Gopher extermination methods
 

Any favorites? Having a major outbreak. Shooting them is too time consuming. I don't want to use poison. The buzzing spikes are useless. Needless to say I have done a lot of online research. The lawnmower exhaust method seems promising and costs nothing. I may try it tomorrow.

Caddy Shack ??

In our last home that was me. I had a flashlight duct taped onto a shotgun. Neighbors are too close for a shotgun now. I tried the 22 with shotshells but they are not powerful enough unless it is line of sight(won't work through the moving pile) A 20gau shotgun is the sweet spot but not sure if I want to buy a single purpose gun. Wow-I feel the Bill Murray in me coming out. Some Ag states have bounties on gophers.

If shooting them is legal, what do you care about who cares about the noise?

I think discharging firearms in the city limits might be a no-no. My neighbors are several hundred yards away but a shotgun would raise a few eyebrows.

Even pellet guns make a noise. A Benjamin has a good rep. I think 7 to 10 pumps, and its almost as effective as a .22.

I did a quick search, the site was vague on details, no need to get way into search. My understanding is that a gas spring (won't fatigue like a steel spring), barrel cocked pellet rifle is seriously powerful - over 1200 fps is common I gather. Never owned one - someday. You can leave the gun cocked all day without loss of power. I think only one pump is needed but what do I know ...

I have no problem with using a 22 and shot shells. I don't know how much time I want to spend in a lawn chair with a flashlight.

That depends on the make of air rifle. They are making air rifles for hunting deer size game. Lewis and Clark had an air rifle on their expedition. Also, in the Napoleonic wars in Austria, if a person was caught with an air rifle, the were hung on the spot. I saw on of those at a gun show. It was a bit larger than a Kentucky rifle. Though yes, some of the air rifles have over 1200 fps. No expert here either. Also, the cost of some air rifles can be $$$.

Edit: I'd say these guys know what they are doing:
http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6511043/m/5411009152

I always had very good luck with macabee traps:

waiting, , , ,

Attachment 162538

got 'um!

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When I was I kid I was fooling with a Trap like that and managed to get it to bite my finger.

This only works in the City. My first Cat was a stray but had been a pet and would not kill Gropers or Mice.

I had 4 strays born under my House. My Wife insisted on me feeding them which I only did one time a day. At the time I wanted them to go away so I wanted them to be hungry enough that they ate their natural food. Also only one of those Cats would come inside and it stayed mostly out side.

The result was Gophers disappeared from my House and several houses down in each direction.
Since that time 2 of the Cats died but since I feed my Cats mostly outside the food and the fact that the my surviving Cats are Females (both fixed) has male strays hanging around. So when Gophers show up they don't last out more then a week.

If you live in the City and nothing eats the Stray Cats just put a bowel of food out and see if you can get some stray Cats to hang out. Bring the food in at night.

extra vote for the Macabee traps. Also the Gopherhawk appears to be quite good.

Videos by ' Shawn Woods ' are pretty impressive. He collects old and new traps & shows videos of how effective they are in dealing with rodents.

Very impressive. Those aren't deer but they aren't mosquitoes either. And at 80 to 100 yards as well.

I had a couple of Walther CO2 cartridge powerd pellet pistols. I once dealt with a medium size rat with his leg caught in a rat trap, it was very much still alive and struggling. Couldn't get away, the trap itself had gotten caught in something is it pulled it along - I had the pistols nearby, I thought I'd make short work of it. Wrong. Did not begin to kill it. I crushed its skull with a short 2 x 4 instead. I think the muzzle velocity on those was maybe 4 or 5 hundred FPS.

Not sure if they describe the rifle in any detail. I don't have time to get into it now.

One of my Cats eating Gopher. A rare pic as this that normally happens in the dark and normally all you find is the remains in the morning.

I have a pic somewhere of the same Cat throwing a dead Rat around. Up until I saw that I did not know the area had Rats.

There is also non-venomous snakes called Gopher Snakes that eat Gophers.

I have them, as chipmunks, groundhogs, S, rats, mice, opossums, skunks, deer, love them all and feed them all, plus Crows too

I second these. If you're not going to shoot them I think this is the only way to go. We had a problem with them some years ago. I tried multiple methods. Including the smoke bomb down the hole method. What a joke. Actually saw one of them throw the damn thing out of the hold when it was done smoking. Like in a cartoon. Just poked his head out of the hole with the burn out ember between his paws. Looked me straight in the eye, threw the thing out and went back down the hole. Flooding didn't work. In the end those steel traps did the trick.

- Peter.

I used to use poisoned Maize, some people call it Milo. At the feed store it’s called Gopher Bait.” I kept a a tee rod in the pickup along with some of the bait. When I saw signs I would push a hole with the rod and pour in about less than a tea cup full. It’s amazing that they find it but they do. Over time I virtually eradicated them from the pastures and meadow.

A friend of mine gave me some poisoned wheat that the County Health Department gave him for Rats. That worked to kill Gophers before I had the Cats.
I also used to by some stuff called Gopher Mix from Home Depot. It is mostly grain but had some pieces of dried Apple in it.

Another thing I found out is that if you find a Gopher hole and it is small it means the Gopher is a young one. I found they do not tunnel as deeply as the larger older ones do. Because the tunnels are not as deep that the old method of sticking a hose into the hole and filling the tunnels with water would bring them to the surface where I grabbed them with a barbecue tongs and put them in a plastic bucket and relocated them to an abandoned field far away.
Sadly I found out that if you put two Gopher in a bucket they fight. One Gopher broke the others rear ankle in the fight before I got them to the abandoned lot.

This is my favorite method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q5XjW3AozQ

You never saw Caddy Shack?

Enlighten me.

duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=gopher+from+caddy+shack gopher might have won that :)

In fact no, I never saw it. I did see clips of Bill Murray trying to flood gophers out of their lair. I don’t guess you’re going to tell me that he ended up swallowing gophers whole.

Something happened to your post. Your link is not a link.

It was pointing you to an image search. Murry tried but IIRC the gopher always won :)

It is a funny show. Good for ya if you have the time.,

I tell ya, that show gets no respect.

So the battle has started once again. After a few year lapse they are back with an intensity I have not seen before. The sonic spikes have no effect. I guess it's the Mossberg or traps at this point.

Finally a solution that really works. The guy I'm using for some landscaping said he would trap my gopher. I was skeptical until he trapped several over a few months. He used the Gopher Hawk.
He uses 4 and just shoves them down a mound. One of them will trap it eventually. I'm going to get some and go to work.