How to Control the Pocket Gopher

While you are busy fighting the aerial assault of bugs in the garden every year, the gophers have plenty of troops in the ground ready to pull your little seedlings into their tunnels and gnaw on your potatoes, peanuts, root crops, flower bulbs and tree roots. Even worse, they chew through irrigation lines, create enormous erosion problems and bog down farm machinery with their labyrinth of tunnels and holes in areas with soft deep sand. Spring and fall is when they are most active so you may be noticing them around the garden this time of year and that's when its time to control them.

Understanding the Pocket Gopher is the first step to control. Unless raising their young, there is only one gopher in each tunnel system. They dig a main tunnel and then several shorter lateral tunnels. A single gopher may have a tunnel system 800 feet long. They use the tunnels as homes, storehouses, and a way to search for food. The gopher uses its forefeet and chest to push dirt dug from the lateral tunnels onto the surface where you can easily spot the characteristic dirt mound. They are larger than you think, and I have seen them as big as 13 inches in length. They are light brown, weigh up to a pound and have sharp yellow incisors. They store their food in a "pocket" in the side of their mouths. And because they are always underground, they live 1- 2 years, which is longer than most rodents. They are very sensitive to sound and smell and despise having their tunnel system disturbed.

One method of eradication is depositing cyanide laced peanuts into the tunnels using a probe. However, this method can affect wildlife and domestic animals through secondary poisoning. In most gardens, trapping is the preferred method. Gopher traps are available at most feed stores or garden centers. Success depends on the proper use of traps. The first step is locating the main runway, which will be 6-8 inches from the mound on the side of where the horseshoe shaped depression is found. You can use a piece of thin pipe, stiff wire or a broom handle to probe into the soft soil. When you find the tunnel, the probe will suddenly sink into the ground 6-8 inches. Dig down into the main tunnel with a shovel so you can place the traps. Wear gloves to keep your smell off of the traps. You may need to use a big spoon or garden tool to dig the tunnels out a little more. It is a good idea to tie a wire to the trap beforehand and anchor it to something on the surface so the gopher cannot pull the trap too far into the hole. Place two traps, one on each side of the hole or tunnels as far into the tunnels as you can reach without tripping the traps. Leave the hole open, and cover with a bucket. The gopher will try to plug the disturbed tunnels and that is when they will be caught in the trap. Be sure to place the jaws of the trap in the right direction. If possible, try to collapse tunnels left over after your eradication efforts because gophers can be lazy and new ones will move into the old tunnels as soon as they become available.