Summer Strategies for the Smartest Gophers
Happy summer! I love these longest days of the year and the lessening gloom of June. Our plants are growing vigorously and there are enough flowers blooming to give us some color to brighten our days. There is however, one downside to summer for gardeners- Rabbits, ground squirrels, and gophers.
Not to blow my own horn here, but I'm one of the best gopher hunters I know, probably 90% success rate, but lately I have had my lunch handed to me by a couple of very wily and unfortunately very hungry and destructive gophers. So far, I am one for three, and I've had several days straight where I am getting total goose eggs.
Why are summer gophers harder to catch? They leave almost no sign of their presence. They go deep and rarely kick out tailings from their mining work as they do in spring. In spring huge funnels of dirt will mound up all over your garden, not so in summer. Their feeding strategy is different as well. They don't use the characteristic small feeding circles that they do the rest of the year, so they are harder to see. They are also not as focused on breeding. Gophers hate other gophers; they flat out despise each other. In fact, they are totally solitary and only barely tolerate the presence of another gopher in their tunnel system even for breeding. Their libidos are at zero right now, and will fight to the death if another gopher invades their system. They are focused on excluding all other gophers.
I just installed a new citrus orchard and parts of it have a cottage garden feel with drought tolerant flowering plants for pollinators. It looks fabulous and the trees are growing beautifully. Then I noticed something just didn't look right. Be an observer of your garden! Walk it every day. Become familiar with the look of your plants, ground, and surroundings. I had gorgeous tomatoes with beautiful Green Zebra and Sungold fruit hanging, almost ready to harvest. Then one day, one of the plants looked odd. Just slightly droopy, maybe a little dry? A bit of wilt or blight? No. The next day, the plant was gone! Fruit was left on the ground, but the plant literally melted away into the elements. It was like that tomato was beamed up to the Enterprise. DANG! What hit me? Ground squirrel? I was stumped. No feeding holes, no tailing mounds. No gopher holes.
Next day, my Sungold was limp. Totally wilted. Looked so out of the ordinary. I gave the plant a little tug. It came free from the tiniest loose bit of dirt. The roots had been chewed through. Gopher! I dug a bit, but could not find a tunnel.
Next day, a newly planted clock vine totally withered overnight. It looked splendid the day before, then totally dried up. I dug around some and found a hole right through the middle of the root ball- it looked like a cannon ball had been blasted through it. It was war!
I dug around, couldn't find a tunnel. It turns out the gopher is digging very deep tunnels, then making vertical chimneys to feed- it kills a plant with no discernible surface sign, then sounds to the depths more like a feeding sperm whale than a gopher. Getting to the tunnels proved nearly impossible.
Next day. A weed withered. I had meant to pull it, but not doing so proved a stroke of good fortune. The gopher took out the weed, which was right next to a very choice bearded iris which I opted to move to save its life. I found a shallow tunnel. I set a Black Box trap only to have it back filled with dirt. I switched to a Maccabee trap the next day. Got it! It had been nibbling on adjacent apple tree roots, so I luckily saved the apple tree in the nick of time.
Then something else was different. The watering basin for one of the new citrus drained differently than before. The water which held for a while in the basin previously now was draining more quickly. Drier soil? Hmmmmm. Something to ponder. A few days later, after filling the basin there was a gurgle, then some bubbles, then the water disappeared. But no sign of gophers. Then further down the row, another weed withered instantly. Closer examination revealed it had been severed from its roots by a feeding gopher. Aha! That's why the water had been disappearing from the tree wells.
Black Box traps go in. Next day backfilled with dirt. Try again. Backfilled with dirt. Switch traps. Maccabees go in. Next day they are literally pushed out of the tunnels along with dirt plugs. Criminy, this is one smart gopher! Move further back, open the tunnel. Backfilled again. Next stage will be to open a tunnel, insert Maccabees both ways and cover the hole to keep it dark and open. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
What you need to know:
1) Gophers will be less visible now, but are nevertheless just as destructive as ever.
2) There is less native food in the form of weeds and grasses available right now, so your precious plants are prime fodder.
3) You may see no sign of gophers at all in summer, but the little buggers are eating away at your plants, and often you only discover their presence after you experience a dead plant or tree.
4) They are harder to catch in summer than at other times of year. You need to be persistent.
5) Be observant of signs of gopher presence in your garden: different drainage patterns, wilting plants, or portions of plants that have been inexplicably severed.
6) When your "go to" method isn't working, change it up- try a different trap or technique. Stay after the gophers, they can take out a mature tree in 2 weeks or less this time of year.
I realize many folks these days don't want to kill anything in their gardens. I'd rather not kill things as well, but their is no alternative to lethal control of gophers. I'd rather not kill them, but when they take out a mature avocado, citrus, or stone fruit tree I've nurtured for years, I guess I do take it a little personally and rejoice when I finally get the gopher that kills them.
Walk your garden on a daily basis and become an observer. You may save your trees and plants.
Not to blow my own horn here, but I'm one of the best gopher hunters I know, probably 90% success rate, but lately I have had my lunch handed to me by a couple of very wily and unfortunately very hungry and destructive gophers. So far, I am one for three, and I've had several days straight where I am getting total goose eggs.
Why are summer gophers harder to catch? They leave almost no sign of their presence. They go deep and rarely kick out tailings from their mining work as they do in spring. In spring huge funnels of dirt will mound up all over your garden, not so in summer. Their feeding strategy is different as well. They don't use the characteristic small feeding circles that they do the rest of the year, so they are harder to see. They are also not as focused on breeding. Gophers hate other gophers; they flat out despise each other. In fact, they are totally solitary and only barely tolerate the presence of another gopher in their tunnel system even for breeding. Their libidos are at zero right now, and will fight to the death if another gopher invades their system. They are focused on excluding all other gophers.
I just installed a new citrus orchard and parts of it have a cottage garden feel with drought tolerant flowering plants for pollinators. It looks fabulous and the trees are growing beautifully. Then I noticed something just didn't look right. Be an observer of your garden! Walk it every day. Become familiar with the look of your plants, ground, and surroundings. I had gorgeous tomatoes with beautiful Green Zebra and Sungold fruit hanging, almost ready to harvest. Then one day, one of the plants looked odd. Just slightly droopy, maybe a little dry? A bit of wilt or blight? No. The next day, the plant was gone! Fruit was left on the ground, but the plant literally melted away into the elements. It was like that tomato was beamed up to the Enterprise. DANG! What hit me? Ground squirrel? I was stumped. No feeding holes, no tailing mounds. No gopher holes.
Next day, my Sungold was limp. Totally wilted. Looked so out of the ordinary. I gave the plant a little tug. It came free from the tiniest loose bit of dirt. The roots had been chewed through. Gopher! I dug a bit, but could not find a tunnel.
Next day, a newly planted clock vine totally withered overnight. It looked splendid the day before, then totally dried up. I dug around some and found a hole right through the middle of the root ball- it looked like a cannon ball had been blasted through it. It was war!
I dug around, couldn't find a tunnel. It turns out the gopher is digging very deep tunnels, then making vertical chimneys to feed- it kills a plant with no discernible surface sign, then sounds to the depths more like a feeding sperm whale than a gopher. Getting to the tunnels proved nearly impossible.
Next day. A weed withered. I had meant to pull it, but not doing so proved a stroke of good fortune. The gopher took out the weed, which was right next to a very choice bearded iris which I opted to move to save its life. I found a shallow tunnel. I set a Black Box trap only to have it back filled with dirt. I switched to a Maccabee trap the next day. Got it! It had been nibbling on adjacent apple tree roots, so I luckily saved the apple tree in the nick of time.
Then something else was different. The watering basin for one of the new citrus drained differently than before. The water which held for a while in the basin previously now was draining more quickly. Drier soil? Hmmmmm. Something to ponder. A few days later, after filling the basin there was a gurgle, then some bubbles, then the water disappeared. But no sign of gophers. Then further down the row, another weed withered instantly. Closer examination revealed it had been severed from its roots by a feeding gopher. Aha! That's why the water had been disappearing from the tree wells.
Black Box traps go in. Next day backfilled with dirt. Try again. Backfilled with dirt. Switch traps. Maccabees go in. Next day they are literally pushed out of the tunnels along with dirt plugs. Criminy, this is one smart gopher! Move further back, open the tunnel. Backfilled again. Next stage will be to open a tunnel, insert Maccabees both ways and cover the hole to keep it dark and open. Fingers crossed for tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.
What you need to know:
1) Gophers will be less visible now, but are nevertheless just as destructive as ever.
2) There is less native food in the form of weeds and grasses available right now, so your precious plants are prime fodder.
3) You may see no sign of gophers at all in summer, but the little buggers are eating away at your plants, and often you only discover their presence after you experience a dead plant or tree.
4) They are harder to catch in summer than at other times of year. You need to be persistent.
5) Be observant of signs of gopher presence in your garden: different drainage patterns, wilting plants, or portions of plants that have been inexplicably severed.
6) When your "go to" method isn't working, change it up- try a different trap or technique. Stay after the gophers, they can take out a mature tree in 2 weeks or less this time of year.
I realize many folks these days don't want to kill anything in their gardens. I'd rather not kill things as well, but their is no alternative to lethal control of gophers. I'd rather not kill them, but when they take out a mature avocado, citrus, or stone fruit tree I've nurtured for years, I guess I do take it a little personally and rejoice when I finally get the gopher that kills them.
Walk your garden on a daily basis and become an observer. You may save your trees and plants.
Comments
Post a Comment