Help! Pocket Gophers Destroying Drainfield

[whitebark]

We discovered a pocket gopher minefield in our drainfield while doing firewise weedwhacking. Advice from septic service is to get rid of gophers asap before they destroy the drainfield. We need advice about the most effective way of ridding our drainfield of the pocket gophers. Has anyone used a professional service with success? Recommendations?

[moose]

Cats

[joe_b]

I’ve got a ton of gophers too.
(I should check my drain field..!)

I haven’t been able to get proficient with the green metal traps, but, I bought a couple Electric noise making devices that you push into the ground. They take D batteries.
I have them stuck in my garden area.
I can’t claim they’re working, it’s hard to say, because I didn’t have gopher there to begin with. But they are staying away.

I bought those noisemakers at Cascade pipe, I think last year.
It may be something you can do, that will hopefully
render some immediate results..

I’m sorry, I can’t attest to their effectiveness.

I was thinking they were high frequency, but they are more of a lower vibration. Which makes sense, if you want the sound to travel through the ground.
They make an annoying vibration about every 25 seconds.
There were two in the box and they each take 3D batteries. So I ordered eight rechargeables,online.

Good luck!

[gloriaspiwak]

I planted mint when my dog was destroying my flowers trying to get at the gophers. That
worked for me. Good luck

[sergey]

Neutron bomb. About 10km high detonation 2-3kt, will deliver a lethal radiation pulse, and at the same time relatively weak blast wave, most of your structures (if built well) will still be standing.

Rats, gopher, etc - all gone. Don't be there when it detonates.

Edit: you also will need to wait for the end of the no burn season, obviously.

[Burwinzer]

Those green traps are dynamite. Here are a few tips that might help.

Dig down in the most recent throw mound and find the two tunnels that lead into it. There are almost always two. Use a stick or a stick equivalent to round out the tunnels until the traps fit easily inside the tunnels. (Set the traps very carefully; if one closes on your hand you will be in hurtland for quite a while.)

Try to get the traps in the tunnels as far as you can. The business part goes in the tunnel and the white sticker part should be at least flush with the opening.

Don't cover the hole up as some folks recommend. The gophers hate having a tunnel open to the air. (Snakes or weasels might get in.)

Some good news: there are likely only one or two gophers in the area. I know it looks like there are fifty, but it is not the case.They are very territorial and once you catch one or two it will be awhile before another one shows up to take over the runways.

I pull anywhere from 7 to a dozen gophers out of my 20 acres some years, but just a couple per acre, and if you get one or two from you drainage field that will probably do the trick.
Don't forget to tie the traps to each other, (once the gopher gets in the trap, they walk backwards into the tunnel and you will never see the trap again)and I like to drive a small stake at the white sticker end of the trap to keep the gophers from pushing the trap back into the hole.

I have never not been successful with those traps!

Good luck!

Steve

[farm108]

I've had luck with the traps, too. But care is needed is you have pets who might want to explore with errant paws and get impaled. The traps are nasty and easy to spring.
I've also had luck with water from a hose, if I can get to the tunnels and flood them quickly, after the gophers have made their fresh soil mound. You must flood at high volume, and be ready with a shovel or other device to dispatch them when they emerge to escape the flood. NOTE: This doesn't work unless the gophers are nearby to their work (i.e. early morning in my experience). Also, I've tried putting a stick of Juicy Fruit gum into the tunnel(s). My young friend swears by this method. The gophers, attracted to the strong fruity smell, eat it and it gums up their digestive works causing death. I believe this works, but unlike the other measures, you can never be certain they are gone as there is no corpse.

[eye86fire]

I have been trapping gophers since 2018 with the green snap traps, last year 128, year before 97.

I'm willing to teach all I know with anyone having issues with them.

Tom McKittrick

P.S. Yes its legal with the no trapping laws in place.

[Reapward]

I use something called the Gopher Hawk. Easier than the green metal traps but can't get as many.
It's my garden they go after and I practically have to dig up the garden to use the green traps correctly.
Will check out the green snap traps unless they are the same ones I use. Metal. They work very well but my hands are not strong enough to set them.

[whitebark]

Thank you for your helpful responses. We will pursue trapping, which sounds like the method that most have found to be effective. We were hoping that cutting back all vegetation over and around the drainfield would encourage the gopher(s) to move to another part of our lot, but so far that does not appear to be working.