We've had a huge gopher problem, then learnt how to trap -- 100% success rate with trapping and the count of 90 gophers caught over 1,5 year. It's quite easy to keep them under control this way... Do let me know if you want more details... Tanya

From what I've read about castor beans and gophers, I will make two comments:

1. It seems to me that it's very important to use a specific form of this kind of product. Castor oil, itself, isn't effective.

2. Most (all?) of the effective concentrates have been taken off the market due to their inclusion of ricin, the bio-warfare agent.

I can offer this, though:

MANAGING GOPHERS

1. Take advantage of natural predators

Gophers are the main course for several kinds of other animals, particularly owls. Since the gopher regularly comes above ground to gather food, nocturnal predators such as owls are able to pick them off and owls are even known to feed primarily on gophers, sometimes several each night.

To encourage owls, build an owl house: Sink a 4 x 4 inch pole four feet into the ground and build a nesting box, to be attached at the top of the pole (to extend to 12 feet above ground level. The nesting box should be 16-24 inches on each side, with landing dowels, an entry hole 6 inches in diameter in front, several 5/8 inch drainage holes at the bottom together with a clean out panel, and four 3/4 inch air holes on the side.

If placed in the sun, as opposed to under a tree, a slanted roof should be provided on the top of the box, extending several inches over the front and back to give the owls shade. Care should be taken not to place the nesting box in an area of intense vehicle or foot traffic since owls will not visit such noisy sites. Although barn owls reside wherever people do, they need peace and quiet during daylight hours, which is their nap time.

For more detailed instructions on how to build an owl nesting box:
http://www.rain.org/%7Esals/barnowl.html

2. Use "gopher resistant" plants
As yet, there are no good studies on the non-preference of one plant over another but there is plenty of informal input on the subject. The plants listed in the table below are "gopher-resistant" according to many home gardeners. That is, if other food is abundant, gophers will leave these plants alone. This does not mean that gophers never eat these plants -- only that gophers prefer other food if it's available.

Common name Botanical name

Japanese Maple Acer palmatum
Naked Ladies Amaryllis
Strawberry Tree Arbutus
Fibrous Begonia Begonia
Butterfly bush Buddleja
Bottlebrush Callistemon
California Lilac Ceanothus
Lemon Citrus limonia
Fortnight lily Dietes
Foxglove Digitalis
Escallonia Escallonia
Eucalyptus Eucalyptus
Euonymus Euonymus
Ash Fraxinus
Grevillea Grevillea
Toyon, Calif. Holly Heteromeles
Coral bells Heuchera
Hydrangea Hydrangea
Lantana Lantana
Lavender Lavandula
Banana Shrub Michelia
Mulberry Morus
Heavenly Bamboo Nandina
Daffodil Narcissus
Catnip, Catmints Nepeta
Nierembergia Nierembergia
Oleander Oleander
Penstemon Penstemon
Avocado Persea americana
Apricot Prunus armeniaca
Pomegranate Punica granatum
Indian Hawthorn Rhaphiolepis
Rosemary Rosmarinus
Salvia Salvia
Periwinkle Vinca major

3. Use a "repellent" plant.

Of the many plants that have been recommended as gopher repellents, only one has actually shown some repulsive qualities: Melilotus indica, a somewhat weedy-looking legume that should be sown on the periphery of the property. It is somewhat toxic, so keep it away from pets, farm animals, and horses. Its available from S&S Seeds, Albright Seed Company and Peaceful Valley Farms.

4. Exclude them
For small areas it is possible to keep gophers out by putting in some sort of physical barrier, such wire fencing or hardware cloth of small mesh, metal or concrete barriers, etc.

If you want to install a barrier of this kind it should go at least two feet deep in the soil and be at least one foot above ground, so that gophers cannot climb over it. The underground fence should be of 1/4- or 1/2-inch wire mesh. They can be formed as "cages" for planting individual plants from containers or to surround the areas below entire raised beds.

Already-made "gopher cages" are convenient and useful for individual plants.

3. Trap them

Trapping is very effective in controlling pocket gophers on small areas. Commercially available gopher traps include the Macabee® (my favorite), the Victor® Gopher Getter, the Death Klutch®-1, and the box-type trap (e.g. Black Hole®). Instructions are usually provided by the manufacturer.

Trapping can be the most time-consuming and difficult way to control gophers but itÂs the closest thing to guaranteed gopher control in a home garden.

The benefit to trapping is that you definitely know youÂve got the gopher.

The trap must be placed in the gopher burrow.

In order to be effective you are going to have to do some digging, and obviously if the gophers are in your lawn this cure could be worse than the critter in its effect on the appearance of the lawn. You need to dig down  carefully so as to not allow the tunnel to collapse -- until you expose a main tunnel, and place the trap delicately in the runway. Better results are with two traps, one facing each direction of the gopher run to intercept the gopher from whichever way he comes.

The best success is had when tunnels are left slightly open -- lodging a loose wad of weeds or sod into the opening allowing a slight window. The gopher, which absolutely abhors changes in its burrow, detects the light and comes back to fill the new window.

Some trappers close off the tunnel completely with a board or sod.

Traps should be attached to a stake with a wire or chain. Generally, 3 or 4 traps per 1,000 square feet are needed for trapping to be reasonably efficient.

You may have to experiment with trap type and placement.

Trapping is most effective when gophers are pushing up new mounds, generally in spring and fall. If a trap is not visited within two days, move it to a new location.

In spring and early summer when gophers are mating or when young may be present, it is a good idea to reset traps in the same location after the first gopher is caught.

When you do catch some gophers with the traps, do not handle them with your bare hands. Most rodents have parasites on them such as fleas that you do not want on you. Use gloves and place the dead animal into a plastic bag for disposal.

Just because you have eliminated all the gophers from your property does not mean that new ones won't move in very quickly. They are territorial, and once some ground is rendered free and clear of the competition new gophers may take over the vacated area, even moving into the burrow system left by a departed comrade. (By the way, the notion that leaving a dead gopher in its burrow to scare off potential new squatters doesnÂt hold water because of this territorial imperative.)

Gopher control often needs to be an ongoing process.

Joe

Fortunately I have not been blessed with gophers. A local fellow gardener, a rosarian also living in the country was over run with gophers. He became very skillful cathing them using the new Clinch trap. As the gophers kept moving in from his neighbors he got their permission to catch them on their property. Now his neighbors call him when they see a mound and he catches the gopher before they get to his property. He is much in demand by garden clubs to give gophers catching classes. Al

Gophers are destructive to Cherry trees so I have to kill them year around. I have a few comments related to several of the postings. I use owl boxes and they kill many gophers while they are nesting. But owls hunt over a large area and if you are talking about a typical backyard or even something like an acre or less, I wouldn't bother with owl boxes. They won't be very effective. In fact, studies have shown, and I have witnessed this with my own experience, owls will not hunt near their nest boxes. One theory is they don't want to draw the attention of other predators to their nests. Owl boxes are more effective in larger commercial settings.

I would agree that traps are effective. Especially if you set them properly. I like the large black ones the best. I poison the gophers with Aluminum Phosphide which requires a restricted pesticide permit. I found the material highly effective and I have probably killed several hundred.

If you aren't opposed to poison baits, Cook's makes a bait with .05% strychnine which you can buy at many hardware stores. I have found those baits effective also and I use those baits where Aluminum Phosphide isn't working.

Hey guys.... I know all this and am doing most. But in the meanwhile the sneaky B@$t@r#s are devouring my expensive Irises ---- despite the ground baskets they're all planted in. These gophers have been to Marine Basic Training and climb over "barriers" with defiant ease, manage to avoid the traps, and refuse to eat the poisoned grain.

So, does any one have the recipe for the smelly drench?!

I have done the following over time -buried cat manure in the runway, used a flare and lit in in the sealed runway, run water down the runway (got 1 that way), beat them on the head with a shovel, have owl nest boxes out, tried to dig them out more than once and I have only had luck with the tool which deposits the poison in their runways.
They take it back to their nest and eat it there and the rest is history.

Penny

I thought I could do it the easy way and ask, but You-All forced me to get down on the floor and root through all the old gardening books:

Castor Oil Drench
1-2 oz Castor Oil to 1 quart water... poured over area being devoured.

The hard part was the getting back up. Now I need to go into town to find some Castor Oil. I'll report if it did any good at all.

Aluminum phosphide (a "Restricted Material" = for use by licensed professionals) produces phosphine gas, a by-product highly toxic to mammals (that includes your pets and children).

Strychnine (another "Restricted Use" product) has the words "DANGER -- POISON" on the label and also states "...hazardous to fish, birds, and other wildlife" and "NOTE TO PHYSICIANS: It may be difficult or impossible to stop the seizure activity without stopping respiration. Be prepared to maintain pulmonary ventilation mechanically. Tracheotomy maybe necessary if seizures are prolonged."

I was hoping we've moved beyond the use of this material.

Owls, by the way, do feed far from their OWN nests but 1) they take care of the gophers that your neighbors aren't taking care of; the ones that eventually will end up in your yard and 2) owls in your neighbors' owl boxes ARE visiting your property. So encourage your neighbors -- build an owl box for them.

and westelle: I want the statistics of your research.

Joe

I'll gladly share my research, Joe.

And, your warning is well sounded. Poison's scare me to death --- pun may be intended.

I ONCE bought a bottle of --- I think it was -- Lindane back in the early 80s. I read the bottle for directions and also saw the warnings. The bottle went back to the store so fast!

Warning sad story: Another time I was in the same BIG nursery. I smelled the strong, unique smell of garden poison and went to see what was going on. I couldn't believe my eyes! A teenage employee was mopping up the chemical with a string mop and wringing it out with his BARE hands. I raced to the manager; rudely interrupted his conversation with a customer; I thought the man was going to pass out at the warning. He ran to the scene, I ran to the phone --- no cells way back then. Too late. The boy died the next day.

Hard lesson learned... consequently I rarely use poisons of any kind, and then only with the greatest of care.

I've tried the castor oil drench (with and without the dish soap added), traps (yes, they were set correctly...and often), poison & moth balls (they pushed it all back up to the surface, and those who aren't in the know shouldn't be using it, period, IMO), bombs, water, cat urine, & resident owls. Did I leave anything out?

I've found that the combo water blast (every day vigilance is necessary, though) and cat urine dug down into repetitive mounding areas is the only thing that's worked for me. I was able to drown out 5 little suckers last month, and then I had to thump them. Not fun, but necessary. It's also not easy to use either of these methods if they're digging next to the plants (but not actually eating said plants). The water hasn't worked the last few times I've tried, though.

The owl(s) also got at least 2 gophers that I know of, but I haven't heard them in the area lately. In other words, I love them, but I just can't count on them.

For every member here, you'll get a new combo of working options. I did find a website (for a poster over on the Ponds Forum) that loudly proclaimed there is no way to EVER rid yourself of gophers. Once you have them, you're stuck with them for life (albeit, with different generations/families throughout the years, most likely).

In the meantime, it's no fun during the wet months, but any combo you can find to at least stop SOME from procreating is worth it. :)

Brenda

" I was hoping we've moved beyond the use of this material. "

You can hope but we have not. It was good you took the time to post all those warnings. These products are dangerous if used improperly but if used properly by following the label and just using common sense trouble will be avoided. I have used these products for years without problems.

Aluminum Phosphide is a restricted material that cannot be purchased over the counter but strychine baits in small quantities are not restricted and are sold over the counter at many hardware/garden stores, Cooks sells this product to the public.

You can put up owl boxes but the effectiveness to control you and your neighbor's gophers are minimal and you will end up having to try another method anyway. I have several owl boxes and even with their gopher control over my orchard, I still need to poison them.

If you are against poisons, I still think trapping is your best option. If they are evading the traps, try different traps. They are effective if used properly.

Owls, by the way, do feed far from their OWN nests but 1) they take care of the gophers that your neighbors aren't taking care of; the ones that eventually will end up in your yard and 2) owls in your neighbors' owl boxes ARE visiting your property. So encourage your neighbors -- build an owl box for them.

and westelle: I want the statistics of your research.

I dont know from experience, but Im pretty sure the poison could kill owls and other animals as well, after they eat a bad rodent. Ive seen it with cats and anticoagulants.

OK... the research has begun.... but only on the two new clumps that the gopher moved to after I removed what was left of "Summer Boy". I will have to go get a lot more if I'm going to drench all of them.

I have limited success with flushing them out with water. Sometimes it works. Last night I flooded a hole next to my tomatoes. The gopher came out and met the head of my shovel. Sometimes you will not see them come out. They can sometimes hide if there is a high spot in the soil.

Also, just because you no longer see new mounds doesn't mean they are still not there.

When you guys get absolutely fed up with gophers, there is one ultimate solution that gets them every time (click the link below).

This is a real company based out of Idaho, not a joke (it's hard to convince people of this at first).

Applenut,

those devices are commonly used out here. A friend of mine has one and offered to let me try it and I may just do it.

My friend has told me of rodents running out of holes on fire on the other end of their mounds. One person I know actually started a grass fire when they put too much propane in the hole. A large flame came out the other end and ignited some grass.

Starting field fires here in CA isn't a good thing. I think I'll pass on this idea.

And what about plant roots? Would the Rodenator option scorch, and ultimately kill, the plants I'm trying to save from the gophers?

Brenda

Tanya
Please give me details on your demise of the Gophers? Tried using some traps without success. Either we have some inteligent gophers or I'm not doing a good job setting the traps. Think it's the latter

This is the first year i have had gophers cause "damage". The Tomatoe's are history. Other than that, Just mounds of soil in the succulent and cacti garden.If they are eating the roots of those plants or trees I can't tell-yet.
Part of the environment out of wack?..gophers were just ballfield or people in the country problems-and Bill Murray's problem..but city yards?

Sorry I forgot to report on my "research". The castor oil drench did nothing... as someone predicted.

What did work was scooping up Coyote dung from the driveway and depositing it on top of the tunnel exits. It didn't stop them from making their tunnels elsewhere however.

Just a week ago I hired some laborers to dig out a bed 3' w x 8" deep x 30' long. I lined it with the smallest chicken wire, with a 6" piece sticking out of the ground for a "fence"; refilled the soil and planted all the rescued Irises. So far so good.

The research continues.

I hate gophers. Flat out.

Drives me crazy, because I really think they're cute. One year when one of them just flat-out killed my vegetable garden, I came out on a sunny afternoon to weed and looked into my carrot patch. I saw that I had only 4 carrots left standing and was about to go into a primeval dance of rage when I realized that _lying_ next to the carrot bed was this incredibly fat, glossy gopher who was so damn full he couldn't move. He was lying on his back in the sun with his bulging tummy baking away and washing his whiskers. Urrrp. His stomach looked like it would burst. He looked so happy and so sleek and sleepy, I didn't even turn on the sprinkler. I couldn't bear to disturb him. Is this conflicted?

I blessedly now live in a gopher-free environment, but spent 15 years in San Francisco on the edges of various wilderness and resevoir areas that had gophers, 'possums, 'coons, coyotes, you name it. I fought gophers day in and day out. They took out over $250 of roses, killed (get this) an acacia tree, and had one tunnel that had been used so long and so much, by so many generations of gophers that by the time I found it that it was over a foot in diameter.

No amount of soil drenches (cod liver, mothballs [you should've seen the next morning on my lawn after the little #%$@&s had flipped all the mothballs back out of their tunnels], clipped human hair, oh just fill in the blank-- none of it works) had any damned effect.

The only two things that had any effect whatsoever (besides the "black hole trap" (more on this below) were 1) Behavioral conditioning on my hunter cat (I stopped being even polite about any dead animal but a gopher, but when she brought in a gopher I made a wild-ass fuss over it, praising her, pretending to eat it, etc.) and urine purchased from http://www.predatorpee.com/. Predator Pee has coyote, lynx, etc. pee that you can smear in appropriate areas. Did ok (not as well as the redirected cat) on gophers and was hell on wheels at keeping 'coons and 'possums at bay.

Redirecting a cat: It is important to take the cat into the yard and show it the new gopher hole. Praise the cat at the hole. Dig a bit at the hole while the cat is watching. Tell it you want the gopher. Pet it. Repeat, "Get the gopher." A dead gopher will appear in your kitchen or in your shoes within the next 48 hours. Make a fuss over the dead gopher. Hold it. Pet the cat while holding the corpse. Pretend you are eating it (the gopher, not the cat). Good kitty. More gophers will appear. Reject anything that is not a gopher. The cat will become a gopher-killing machine. My cat's record was 11 in one week in an urban back yard. She was very proud of herself.

Trapping: The single best trap I ever found was a trap called the "black hole". It is a plastic tube that you bury in the gopher hole, being verrrrry careful how you situate it, so that some air filters through and there's a tiny light leak -- follow the instructions carefully. BUT the critical element is that there is never one gopher. There are a million. and if you kill one, you open up its tunnels to the next one SOOOOOO. After every kill, you must wash the bejeebers out of the trap ( I used Simple Green and rinsed like crazy afterwards) to eliminate the avoidance smells. Do not put a trap smelling like dying animal terror back into a tunnel to catch a new animal, they smell very well. Also do not put a trap smelling like a person into a tunnel. They quickly figure out that people are bad smells to avoid. Wash the trap. Wash your hands before handling the trap. I used latex gloves when handling a clean trap. Prime the trap with yummy stuff -- parsley is good, lobelia is good, carrots (young ones!!!) are good, fresh lettuce is good. Use something that they like that is growing near where you set the trap. They notice anomalies. Use the same dirt (dug with latex gloves) to set the trap as is in the area where the trap is set. Seal off any light _except_ in the area where you want the light/airflow to come _through_ the trap, to, if nothing else, prompt the little bugger to barge in and try to seal up the hole in his tunnel. If my cat couldn't catch the bugger in a couple of days, I used to put in the Black Hole trap and I had a 100% kill rate with it, though it might take 2 or 3 insertions (changing bait from parsley to whatever). Good trap, safe for the other pets (dogs/cats/etc.) because it doesn't have spikes, it has a wire noose, which even if you have a really persistent cat will only trap a paw and you will surely hear the complaints.

Wiring up a bed is a good idea -- but bear in mind that gophers a) have serious teeth and can actually sever wire and b) if a gopher climbs over a barrier it has free reign inside it and you will have to deal with that as well.

My grandaughter and I decided it was time to go after the gopher or gophers that have been digging up my yard. For over a year,I have been using some kind of gopher killer I bought at Walmart. It seemed to work for a while. Lately one or more started burrowing around in my new flower bed, kicking out the poisen that had worked before, and I decided it had to go. We armed ourselves with shovels, rebar sticks and the garden hose. We started filling the latest gopher hole. Soon we saw water bubbeling up in several places. My grandaughter kept digging to find the tunnels. After over an hour we tried to follow the burrows all over the flower bed. The gopher never came out. My yard is a muddy mess with holes everywhere. My grandaughter even managed to dig up one of my daliahs. I am hoping we drowned him, at least I hope he will decide to pack up and move. Tomorrow I will have to rake everything smooth and hope the daliah lives. If I had been watching someone else do this, I would have had a good laugh. I sure hope none of the neighbors noticed us.

I could picture it caavonldy....and I DID have a good laugh.....thanks!!!! I've lost ALL of my vegies to a gopher in the last 2 weeks. I HATE HIM!!!!!!!

Now I see that he/they are filling up the holes we dug up. I guess it was a waste of time. So far none of my plants have been eaten. I guess they live on weeds. I'm afraid that it is just a matter of time before they start eating my new plants. My hubby says not to bother killing them as he has seen loth of gopher holes out in the back forty.

tressa: now you know why I have my vegetable garden in two 8' stock tanks (gophers), and surrounded by bird netting (squirrels).

tuesdayschild: did I forget to mention the Coyote poo laid on top of the ground?

The lengths we'll go to is amazing.

Westelle: that's exactly what I will do next year. I thought I had everything under control with my fencing hardware wire and cages - then along comes the gopher problem. I also have rats, squirrels and mice so it's a constant battle. I was so elated when I was able to garden in the country - but it hasn't come to fruitiion since day one!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

tressa: been there done that. We also live in the country and are the oasis for every living creature nearby. I don't even want to add up the dollar value of the destruction we've had by hungry critters. The roof rats were the worst for eating the veggies. I've successfully grown veggies in my tanks for 8 years.... not a lot of food, but enough for the two of us. I add compost every spring after the big cleanup and that seems to work.

Note: If you do this don't forget to remove the drainage hole caps. ;^)

I have had 4 gophers already this year. They met Gopher Getter and never saw them again. Both neighbors don't do anything so they are no help. The animals can roam the entire slope behind me and that goes for miles just stay out!
Just last night I found a hole from a ground squirrel, so will be battling him now. He climbs over the chicken wire.
The raccoon comes around once in a while, but just tips over potted plants.
Coyotes run and down the street but they can't get into the back and neither can the bunnies.

Eata, when we just started out with traps, it was a disaster -- we were trying to make very small holes and cover them up with boards or plastic and then with dirt. Spent enomous amount of time and gophers would fill in the hole burying the traps! Then we started making very large holes so that we can conviniently place the traps and only covering them up with clumps of dirt -- works every time! Sometimes you'll get a "professor" and he'll by-pass the trap, but put it in a fresh mount and it'll work next time! We use the Macabee traps from the Orchard Supply Hardware -- hold very well! One of the tricks is to learn to find the tunnels -- the more you do it the easier it gets as you'll learn to see the patterns. Start by digging at the side where the plug is and you'll find the tunnel; if you see the two mounts facing each other, the tunnel will be right between then. Another thing, when setting up traps make sure to wear gloves (regular garden gloves will be fine)... Let me know if you have a problem with any specific aspect of setting traps.

Also agree with Tuesdaychild -- our cat is a hunter and caught about 30 rodents(mostly gophers) over the past year

Regards, Tanya

Hi all, I have using the Cinch traps for gohers and had some luck, but lately, I put the trap in at least 8 to 12 inches and then they block the entire tunnel without hitting the trap?? I am pretty sure this is the main tunnel as it is deep and wide, I can put my whole arm inside. Not to sure what I am doing wrong? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

I JUST RECENTLY RAN ACROSS THIS WEB SITE AND I MUST SAY I LOVE IT!! I TOO LIVE IN CA IN OF ALL PLACES AN AREA CALLED "GOPHER CANYON." I HAVE TO AGREE WITH TUESDAYS CHILD, THE CAT WORKS GREAT. BUT WHERE I LIVE NOW THE COYOTES WOULD MAKE A SNACK OUT OF ANY CATS & DOGS IF LEFT UNATTENDED. MY QUESTION IS HAS ANYONE HAD ANY LUCK WITH GARLIC? I NOTICE THAT THE GOPHERS DON'T BOTHER MY ORNAMENTAL GARLIC PLANTS AND VERY SELDOM BOTHER MY GERANIUMS. I HAVE BEEN SPRINKLING GARLIC CHIPS AND GARLIC POWDER IN THE PLANT HOLES BEFORE PLANTING. NOT SURE YET IF IT IS WORKING. ANYONE KNOW?

I have the same problem as you with having cats... coyote food.

As to garlic.... one year, as fate would have it, I ended up planting several hundred garlics all over the gardens. They all grew so well that I thought I would have garlic into my old age. One day I noticed a particularly nice specimen... leaning. Upon further inspection I found that the leaning top was all that was left of the garlic plant.... eaten from the root up. Slowly but surely every garlic plant... leaned. Now, I plant garlic in pots... just like all my other food plants. The Iris bed is 8" deep on top of hardware cloth and it sticks up out of the ground another 4". ANything not a Salvia/Sage gets planted in an underground wire cage.

PS: writing in all caps is considered to be yelling on forums... or super emphatic.

The secret to getting rid of gophers is to make your place unappealing to them. An organic farmer friend of mine suggested Gopherout. He uses it and maintains his organic certification. I tried it and it works. No more trapping or any other ineffective treatments.

www.gopherout.com

I had great success for a period of time when I was trapping the gophers, but lately haven't had time. When to a presentation on Saturday and we were told that to be successful with trapping, to put the dead gopher back in the hole and cover with dirt. I will try this and see if it helps.

I have noticed a distinct decrease in the numbers of gophers in my yard since the neighbor across the road started to "hunt" them with her .22. She works outside and keeps the gun nearby and will stand (I have seen her do this!) as still as a statue over their mound and when the brazen buggers come out she blasts them. She gets about 2 dozen of them a year and has been doing so for the past three years. It has made a great deal of difference here 'bouts.

Put a tablespoon of instant grits down the hole and let their greed do them in. Cover the burrow with a flowerpot or something to keep the birds away.

j.

jll0306, what does the grits do?

j.

j. I've heard of this method before; is there anyone that has tried it and had results?

jxa, from what I recall, they end up eating the grits and it expands in their stomach and kills them, or something like that.

I have had similar problems and tried many products but only gopherout worked.