- Author: Andrea Giacoletti
- Editor: Noni Todd
Tiptoeing Through the Tunnels
By Andrea Peck Master Gardener
Cohabitation can be difficult at best.
Someone leaves a mess; you have to clean it up. There are limited resources. The peanut butter disappears – and the ice cream. Forget about the toilet paper.
The garden is no different.
Some thing digs trench configurations in your garden that create horseshoe-shaped dirt mounds. Your plants begin to mysteriously “lack vigor.” Some even disappear.
You get the picture.
If I were Bill Murray in the movie Caddyshack, the culprit would be in the range finder of a tool of mass destruction.
But, Bill Murray I am not.
I must confess - the pocket gopher that has invaded my yard is quite a handsome ball of fur. How can you not admire him? He is just so vital. With that shiny brown coat that doesn’t cake in wet soils and those alert, industrious eyes. Even his whiskers are ultra-sensitive as he navigates the dark tunnels in which he lives. He is small, about 6-10 inches, but he is powerful. Just look at those meaty forequarters with long, sharp-clawed paws and you know you are witnessing a mighty dynamo. In fact, he is so powerful that he can create a tunnel system that spans 200-2,000 feet. In my case, it is very likely that his house is bigger than mine.
The first advice you will get is to eradicate the bugger. The two most effective methods for this are poison baits and traps. If you are old school, you may want to flush him out with water and let your dog have at him when he breaks free to breathe. But beware, with this method, the little gopher is pretty savvy and you may waste a lot of water and a lot of time. Natural controls, such as owls, cats, dogs and coyotes may be the least invasive solution, but may not control gopher populations to acceptable levels.
Exclusion is probably the best method for those of you who hesitate to kill a fly. This involves a bit of planning, but is inexpensive and non-violent. If you are building a new raised bed, then this is a good time. Simply cover the lower exposed portion of the bed with 3/4-inch mesh poultry wire. This will prevent the critter from entering the bed. In the garden, it is possible to surround plants and trees with the same type of wire mesh at a 2-foot depth as a preventative. When using this method, add a 6” bend in the wire (like an “L” shape) and place the bottom bend into the soil, to discourage digging near the fence. You can further repel your Houdini by using enough wire to make an above ground barrier to about 1-foot in height.
In my own garden, I do have a number of wired-off areas. I will definitely take this method seriously whenever I make adjustments in the yard. As far as my handsome partner, we’ll see how long we can keep relations friendly.
For more information on pocket gofers visit http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7433.html