PEST MANAGEMENT: Here's How I Deal With Gophers On Our Farm

We're continuing our Pest Management series with a video about gophers. They can be pretty pesky, and we've dealt with our fair share of them over the years. We're going to talk about what you can do, including trap options like the Macabee.

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0:30 Intro
2:32 Options

If you've ever walked out into the garden only to see a plant missing or find a mound of dirt, you know the pain of dealing with gophers. I've even watched plants get pulled down into holes! Unlike birds or insects, gophers come with their own set of issues since they can hide underground.

Let's get started here in my lettuce patch. Although it's May, I've kept this area going for seed production. After months and months of growing & waiting, I've had a few plants turned into soil mounds. These are the first plants that I've grown here, so the plant life and pliable dirt have attracted some "friends" into the area. Gophers aren't all bad, though. They act as natural tillers, and they also aerate the soil. For that reason, we like to have some gophers in our area.

We accept and even welcome that some of our abundance of produce will support the local ecosystem. We love to see happy insects, birds, and other critters enjoy our work. Sometimes, though, it's a hair too much especially since this is our business. So when push comes to shove, we'll need to incorporate some management control.

If you garden in raised beds, you're in good shape to deal with gophers. Before filling your bed, simply lay down some wire to keep them out.

We do almost everything in-ground, though. We use a spring-loaded trap called the Macabee Old Reliable, and it lives up to its name. It's been around since 1900 by farmers, landscapers, etc. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to catch and release gophers so this system does kill them. It's something we take very seriously and do not choose to do lightly. That said, this system does take some work, but it's far superior to using poison. We don't want to needlessly introduce those chemicals into our ecosystem and the food-producing area.

Once you have loaded the trap, you carefully place it inside the tunnel. Just finding the tunnel, though, can be a little tricky. Start out at the mound, and you might even see gophers early in the morning or in the evening. From there, probe the area to find the void before you dig down to the tunnel.

You usually only need to go several inches down. Stick your hand down in there to ensure it keeps going and isn't a dead-end. Then you just load your trap and stick it in! This does not need any bait to work, but you want to do a few things as you set it. First, set it in the direction that the gopher will approach from. Second, tie off your trap. Third, I lay some soil back in the hole.

After a day or so, I check back on the trap. If nothing has happened in that timeframe, you'll probably want to move to another tunnel.

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