Over the last 15 years I have dealt with hundreds of gophers on my
half acre lot. There are only two surefire ways to get rid of them.

The first is gopher traps. You must use two traps. About $5 in any
feed or farm store.

Find the tunnel by pushing a long rod or screwdriver into the ground
between two mounds until you feel it give. That will locate the
tunnel. Use post hole diggers to dig down and expose the tunnel. You
may have to use the screwdriver to scrape dirt away from the sides to
locate the holes. There will be at least two, one from each direction.
Place a trap in each and cover big hole with leaves or something that
will let a little light in. Be sure to tie the traps to some sort of
stake (tomato stakes work well). A big gohper can carry a trap off or
into the tunnel.

The second is to expose the tunnel in the same way and put a couple of
tablespoons of Drano (lye) in the tunnel and cover back up. They get
it on their feet and it kills them when they lick it off. If you do
this make sure to be very careful if you have pets. Don't want any
exposed that they can get hold of.

Moles are a different story and use a completely different trap, a
sharpshooter type and more expensive.

You flatten the run (seen on top of ground) and place the trap over
the flattens spot. When the mole comes along and pushes the run back
up it will set the trap. Much more difficult than gophers but
effective with practice.

Since you are seeing dirt mounds on top of the ground around your
plants, I would bet it is gophers. They look like big fire ant mounds.

Bruce

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 19:03:04 -0600, in rec.gardens.edible you wrote:

I walked out to my pretty garden this morning to discover either a gopher or
a mole had dug a huge hole in the back of my garden, covering some of my
squash plants with a heaping pile of dirt!
Any tips to rid of this creature?






On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 19:03:04 -0600, "Jackee" not available wrote:

I walked out to my pretty garden this morning to discover either a gopher or
a mole had dug a huge hole in the back of my garden, covering some of my
squash plants with a heaping pile of dirt!
Any tips to rid of this creature?