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Gardening Blog - thebroadroom.net: Pocket Gophers: saga continues
Pocket Gophers: saga continues
posted by Colleen Shirazi,
Friday, June 17, 2005
at 1:28 PM (Pacific)
Well. I feel very good today.
We caught two pocket gophers, aka "rats." I caught one, using the same Black Hole trap I used successfully probably a couple of years ago. And the cat caught the other one.
Here's my method: you're looking for, not a fresh hole, but a hole the pocket gopher is still digging. i.e. you can actually see the gopher popping in and out of the hole.
You get your work gloves on (you can "clean" them by rubbing them in the dirt) and get your Black Hole trap set. If need be, you can enlarge the hole slightly using a trowel. Set the Black Hole trap outside the hole, making sure there's no gap between the trap and the hole.
That's it. Don't check the trap until you see it sprung.
I did this yesterday and was pleasantly rewarded this morning with a sprung trap with a gopher inside it.
I cleaned out the gopher, hosed out the trap, and set it again--the same area, because there was another visible gopher digging there.
Now the cat. We don't have pet cats exactly, but our yard, being a gopher magnet, is also a cat magnet. I've seen at least three collarless cats in our yard, and they are good. I saw a dead field mouse earlier this season and I have seen dead rodents before.
This guy parked himself near my trap and I thought he was just sitting there, until he sprang forward and pulled the gopher (presumably the same one I was trapping) out of a different hole, and ate it.
So. That rules out ever poisoning the gophers. Not only does it not work, you stand a chance of poisoning your best allies--the cats.
Pockets gophers do have a natural enemy (besides me), apparently. Cats are good.
And, the Black Hole has worked for me twice now. I didn't do much trapping last year; I just got depressed. Now I think it's well to go ahead and have it always set somewhere.Labels: pocket gophers
 
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