Pocket Gopher
Overview:
Pocket gophers get their name from their fur-lined (pocket like) cheek pouches in which food is carried. They live in an underground burrow system, often a network of several hundred feet ranging in depth from a few inches to several feet. Several gophers may inhabit a single burrow system. Soil removed from newly-made burrows is pushed into mounds on the surface, usually leaving a small horseshoe-like depression on one side of the mound, indicating the direction of the tunnel.
Facts:
- Some gophers may make 100 or more mounds in a season. most mounds are made in late summer and fall when digging shallow burrows to get roots for winter.
- Roots are usually stored in small chambers, often a few inches deep and containing a quart or two of food.
- Gophers are active in the winter.
Identification:
- Most people know what gophers look like, however pocket gophers do not have stripes, like striped gophers (which are really 13 lined ground squirrels).
- Often people with pocket gophers don't see them, they just see their distinctive mound.
Biology:
- Breeding begins as frost leaves the ground and is completed in late spring.
- One or two litters of two to four young are born during this period and begin to move throughout the burrow system when about one month old.
Habits:
- In late summer and early fall many young gophers are forced to the surface and wander about searching for food and will invade any unused burrow systems.
- Pocket Gohers do not like light and will "plug" their burrow system
Treatment:
Poisoned baits and trapping are the most effective and practical methods of control.
POISONED BAIT METHOD:
This method involves dropping bait, with a spoon, into the underground runways through holes made by a probe. A good probe can be made of ¾ inch gas pipe welded to a blunt point about 36 inches long. Locate the main runway by probing into the soil 12 - 18 inches back from the mound on the side where the horseshoe like depression is found. Remove the probe and insert the amount of bait the label calls for. Close the opening with grass and cover with dirt to keep out light and air. Make one bait application for every 4 - 6 fresh mounds. Be careful not to probe to deep or probe into the dirt "plug" close to the entrance.
TRAPPING METHOD:
Small spring traps, such as the Victor Easy Set pocket gopher trap are used for trapping gophers. To locate the runway use a good garden trowel or shovel. Scrape the dirt from a fresh mound until a round circle of fresh dirt is found plugging the lateral runway. Open the lateral and put one trap with the claws away from the opening. Attach “stovepipe” type wire to a stake to be able to retrieve traps. Leave h burrow entrance open as the gopher will want to plug it and in the attempt will become trapped. Rake the ground even to determine new activity in case of callback. Retrieve traps and dispose of dead gophers.
