two gophers to date. These gophers have a big buck tooth and very long front claws for digging. Their bodies have no visible marks or stripes.

Been in about 1 week.

But I still cannot catch or trap the striped gophers in my backyard. They are burrowed in next to the house and just run around the traps set for them.

Strategies for these guys?? And no, I cannot shoot at them and prefer to stay away from poisons.

ET

I’ve seen your house. Why cant you shoot? I dont know how else to get the ground squirrels.

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These gophers have a big buck tooth and very long front claws for digging. Their bodies have no visible marks or stripes.

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Those are pocket gophers.

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But I still cannot catch or trap the striped gophers in my backyard. They are burrowed in next to the house and just run around the traps set for them.

Strategies for these guys??

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What kind of traps have you set for them? Have you tried rat traps–the oversized mouse trap kind?

See Rootski’s previous post.

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Baitcaster, 20# line, lawn chair, cooler full of your favorite beverage. Tie a hangman’s noose in the end of the line and set it around the hole. When he pops his furry little head up for a look around, Fish On! Great fun on a slow afternoon.

Rootski

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However. . . This really creates more questions than answers. For example, what’s the best line for gopher ropin’?

And of course, the critical question of the preferred rod length and action. Do you go with the tip action for gophers to get that noose-setting authority? Or something softer to absorb the shock of those drag-searing runs after the hookup?

Grouse

I should just get a pellet gun, huh? Just don’t want to go through that expense. I will try the rat traps, or oversized mouse traps.

They come out of their ‘holes’ horizontally so I’m not sure how I’d get a noose to hang perpendicular to the ground.

Maybe i should take pictures to show you what I mean?

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I will try the rat traps, or oversized mouse traps.

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Look through Suzuki’s link. I would think their vole trapping method using rat traps instead of mouse traps would work well on striped gophers.

When you catch one using Rootski’s method, be sure to handle it properly. As everyone knows, this means using the Bill Dance bass-style and holding it up by the bottom lip for the camera.

Grouse

your catching moles, which is fine they make a mess as well, I wouldn’t release them. I’m sticking to the garden hose and .22. Do it really early in the morning out your window so no one sees you. You could use a pellet gun as well but not as fun or fast. I used to use one shooting rats on the university farm as a kid, sucked only having one shot.

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See Rootski’s previous post.

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Baitcaster, 20# line, lawn chair, cooler full of your favorite beverage. Tie a hangman’s noose in the end of the line and set it around the hole. When he pops his furry little head up for a look around, Fish On! Great fun on a slow afternoon.

Rootski

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However. . . This really creates more questions than answers. For example, what’s the best line for gopher ropin’?

And of course, the critical question of the preferred rod length and action. Do you go with the tip action for gophers to get that noose-setting authority? Or something softer to absorb the shock of those drag-searing runs after the hookup?

Grouse

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That’s all well and good until you set the hook (hoop?) and instead of running away from you, he charges you faster than you can reel.

If he does, you’d better hope it’s not a killer gopher with nasty, big, pointy teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide. In that case, you’d better hurry up and count to 4, I mean 3 and lob the Holy Hand Grenade.

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That’s all well and good until you set the hook (hoop?) and instead of running away from you, he charges you faster than you can reel.

If he does, you’d better hope it’s not a killer gopher with nasty, big, pointy teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide. In that case, you’d better hurry up and count to 4, I mean 3 and lob the Holy Hand Grenade.

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This is where having a reel with high retrieve ratio really pays off. . .

Grouse

For moles I used to play a pretty mean game of whack-a-mole. Its best to set aside a good part of a day for this. Start out with finding there trails in the yard and stomp them down real well. Then go off and do something else for a hour or 2. Come back and look for where he has been working again and do the same thing. Stop the trails down. Go away but come back in say a half hour or so. Find his work again and stomp them down. By this time you should have a pretty good idea of where he is working.

You will need some equipment for this next part. While waiting for him to start making trails again go find a lawn chair, cooler, beer, ice and a sledge hammer. Get this set back up back where he last made his trail and stomp them down one more time. Pull up the lawn chair, crack a beer and have the sledge hammer ready. When you see the ground start to move again its time to whack a mole.

Yes this does work and I have taken several out of the yard this way. Softest little creatures I have ever seen. Surprised they dont make fur coats out of them.

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For moles I used to play a pretty mean game of whack-a-mole. Its best to set aside a good part of a day for this. Start out with finding there trails in the yard and stomp them down real well. Then go off and do something else for a hour or 2. Come back and look for where he has been working again and do the same thing. Stop the trails down. Go away but come back in say a half hour or so. Find his work again and stomp them down. By this time you should have a pretty good idea of where he is working.

You will need some equipment for this next part. While waiting for him to start making trails again go find a lawn chair, cooler, beer, ice and a sledge hammer. Get this set back up back where he last made his trail and stomp them down one more time. Pull up the lawn chair, crack a beer and have the sledge hammer ready. When you see the ground start to move again its time to whack a mole.

Yes this does work and I have taken several out of the yard this way. Softest little creatures I have ever seen. Surprised they dont make fur coats out of them.

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How many beers does it generally take before the ground starts to move?