These little demons have been making a mess of some hay fields and I was wondering if anyone has any methods for control or complete eradication? It is over in the Crockett area if that makes a difference for soil.

There are actual gopher traps that are like a body grip with three prongs that all close on the gopher when it fires. I've never seen them personally but I know they work pretty well from other trappers experiences. I don't think poison is an option due to undesired animals eating it as well. Do you see them during the day at all, maybe cruise the fields at night with a 22? Never have been asked to eradicate gophers but that's my thoughts, maybe don't shoot any coyotes for awhile hope they start eatin em?

Run a hose out of your exhuast into a fresh hole and let your vehicle idle for a while

The solution might involve a bored neighbor's kid, a 22 rifle, and a brick of ammo.

Otherwise, can you legally poison them?

Re: Txcatman1
Will have to look into the spike traps, read some positive things on them. I have yet to see them at all but have been wanting to get a game cam and starting with gophers would be interesting to see when they come top side. My mom is the one that is having trouble with them but she read poisoning can lead to hogs digging around to find the dead ones, as if their normal rooting wasn't bad enough. Still have a million coyotes as well.

Re:chearn99
Liked the idea but apparently the little rats will knock dirt down and close off part of the tunnel when they smell fumes or gases. I was actually hoping I could just hook the tractor up to a pipe and smog them out.

Re:BushFamilyNine
I am not even sure where the nearest neighbor kids would be. I know for at least a few miles the youngest person is probably in their mid 50's. My mom tried some strychnine with milo before she came into town so she may see the results when she returns. The stuff is said to be pretty good for degrading shortly after the animal dies. Parks and Rec I believe are wanting to use it for hog and getting good results in their tests. But I may go up on a weekend soon and be a big kid with a 22 and a few bricks

I have a friend that manages a couple of ranches and vacation properties down on the coast. He was telling me this morning that he has done this before and said it definitely will work. Told me I can verify it on Google with satelite photos.
It requires sub-soil perimeter treatment and then individual mound treatment with some pellet type bait or poison (didn't mention a name).
I told him I would come down next couple of weeks to look at something not related to this, but will definitely try to get more info on it.

Take a look at a device called Varmit getter. It uses a combination of propane and oxygen put into the tunnels and then ignited by a spark. I have one and it works well. The only drawback is that in dry grass you can start a fire. I haven't used it at all this winter because it is so dry here in N Texas. Victor makes a couple of different traps to catch them in the tunnels. I have caught over 150 of the little devils since November. Their mounds wreak havoc on my hay equipment. If you need more info let me know.
Aaron

Take a look at varmitgetter.com. This device produces an explosion in the tunnels using propane and oxygen. Woodstream Corp. has Victor brand traps that work well. I have both the varmitgetter and traps. There is no quick fix, you have to be persistent. I have heard that anhydrous ammonia applications will kill them also. If you have any ? Let me know.
Aaron

Don't know how much area your trying to cover, but you can clean out a burrough with a dirt mound and put about a cup of dry ice in the hole, then cover it. It's supposed to suffocate them. My mother uses some kind of solar powered anti gopher things that work pretty good, she lives three lots over from me so guess who has twice as many gophers. Me and the grandsons have a gopher shoot with our pellet guns from time to time. To get them out I scrape their mounds down flat then put the sprinkler on them, the next day they're out working and the hunt is on.

Re:Kbar Ag Service
I am curious as to what is his method. If it is like an underground fence of some sort that would sure take a while to install.


Re:Clearfork51
First off welcome to the forums, well at least your first posts.
The varmitgetter looks like it would be awesome but if I got one my last post ever would be, "going to try the varmitgetter later today," or you would a read a headline of "Man Blows Up Family Ranch in East Texas." haha
I am interested in those traps though. It seems people get results really quick. How many acres were you able to control and with how many traps? Unfortunately we don't have any anhydrous ammonia.

Lol ^^^^

A place where I hunt has gophers somewhat managed this way in the hay fields. For lack of a better description, the machine is a box that holds the bait point, a single furrow plow wheel, a bait depositer (subsoiler), and drive wheel. The gizmo is pulled behind a tractor with the disc wheel cutting a furrow and the turning action of the drive wheel running the deposition mechanism. As the gizmo plows through the field, every X feet, a poison pellet is deposited underground in the furrow. He crisscrossed his property at about 10 yard intervals last year and knocked the gophers back pretty good. He now needs to reapply. In fact, we were just discussed this issue this evening.

Here is a version that does what I am talking about, but it isn't the same model my buddy has, but I think you will get the picture...
http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ttalk&th=1128366

Other methods such as the gopher getter, rodenator, dry ice, exhaust, etc., really do not work well for large properties. Dry ice is particularly expensive, but is environmentally friendly, but would be impossible to use over a wide area.

I have about 50 acres of coastal Bermuda that I am currently trapping. I use Victor 610 & 615 traps. I actually prefer the 615 because they are slightly narrower than 610, so they fit in smaller runs easier. Both work well. I started out in November with 20 traps and am now down to 14 due to loss to coyotes and breakage. If I can help answer any ? You can call me at 817-597-0578. When I got the Varmit getter, I contacted them and a fellow came to my place and demonstrated how they worked. You don't often get ground exploding upward, usually just a jump of the ground where the gas is traveling. Anhydrous ammonia would have to be applied by a fertilizer applicator, but you must have good rainfall during the growing season or it will burn up the roots of your grass damaging your stand. Hope this helps.

Aaron

You need a gopher machine... I carry them in stock this time of year.. ill send you a pm

Just looked these items up, if I were trying to control a field I'd go with one of the burrowing machines. Just for satisfaction and playtime I might have to get me a verminator.

" the machine is a box that holds the bait point, a single furrow plow wheel, a bait depositer (subsoiler), and drive wheel. The gizmo is pulled behind a tractor with the disc wheel cutting a furrow and the turning action of the drive wheel running the deposition mechanism. As the gizmo plows through the field, every X feet, a poison pellet is deposited underground in the furrow. He crisscrossed his property at about 10 yards"

Pretty much what he described except he said to make at least 2 passes on the perimeter or 3 if you can to create a barrier.
Then do individual mound treatments to cleanup the interior.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I am going to look more into the machine that hooks onto the 3-point and getting some traps.

People call gophers different things. Where I hunt in deep S Tx and up North gophers are called ground squirrels, little striped varmints that will leave their den and run around on the ground. Where I live on the coast, gophers are actually "Pocket Gophers" and they terrorize my lawn and my gardens. They don't exit their holes and run around (different species), just leave big mounds of sand everywhere that are fun to mow over ha ha. I trap them all of the time, had my kids running traps last weekend.

Trapping them is effective but requires work and persistence. I can't use poison because my dogs dig them up and will eat them. On top of the pocket gophers we have moles (yes, another species). They follow the gopher tunnels and then branch out. The end result is ground that you step on and your feet sink down to ankle or shin level. I hate them, but they are a part of life down here. My dogs are only trying to help, but it gets old hauling in sand and filling in holes before I mow so that I don't ruin lawn mower blades or break something else on the mower......

Man I grew shooting gophers, love to shoot them. My grandpa used to put a couple of us kids in the back of the pick-up and slowly idle around the fields. When ever some would come up we'd shoot them with 22's.

Call Bill Murray !! (Caddy Shack for you young uns)

These are the pocket gophers and I have seen a dead mole of some sort that I think one of the dogs brought up. Have a blue heeler that will dig deep enough where you can only see her rear end sticking out of the ground. Wonder if you can use gophers as bait for gar and catfish???