Penny:

Unfortunately, good research shows it doesn't work.

What used to work, however, was a concentrate of the castor bean oil (placed directly into the holes). I say "used to" because the product has been taken off the market -- it's a potential "chemical warfare" material.

Joe

Joe: You are kidding...... aren't you?!

I just did a search and there is a lot of Castor bean oil for sale on the Internet. One article said it was used in WW2 to give people diarrhea and possibly die. Isn't mole med made from Castor bean oil

I decided not to plant it as it gets huge, drops alot of seeds and is poisonous.

Penny

I am not kidding that they do not work.

I am not kidding that an oil of it did work.

I am not kidding that that oil is now off the shelves. The oil is too closely related to ricinin, that stuff that terrorists were looking for a few years back.

Joe

I tried the castor oil, and it didn't work, anyway. I'd give just about anything to have moles instead of gophers.

Brenda

I've got both and gophers just killed a very large nandina. Found the hole and used my favorite grain down the hole.

Penny

I've got a gopher also. So far a new pincushion and verbena. And as chewed on other pinchusions.
He might be dead after this morning.

My nursery told me to use the castor oil spray for moles. It gets in their fur and they don't like that and will leave.

Whatever you do, don't plant castor bean seeds in So. Cal.

Many years ago, someone threw their cuttings down in the canyon behind our house, and I have been picking out seedlings ever since. They grow into very large trees, and all of the seeds seem to thrive whenever they hit the ground.

For my money, they should be outlawed in So. Cal.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Hey Penny- what do you mean when you say "favorite" grain? I am about to plant a fig orchard and gophers LOVE figs. I was told to be ruthless but I also have huge populations of predators and raptors so I cannot "poison" the lil' buggers without posing problems for others up the food chain. I was told to use Macabee (?) traps. Anyone have any luck using them?
Thanks and take care,
Christy

My hands shake when I try to set Macabee traps so I bought a tool which has a seed container on it. It is hallow and you put it into their hole and turn a small handle. The Gopher grain falls out. When the gopher's take it back to their home they eat it and death follows. Seems to work well for me.
I have lots of birds around and they don't get tempted and the raptors can't eat what's underground. The product is called Gopher Gitter. I got it and the tool at OSH.

Penny

I have discovered that gophers don't like Coyote Poo. I got a bright idea one day, (I occasionally do, you know,) gathered up all the poo from the coyotes marking the driveway, and put some around each clump of Irises that were being eaten by the gophers.

The Irises are recovering nicely, and the driveway looks cleaner.

The castor bean plants definitely don't work. I have several growing next to a new gopher hole. And they're not even attractive plants....

I have pain-in-the-neck voles too and I'm afraid any poisoned grain would somehow work its way to the surface... plus my cats get a certain percentage of the voles. I wish I were braver about poison but... call me chicken..... and wish me luck with the gopher-patrol! ;O)
Thanks for all your input and take care,
Christy

I bought some Cinch Gopher Traps online in January. Forty-one of those obnoxious critters have bitten the dust since then. They're a little tough to set for those of us with weak hands, but they're much easier to release than Macabees were for me. My husband sets them, and I place them. And I'm releasing a lot more deceased gophers than I ever did with the Macabees.

Another gopher/vole remedy is to put a dead one back down in the hole. The stench will drive the others out.

I also use 1/4 inch hardware cloth nailed to the bottom of my vegetable planter boxes. That solved the tunneling from underneath. On the top of the boxes, there are fitted PVC cages with chickenwire attached - that takes care of the above-ground critters and birds.

Funny I have to cage my veggies and let the animals run loose - crazy world.

Bejay

2 years ago the gophers took over our backyard and we tried everything everyone told us including the BB gun,all to no avail.Then dh heard someone on the radio say to go to the Mexican market,get the hottest peppers they sell,and drop them down the holes(wear gloves to do this).He did it and the gophers left.Thank goodness,as we were going crazy trying to stay ahead of them.Before dh heard that he had gone out and bought lots of pots from great big ones to small ones and dug up all our lilies,iris's etc and planted them in pots.

So far this year we havn't seen any ,thank God.
Kathi