I can't tell from the photo, but wanted to say I've never seen a pocket gopher in my yard, but do have lots of voles and they seem to be real active right now. If I could see the ears in the pic, I could tell better. Voles have ears bigger than a pocket gopher's, but smaller than a mouse's. They appear to me to be bigger than a mouse - about the size of a good sized hamster and have rather pretty brown fur.

I'm seeing an amazing amount of dead voles in my yard right now, so there must be a lot of live ones too. I could take a pic but it would be rather gruesome.

My vole control is large, orange and cuddly. He's quite effective, but I realize he's not a choice for everyone.

Good grief! The thing in the other thread sure isn't a vole! Voles have feet that look like mice feet.

The only time I've heard a vole make a noise was when Donovan was fighting one. Voles fight back rather aggressively.

Azura, I don't like rodents . . . remember George Orwell's 1984 - the rats. For Winston and for me, they are unendurable. I can tolerate the neighborhood squirrels in the daylight and as long as they don't come at me . . . .

Here are some of my experiences with gophers: The seldom show up above ground. Until this year, the last time I grew a little patch of spuds - the gophers got 'em all. Every one - - I even showed up while they were eating the spuds and the plants were shaking. I plunged a huge rock right into the middle of the bed, they just came back after I'd left and finished the feast.

I was walking across a neighbor's tilled garden once and noticed an area with lots of gopher activity (mounds). Upon returning, one of the mounds had shown up right in my footprint. The trusty long-handled cultivator popped said gopher right out on the surface. Soft tread (yeah, right ;o) and quick tine work can eliminate the little b....s. And, I think, they are another rodent, like ground squirrels, that you can torment enuf to make them move.

I once made use of a long, thin, metal rod and a large hammer. After about 10 minutes, the ground was "riddled" throughout a couple of square yards to a depth of about 18 - 20 inches. It seemed to work. I know a farmer who claims to have been very effective trapping gophers. I think he bought lots of traps.

Voles, I've hit with cultivator, lawn mower and even stepped on accidentally. I've actually seen one climb up out of a pool of water I was flooding. I was so startled that he was able to shake the water out of each ear, towel himself off, and scurry away under the fence without me clubbing him.

digitS'

A few years ago, I spent something ridiculous like $45 on a long-handled irrigation spade, sort of that perfect balance between length, strength, and shovel part. I start digging, and out pops a vole, so I start chasing and whacking at it, and on whack #3, split the handle.

Duct tape.

Here are vole pictures taken off the internet....

Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of a vole

Yes, I'm reasonably sure that I have both voles and pocket gophers although the main infestation for me is pocket gopher(s). I ran the hose into their newest hole for 45 minutes the other day. I wish my voles/pocket gophers/little furry demons popped out so I could show them some long-handled love. Ahh, what am I saying? I can't kill the buggers, I just participate in the rodent relocation program.

Ever heard of the black hole gopher trap? I do not have gophers anymore......he he he.....GONE! IT uses NO bait and if it doesn't work in 15 minutes, move it....

I loaned mine to a friend who has horses. A horse can break a leg in a gopher hole......he got rid of his problem also. :0) :0)

Here is a link that might be useful: Black hole gopher trap

Nicole, that sure looks like it would work!

I assumed that my farmer friend with the gopher traps in his hay fields was using the standard spring trap. I've tried to use those in a friend's garden and was just about clueless in how to place the trap without loose soil interfering. I left it to her and she caught one and then was entirely unsuccessful. The black hole trap might have solved her loose soil problem.

Here was a vole issue that was irritating in the EXTREME for me this past year:

There are lots of cherry trees near my big veggie garden. The robins carry the fruit down to the fence posts and eat them. The cherry seeds are dropped on the ground near the aluminum irrigation pipes.

Since the main irrigation line is used for the garden and 2 small hay fields on either side - the 4" pipes need to be disconnected and reconnected twice a week. We began having problems with cherry seeds in the pipes.

Attach the pipes and turn the valve on - a sprinkler head plugs with a cherry pit. Turn water off, take the nozzle off the sprinkler, push the seed out with a wire, reattach the nozzle, turn the water back on, repeat . . . .

Dear Wife and I working at distant valve and with a wrench at the sprinklers spent as long as 45 minutes clearing the cherry pits from the sprinklers. And, did that day after day!

At first, I had no idea how the cherry pits were getting into the pipes. Then I realized that a hole had been chewed into nearly every one and the interior of the seed had been eaten. The voles were carrying the seeds into the irrigation pipes!!

Probably, that black hole trap wouldn't work well for voles because they are too small for the wire snare. But, voles really like pipes!! A baited mouse trap in a piece of 4" black plastic pipe should work!

digitS'

And, I'm rethinking rabbit control.

In the sad story about Charlene losing her kitty to the coyotes back in September of 'o6, read down to my post on the 19th.

d'S'

Here is a link that might be useful: Coyotes got my kitty :(

So...
Digit (or anyone else), please tell me I did the right thing... I killed a pocket gopher with my shovel today. I feel absolutely terrible, I cant believe I killed something. After five years of him pruning and eating everything just as in came into bloom, I just couldnt take it anymore. I had just turned off the hose after flooding the gopher's latest hole and as I walked back to the garden he popped his head out, moved some dirt out and started sunning himself right there on top of my hose.
I feel terrible but I believe that I would do it again which makes me feel even worse.
BTW, the hubby lost a bet and I'll be getting a new kitten in a few weeks. Hopefully he/she will be like Cnetter's cat. Fluffy, cuddly and deadly.

As long as you didn't break the shovel handle.

You did the right thing! You did the right thing! You did the right thing!

I donÂt know if anyone else around here would disagree or not, but as far as IÂm concerned, you absolutely did the right thing. I was actually really amazed by the tolerance you were showing last year! But just stop to think for a minute! You wouldnÂt allow mice or other rodents to take over your house and destroy it, so why should you allow them to take over your yard and ruin and destroy your garden? Kudos for being able to do it! IÂd have trouble with that tooÂbut ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

I recommend leveling out any obvious tunnels, and filling in any burrow openingsÂand wait to see if more appear. I wouldnÂt be surprised if another/more show up. If youÂve decided to actively fight them, and if more burrows do appear, have you thought about maybe dicing a potato, mixing it up well with some D-con, putting it as deeply as you can into one of the openings, and then completely blocking the opening to be sure no domesticated animals or birds, etc. can get to the D-con? I think that might be a little bit easier on the psyche than bashing them in the head with a shovel! ;-)

I have a friend out in the foothills whoÂs been fighting them for years, and this year she followed one of the burrows forÂI donÂt remember exactly how far, but it was like 20 feet, and then dug four feet down to the den and killed everything she found. A few days later new burrows were appearing, and sheÂs going to try the poisoning method. TheyÂve been destroying everything out thereÂperennials, veggies, and even bushes. What a nightmare! Maybe there are some advantages to living in a very run-of-the-mill, residential subdivisionÂwhere almost all the neighbors have dogs and/or cats!

I hope your kitty solution helps. If nothing else, itÂll give you some furry moral support!

Skybird

How would you even partially understand your cat without this experience, Azura? And, what might your new kitty think of you if she knew of your capabilities?

Way down deep, we're all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them. ~ Jim Davis

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life, music and cats. ~ Albert Schweitzer

I think you should listen to some music until your kitty comes.

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: Cat Quotes through Time

Thank you Skybird, David and Digit for your comfort, humor and logic. You made me feel a lot better :)

I think you did the right thing.

I just wanted to offer my moral support!!

When I was in Santa Cruz, I had to resort to the poison that goes into the holes, some kind of smoke stick. It worked! I felt awful but my plants were no longer being ripped out from under my nose.

I feel weird about using poison here with Boulder creek right behind our house and the yard sloping downwards towards the creek. Now that a vole rudely removed my little poppy, I may have to think of something else.

I wonder if it dug it up out of spite? Our vole-hunter took out two vole babies yesterday.

Funny how when it is someone else's vole problem I'm so quick to suggest using a mesh cage under the plant. I don't think I'd bother!

The dog is still outside!

Jennifer

I let my dogs out for one last late night potty stop, and they didn't come when I called them (rare at night, since they usually come in expecting another treat - sometimes they go out just to get the treat when they come in...), so I left them for a few minutes. When they didn't come beating on the door, I went to check to make sure they hadn't escaped the fence or something. My young one was on the deck, but my older one was out in the yard, and wouldn't come when called. Soooo, at 1:30 in the morning, I go trekking toward her with the flashlight, and after about 15 minutes of trying to get her to drop the dead thing in her mouth (apparently treats are more appealing than dead rodent creatures...)I'm left with something...

I have never seen a live vole. When we were in AK, I think I saw a few dead ones (cats or dogs...)since I could only find info on 2 critters that may have been in my yard, and I had already figured out what the tiny shrews were (the critters liked to play with them, usually they made it out alive)I assumed the others were voles.

This thing I think was longer and not as fat looking as the things in AK, but was brown, probably 4" long or so, had little out-turned feet like moles have and a little (1" or so) bald looking tail (like a really short rat tail). Didn't have a long nose like moles or shrews. Probably slightly squished, and very much covered in dog slobber. Would this be a vole? I don't know what all lives around here (outside COS) other than rabbits.
She must have caught it off-guard, or they are slow, since this is a 6 year old Lab/hound/shepherd mix with bad hips, some pain in her leg from a break when she was a puppy, and she has Addison's disease to boot. It's possible that the young one caught it, and she stole it, but he has no history of catching critters. She does, it's just been a while...

Of course, the DH is asleep, so once again, I have dead critter duty.

Voles are really what most people would call a mouse - field mouse.

I think your dogs caught a young pocket gopher, GB.

A google image search should be informative.

digitS'

digit,
I do believe you are right, they caught a pocket gopher. I had never even heard of them before this forum.

I don't think the pictures of voles look like what I would call a field mouse, but that's likely a regional thing. Vermont (where I am actually from) field mice may not look like what are called field mice other places.
It took me a long time to figure out that what my husband called a marmot looks like what I call a woodchuck, and people in Montana call a rockchuck...

Then there was the guy who told us that the prairie dog looking gophers in MT were called Ebees (sp?). Nobody else I ever talked to had heard them called that...

Thanks!

Marmots here . . . Hoary Marmots (Marmota caligata)!!

Extra-terrestrial Biological Entities (EBE's) have been found in numerous locations . . .

d'S'

Don't know if my explanation would help or not. Was in Colorado last week. A vole is a meadow mice and leaves trails and small holes in the grass. You can trap them in the same traps as you would a house mouse. A pocket gopher is 2-3 time larger and has cheeks that expand and they carry stuff in their mouths so they are called pocket gohers. Pocket Gophers leave mounds of dirt with no entrance hole and have underground tunnels. You probe with a piece of rebar or such and find the tunnel and then put a pocket gopher trap going both directions and fasten them to a stick and then put a piece of plywood over the hole and check it daily. When caught then you move your traps on to the next hole. Here Quality Supply carries the regular traps and there is a box type trap but usually they have to be ordered. They are terrible in horse pastures. We used to give classes out in the field once a year on how to control them. Large farms have a machine that makes tunnels and drops bait in the tunnels.

My pocket gopher population nose dived this winter. I thought they were wiped out with the 2" of rain followed by 3' of snow for 2 months, but no, there is still an active one on the dam. But one out of about 50 I had last year is pretty good.