I have discovered that I have gophers moving in on my wife's rose bushes. Traps don't work real well (because the dogs dig 'em up), the cats ain't doing thier job, and the gas bombs from the hardware store don't seem to work at all. Short of trying to find some professional outfit, anybody had any luck witrh getting rid of these things?
I think I am going to have to look at it as a hobby for a while, so I'd be inclined to try most anything, short of C4 squirreels and rabbits.

Two things have worked well to me.

I worked a summer job at a grain elevator back in the early 80's, and we had these gas pellets that I believe were called Methyl Bromide.  We used them in the storage tanks to kill critters that got into the grain.  They would absolutely wipe out a gopher colony as well.  Stay away from the gas, though; it is absolutely lethal.

One other tactic that is not quite so "scorched earth", but much more labor intensive involved a garden hose and a Benjamin pellet gun.  Run water down the hole and shoot the little buggers when they op up for air.  My mild mannered wife nailed one this way early in our marriage, and she is typically not the "huntress" type.

Good luck,

Bud

There are poison tablets you can buy and use.  They work well.  I use them at our cabin all the time.  OF course it isn't as fun as sitting with a beer in the hammock with my Daisy 880 playing gopher sniper!

I’ve got Chip and Dale (chipmunks) setting up housekeeping under my front porch.

I tried the water thing but the ground is so porous that it just soaks it up.

I’ve also used mothballs, which seems to work.  However, it doesn’t get rid of them – they just move into nearby areas.  

I just got some “Moletox” poison from a plant nursery, which I haven’t tried yet.  (There is some info, but not a lot, on Moletox at [url]www.bonideproducts.com/[/url]).  I dislike using poison around the house but I’m getting desperate.

Just another of life’s petty aggravations!

Gopher traps.  Get the kind that is like a little box with a spring loaded snare inside, and a baffle at the back.  Dig down to a main tunnel and mate the open end of the trap with the tunnel and pile dirt around the trap to keep the light out.  The little guys can feel the air that comes through the baffle (which blocks light).  They thing they got a opening that needs to be plugged and they scurry down the tunnel to get to work.  They run right into the trap and get snared.  In my experience they work within about 30 min. of setting the trap.  I guess gophers just can't stand a breeze.

I have been doing the water thing for the last couple of days. Flooding the holes, opening as many as possible, so the cats might get one or two when the gophers replug the hole.
I had this great idea to wheel roll the area with my truck so I could tell which areas were the most active. The little beggars must haver had a large network of tunnels in the area, because now my truck is sitting on its axles in the yard. Sank like a rock, it did. When the wife gets home, I'll drag it out of there.
Beer and a pellet rifle sound very relaxing. Think I'll try that tonight.

When you flood their tunnels, the gophers will most likely not try to escape out of the mounds that you open up.  They have secret tunnel openings that have no mound that they use for escape.  They will typically just tread water in the mouth of the escape tunnel if they can.  Try to find these openings and snipe the gophers there.

When a friend of mine was having a problem with cats(he wouldn't let me shoot'em)spraying all over his shed,I told him too sprinkle the a little bit of gasoline all over the ground.Not enough to simulate a napalm strike,but once it's in the soil,we can't smell it but animals can.It doesn't take much about a pop can full for a stripe 4 ft.x30.Use too much and it will kill the plants.

Ugh.  I have surrendered this year.  My backyard is at the edge of a hill and for each one I kill, two more come up the hill.  They have won.  I hang my head in shame.

The mention of gasoline reminded me of how I used to get them as a teen in So. Kal. I would open as many holes as possible with the hose, then dump gas into the holes to run down as far as possible. I would then light one hole. Within a few minutes,other holes would burst into flame. I don't know if it worked or not, but I always figured the fire and fumes would have killed most things in the tunnels. It was fun anyhow.
The wife just pulled in, so I best get some chains and pull that pick-up out.