Do gophers carry rabies? That sounds like a gopher with a problem, Clay was probably really smart. Truckicide, I like that.

Being an animal lover, I probably shouldn't be laughing, but I am! We don't have gophers here in East Tennessee, but we do have groundhogs and moles...and the moles, have invaded my yard this year, and are driving my dogs absolutely nuts!!! Good luck Jeri! I understand the frustration!

Tammy

Ladies & Gents -- If you do not deal with the Western Pocket Gopher, you have my envy and profound congratulations.

If you DO deal with them, you have my fellow-feeling, sympathy, and commiseration.

Now, in case anyone is left to wonder, you know why our roses are planted in large pots, sunk into the ground. :-(

Jeri In Gopherland

Tammy, get a cat. Mine present me with dead moles on a regular basis, and they don't tear up the grass and flowerbeds like dogs do when they're catching them.

Jeri, I'm sure that was a satisfying crunch. I love animals, too, but I get so tired of armadillos digging up everything I plant and raccoons digging up freshly planted pots. I planted two pots of pansies yesterday, and this morning both pots were dumped out along with the alyssum seeds I had put in with them. I wish a truck had come along about that time. My husband tells me I have a mean streak.

Moles are nothing on gophers. For one thing, moles eat grubs while gophers eat plants. Moles do mess up a lawn, but they actually perform a service.

Gophers destroy plants. I wish they ate nothing but noxious weeds and poison oak. If they did, I would tolerate them with grudging respect. As it is, they seem to like best the same plants I like best. Any plant that is not planted with a protective barrier is at risk.

I did trap another one a couple of days ago. I live on the verge of a wild area, so I have a forever supply. I will be trapping them as long as I live here.

Rosefolly

You MUST try "Giant Destroyer". I don't cringe anymore when I see a fresh gopher hole in the garden. I smile, go grab one of the little explosives, ignite the end, stuff it in the hole, cover up the end, and bye bye gopher and gopher family. No fuss, no muss.

I've used 8 so far this year, and have 12 more awaiting the next hole(s).

I would not say that I enjoy the process of trapping, but I do enjoy the fact that I know exactly when I have eliminated one of those voracious plant-destroying pests. Then I simply bury them right back in the hole from which they came, composting back into the earth.

Rosefolly

FloridaRosez, I forgot to mention that these are VERY smart moles. They only dig outside the fence line (within about 1ft or so) You can see their little entry/exit holes right near the fence...like they're teasing the dogs! They've never been able to catch one, but they have a variety to choose from: skunks, rabbits, coons, deer and coyotes. They have caught rabbits inside the fence, but the rabbits always eat my vegi garden anyway, so no hard feelings there. I do have a cat, but he lives inside, but I'm sure if one ever got in the house he'd be a master vermin catcher! PS: I feel your pain in regard to armadillos...I grew up in Florida...nasty little creatures!

Jeri, I can't say that my moles eat my plants, but they have accidentally dug through where a smaller rose has been planted on more than one occasion, and caused its demise. But, I'll take a mole over a gopher any day!!! :)

We only have raccoons which till up everything small and knock over pots. Everything has to be one gallon size or larger and the big males will pull out even freshly planted one gallon plants. They are after my earthworms.

This is one of the very sad aspects of living on the edges of wild land. The interests of the gardener are in conflict with wildlife. All of our activities and hobbies that invite them in and cause us to curse them. Perhaps the ideal solution is some very large pots or a walled garden that reaches way down into the soil or one that is raised up like the hanging gardens of Babylon were. I know this isn't remotely an option for many of you and I'm sorry for the stress the animals bring. I was in Big Bear visiting and asked a local why I didn't see any garden plants poking out of the snow. She said it was because the critters would eat them all if they weren't in pots.

As damaging as they are, I can't hate them. They live here too and have no choice where they were born.

I could find it in me to love even gophers -- gardens bedanged -- but in the western states, they destabilize not only structure and gardens, but whole hillsides. And not just in wildlife-interface areas.

If they,'re burrowing under your home, they get your attention. If it's them or me, they don't get my sympathy.

Jeri

Moles are bad enough but voles use their tunnels to eat plant roots and can be very destructive. We also have raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and chipmunks. Still, I'm glad that I don't have gophers.

Cath

Gophers, and the ground squirrels we also have, eat plant roots, and also tunnel destructively.

For many years, we have planted EVERYTHING here in containers in the ground, as a defense against gophers. It's not perfect, but we at least know that they cannot eat roses right back up to the bud union -- which we have had happen.

I need to put my article on that up on the Gold Coast Heritage Roses Group website.

Jeri

Oh yes, and how could I have forgotten the deer!

Cath

Mainly we have the wild boars, and they aren't interested in roses. But I can't grow bulbs except for the poisonous narcissus. Mice love the bulbs too: they're the close to the house pest, especially fond of tulips. I do manage to keep a few hyacinths inside a small bed I lined with metal placed in a trench.
Are there no predators of all these pests? Foxes, hawks, weasels? Dogs and cats as well, of course.

A good gopher cat is worth its weight in gold. I recently lost mine, Olive, whose major delight was catching gophers. She would eat everything but the head, which she would leave, as sort of a trophy, in one of my potted plants. She was very disappointed when we moved to this place which, astoundingly, has no gophers (I don't know why -- it should).

A heartwarming story that put a smile on my face. I would have kissed the truck driver!

Coyotes, herons, hawks, and owls provide some control, but they never eat them all.

Melissa,

I have no knowledge whatsoever of the feeding habits of wild boar but there are other poisonous bulbs that rodents avoid that you might try. They are: snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis, N. elwesii, N. plicata, etc), Crocus tommasinianus, Lycoris squamagera, Eranthus hiemalis and they don't bother my bletilla either. Most crocus are goners here. I don't know why the "Tommys" are not. Hope this helps.

Cath

mmmm, bletilla - funnily enough I have been feasting my eyes on some of these little beauties which seem to flourish in both sun and shade. I would consider trying them to be worth the risk.

Melissa, you sound very calm about your wild boars! An invasion of wild boars is my greatest fear, not very realistic as they are not likely to come into a densely populated village. But they are not far away from here and can cause such damages, digging up lawns, bulbs and potatoes. I am pestered by roe deer and brown hares in winter but I can live with those critters. I noticed yesterday that some vermin had eaten all the leaves on my hellebores. I hope it had a stomach ache, hellebores are supposed to be poisonous.

We don't have voles, the worst threat to roses and fruit trees in this country. People in infested areas plant in cages. A wolf was sighted not far from here last weekend but they are so rare that nobody except sheep farmers, is afraid, more curious. I don't like our village foxes, though, only two of them, but I don't like foxes in the garden or in my granddaughter's daycare playground as they can carry diseases. One of them caught a magpie on the lawn on November 13 and I complained to the authorities who promised to catch and remove them to the forest. I included a picture I took of one of them, a beautiful animal and interesting to watch but it should stay in the wild. I know that they are common in English cities but over here half tame foxes is an entirely new phenomenon.

We don't have any native wild boars here in California (or anywhere in America, as far as I know), but we do have a problem with previously domesticated breeds of pigs that have gone feral. There are areas about twenty miles away where I am reluctant to go hiking because of they are known to live there. I'm not crazy about mountain lions either, but somehow wild pigs intimidate me more. Maybe it is because I know we have mountain lions in my immediate region and I have grown used to the idea. They are most active at dusk and dawn and I don't go into their known territory at those times of day.

A few years ago -- actually while Tom and I were visiting Melissa at her lovely hillside garden --my daughter heard the dogs barking by the fence outside. She went out to see what had them excited. She saw two little mountain lion cubs just outside the gate. Naturally she grabbed the little dog and took both dogs inside for the night before they attracted the attention of mama. Other than that, we've never seen mountain lions at our house. Bobcats and coyotes, yes, but not mountain lions.

None of these particular animals harm my garden. I just could not resist sharing this wildlife story.

Rosefolly

Back to gophers. Freya just caught one today. That makes four so far this year, three by me and one by my dog. There are at least two more currently active in my garden, and possibly three. I set another trap.

You would not believe how many mounds just one gopher can create. I could forgive the mounds if I did not have the plant damage that comes with them.

R

We plant in cages because of the moles and voles.I think we may have small gohpers, and I know we have other critters.

I notice you say everything in pots, and I need to start putting other bulbs in pots or cages. I have purchased some expensive lilies, and they never come back the next year.

Since we have a "flood control" creek that runs behind our house, we will always have visitors, and I don't want to kill or trap them. I especially fear poisons. They may begin going into the dogs' yard, but so far they just remain in my garden.

I think the point about rabies is a good one. Squirrels are supposed to carry rabies, do you think gophers do too. It is pretty odd for a gohper to just stand there when two huge dogs are approaching.

Sammy

Gophers can't see much. So, when they DO come out of their burrows in the daytime, they're sort of operating on autopilot.
I have, once, seen one that I thought looked like a very sick gopher, and we killed that one. Fortunately, it was not in our enclosed yard, where the dogs are, but my fear was that it might have been poisoned.

Lately, we have seen several dead ringneck doves. Those may have been killed by hawks, but they were also all in the same area, and there again, my fear was poison.

Like Folly, I wouldn't MIND gophers, but they not only kill plants, they destabilize the ground. I WOULD rather the dogs didn't kill them, because they make havoc of the lawn (such as it is) in the process.

Jeri

Another one bites the dust -- #5 of 2012. This one was clever and eluded me for a while. But there are still two more somewhere in the garden, and dozens in the hillside field just outside the fence waiting to emigrate to Gardenland.

Gophers....

We spent months setting traps last year trying to get our one gopher. Dad had put a poured concrete walk from the side of the house, around back and on down to the gate for the lower garden (fruit trees-veggies-chickens)

This beast had tunneled over from the neighbors brick pile to the safety of the walkway. Plants would up and die and by the size of the hole, we knew who did it. Mom finally got it, it was almost too fat to fit in the trap!

We put in a row of society garlic this year to try and keep any relatives on the other side of the fence. No sooner than I put in the new roses and guess what we saw....

The beast had dug its hole up to the new row of garlic, walked through it and made a new hole on our side of the fence!

The ground had all been turned and composted horse manure added, so this time it left a mound everywhere is it going. And, it even made it down to the main garden!

I have more gopher peanuts, gopher traps etc out there. We were painting a section of picket fence and what goes wandering practically over our feet....the mini Beast! I was not fast enough grabbing a shovel and giving chase. Half an hour later....guess who came wandering back by to its hole on the other side of the fence! Arrrgggg

I would smoke them out, but the mounds are so close to the surface, I think the only ones smoked out would be us.

There's an area up by the street where neighborhood cats have been hanging out. Yesterday, when we walked the dogs to the mailbox, Tika stuck her nose in there, and squeaked, and jumped back.

Darned if there wasn't a young gopher there. Above ground. Clay grabbed a shovel, and Mr. Gopher is no more.

One down. Thousands to go.

Jeri

Jeri,
You make me feel better. Voles have been tormenting me for two years. I have bait stations all over the yard, and no, no cats or dogs have been killed by it.

They eat the roots of plants and they especially love the fragrant roses. My third lemon spice will be planted in a cage. They got the first two. they got Pink Garnette. They almost killed Ballerina, but I found them in time and put in a bait station. The neighbors big dog killed a lot of them last fall...it dug only their tunnels and destroyed not a single plant. It is an unending battle.

Your tale of "The death of a gopher" is a heartwarming tale.
kay

Just got #6 for 2012. There is at least one and may be as many as three more out there. And when I get them, more will move in from the hillside beyond.

But I will not give up the good fight.

Rosefolly