The video started simple enough… answer the most asked question from last week’s tree planting video… What is gopher wire and how do you use it?
I had NO IDEA what kind of visual aid I was going to get. It’s going to be hard to get over this one.
TRAPS I USE THAT WORK
Gopher Hawk: https://amzn.to/3zJhgRJ
Black Hole Trap: https://amzn.to/3DXO7oC
IF YOU WANT TO TEST THESE WITH ME
Digger Products including the Woven Gopher Basket: https://amzn.to/3T2Y08H
Roll of Gopher wire: https://amzn.to/3zK2daF
46 Comments
#caddyshack full throttle – so sorry
I don't know what you tried to triage the poor little avocado tree.. I think I'd be digging it up.. dousing the roots with rooting hormone and going into a big pot.
Do those little terrors go through grow bags too? I wonder if anyone is marketing deep grow bags with the wire built in…hmmm
It's kind of a shame that barn cats aren't a lend-able critter.. a few extra, temporarily, to thin the population sounds, on paper, like a good idea.
Is there a poison to kill them?
In my experience, the gophers don’t bother daffodils and irises… those are the bulbs that are still around even with all the gophers. They don’t seem to bother most succulents either. These are the plants at my place that withstand gophers: Jade, Aloe, Lavender, Joshua tree, Pyracantha, Camellia, Black Walnut, (weeds here), Boxwood, Iris, Daffodils, English Ivy, Mulberry tree, certain palms, Lantana. My neighbors had citrus in the ground as well. These have all live multiple years without being eaten by the gophers. I am working on my edible landscape and frankly I am planning for most of my fruiting shrubs and trees to go into pots with Gary’s Top Pot soil mix.
plant daffodil or narcissus bulbs they stay away from those. I've had some luck with tulips planted surrounded by daffodils. but I've pretty much stopped planting the tulips unless they are containers that I have where those darn varmints can't get to rhem
Brian I am so sorry for the loss of your avocado tree. Thank God I do not have gophers, I do have moles but no gophers and I am learning how to take care of them. Castor beans are absolutely wonderful!
Thank you for your show and all your help. Lyn in Virginia
That sucks about your avocado tree. But you are near the avocado capital of fallbrook. I think a Reed avocado or the highly recommended by UCR avocado program, the GEM avocado. It’s a more compact tree.
MOLES FOR ME! They're digging under the fencing to protect the chicken coop/run. Lines zigzagging EVERYWHERE. I have some indoor/outdoor cats and they are freakin' oblivious. I don't want to have to kill them, but it's getting worse every day! So frustrating!❤
I really get tired of the way non gardeners talk about humanely trapping groundhogs when they have no idea how those little monsters devastate crops. I'm with you, – caddyshack.
Maybe you need some weasels ! 😮
I'm so sorry to hear your problems Brian. God's creatures can be a real hassle. I've put my garden, and the problems, away until next year. A new year to attack the problems…and hopefully save my work for myself…not the animals. I can't believe the effort you have to use just to plant a tree. Keep strong, you'll get through it.
The second trap you showed is the same kind we use here (southern Canada) to eradicate moles.
What a crushing blow! My uncle in Kansas sandy soil used to drop castor bean seeds in the gopher hole. He said the idea was that the gopher would take a bite and “poo himself to deff!” He had an enormous castor plant in one corner of the yard, I guess from one the gophers missed! lol.
Hardware cloth worked for my gopher problems
Awwww I'm so sorry Brian, hope you can't sort things out 🥰
Thank you for your honesty. I am sorry this is happening to your beautiful garden. Very similar story here. Zone 9b in No. CA. I don't have gophers. I've had RATS 🐀 😔 they are horrible in/near garden. 🐀 🐁 Rats delayed MY garden for 3 months this year ☹ I did persevere….and I learned so much. Trust me = rodents go under hardware cloth and they go over it…around it 😖 and I tried EVERY thing. What finally worked?? Cats 🐈 CATS 🐱 3 neighborhood cats kept taking their turns in my backyard garden. Destroyed my rat Infestation in about 2 weeks!! HooRay. Big secret = have NO source of food at all. None.
I am so sorry Brian…I know the feeling well. Your bain is gophers..mine is rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels. Just drives ya crazy…..
I took a class given by researchers from the USDA on catching gophers. They said that they had the best luck with a product called the Gophinator", made by the "Trapline" company in California. I bought the gophinator, but it turned out that it's too big to fit into the holes of most of the gophers that we have on our farm. So, instead, I bought their smallest model which they call the "standard size mole trap". It works perfectly well on big gophers, but it also fits into the holes of all but the very smallest gophers. I have used this trap now for over a decade, and it works wonderfully. I've never found any method with such an excellent success rate. BTW, I have no affiliation with Trapline Products at all, I'm just a satisfied customer. I highly recommend that you try out their traps. They're stainless steel so they don't rust (unlike the Macabee trap and lots of other similar products), and the Trapline traps are inexpensive too, which is great. Best of luck!
How long does it take the chicken wire take to break down?
Why aren't you putting up owl boxes???
Thank goodness I live where there’s no gophers. I don’t blame you, I’d take care of my families food first too.
My heart is going out for you! 😢 I will pray that the gopher situation gets better.
I feel for you! My friend has had issues with gophers and as soon as she noticed damage she would dig the plant up and put it in a pot so it could grow new roots and recover. Maybe this could help save your avocado tree. Good luck!
I'm thinking…awww sh#t he is gonna go all caddy shack. … Just as you said it. I'm so sorry those SOB ate your trees. I love Avocado. I'm not gonna lie I've used poison smoke bombs in the past. Not sure that is legal any more.
Hang in there, Brian! You are fighting a difficult battle, but we are all learning along with you. Thank you for always being so open and transparent with us! It gives us hope as we struggle along!
For the bulbs, I shake them in a bag of ground cayenne pepper before planting (wear a dust mask though… trust me!). It helps me combat the squirrels (my nemesis)! They may still dig and nibble a few of them, but they will also get a mouth of fire! Lastly, my old-world great aunt always told me, "plant two for them, and on for you!"
Side note: Your chicken coup cottage is coming along! It looks fantastic! Keep up the great work!
So sorry! Hoping you find the perfect solution.
Fumigate the tunnels. When it comes to any burrowing pest, chances are all the tunnels are connected in a network. This makes it harder to keep track of them all, but it can work to your advantage if you're using smoke bombs. This is how I got rid of the groundhogs that were plaguing my garden. You're going to have more than one gopher, and trapping them one at a time is going to take a long time, but if you smoke out the burrow, you can get most of them in one go.
Would it be possible to import some gopher snakes? And do you think that might help?
Some cats are great. Some dogs are also really great. But you just never know until you've had them for a while, and then you get attached to them and don't want to let them go if they don't work out.
I know I am really struggling with gophers, too, in my case pocket gophers. I don't know what to do. I tried digging down a foot for my entire garden and laying chicken wire down, but it was such an extensive project that I only did half. The rest I only did under the beds and I only dug down a few inches and then I created a mound. Basically it was a hugelculture mound except I didn't have trunks and limbs to bury so I used sticks, leaves and grass. That actually worked quite well. But now I have gopher holes in my walkways. I think I am going to have to dig down at least three inches in walkways and lay chicken wire down there. I was hoping to enlarge my garden, but I think I will be doing this instead this winter.
I absolutely agree! Here in Alaska it's squirrels and yes, I kill them. They have an entire firest to live in, so if they are coming into my garden they're toast!
It was about the animals dying, but as long as the trap is quick I dont mind. Poisons are awful. They take a long time and poison whatever eats them.
My mom has a huge problem with gophers too. But she has a dog pit bull mix that hears and smells them in the ground digs them up and kills them. My mom just says get them and she follows it bounces up and down if it's a spot mu mom wants dug she will say get it if she doesn't want that area tore up she says wait until it moves else where. Takes about 5-20 mins to track and kill a mole or gopher.
Have you ever tried cheyanne pepper mixed with the soil to see if it would work? I've scattered it around things in my flower beds to help keep out the chipmunks and squirrels.
Oh Brian, I have experienced all those things that you are going through. I have been battling gophers, squirrels and deer for almost 40 years. We use aviary wire which has much smaller holes than regular chicken wire. Have also used hardware cloth but it is getting hard for us to handle as we get older. Don't believe that 18 in rule, we always put a bottom on them, they go to great depths here to get what they want. Also use those new mesh baskets you are trying out. I am using them to plant my new irises in. I have planted loads of daffodils because they wont eat them, but they do move them through their tunnels and come up in places they weren't planted.
I have saved roses and even a small fig tree that had no roots left. The gopher chewed through the bottom of a plastic pot and ate the little tree's roots. I put them in water for months waiting for new roots to form, and they did. The roses are now in huge cages and the little fig is in a metal pot. The deer still prune the roses severely and I will replace 2 of them this year. The fig is doing great.
All of my raised beds have aviary wire stapled underneath and overlapping by 1/2 the width and wired together. They are 12 in high. They try to get in but can't. I have used gassers in the past but the best is trapping. I use wire traps in the tunnels and have them going in both directions in the tunnels.
Hope you can save your avocado tree. I can't grow them up here in Tehachapi, too cold. We just had our first snow 2 days ago and expecting more Sunday though Wednesday.
Good luck in your battle, we understand wanting to go caddyshack on them! We used to shoot them with a shotgun at our ranch. Can't do that here. We are rooting for you.
Jack Russell or chihuahua for undergroud animals
I hate pests
Another thing you might try is to light a flare and stick it down in gopher hole. Watch to see where smoke pops up to help map the network of tunnels. Then, set traps at Key locations throughout your property. We have had good luck and reducing gopher populations this way.
Go buy a lot of road flairs find and mark all tunnels light and bury in tunnels it should kill everything in the tunnels.
So sorry about your gopher problem. It very
Upsetting but grin and bear it and get rid of those buggers! 💕
If you would feel much better using tighter hardware cloth but want it to rust, before coiling it, scratch the portion you intend to bury with some 60 grit (or any very coarse to save your time and fingers) sandpaper enough to get through the zinc plating in a few places. It should still last several months but be weak enough by the time the roots need to break it they can. I hope the woven baskets work for you. Luckily I've never had to deal with gophers or moles. Biggest nuisance in my garden beds, after insects, is cats digging plants up to use them as litter boxes.
Brian I am so sorry! I think any gardener feels your pain and frustration! There is no purpose for gophers!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will those traps work for chipmunks?
Sorry for the loss! Roasted gopher basted with an avocado lime sauce feels most apropos.
The English cottage is looking smashing❤
Oh man Brian! That totally sucks! Maybe as Helen Erickson was saying, see if it has any roots left and if it does, prune the top down to kind of match the roots! I really hope it works and you can save it! Let us know!🤗🤗🤗💞