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The Trash Heap · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject: Know Your Enemy

First, there are both pocket gophers and ground squirrels in Flour Bluff making the mounds. Gophers make more mounds and usually make them in rows, with only the newest mounds having an opening for more than a short time. Gophers eat mainly roots, but may briefly snatch stems and leaves around the edges of that last hole. Ground squirrels feed above ground on vegetation, and are especially fond of seeds (hence, they're referred to as spermophyles). Either might make a snack of a grub, but don't vary much from the vegetarian diet. Moles are strict meat eaters and go for grubs and earthworms, but I don't know if I've heard of them inhabiting Flour Bluff. Moles burrow at varying depths, but often are so near the surface you can make out the ridge where the tunnels run and so set traps for them.

Once you've figured out which you have, check with the county extension agent for the tool of choice. Some of the mole traps may work, but they have to have very long "fangs" to ace a gopher or a squirrel, and you'd have to know exactly where its tunnel neared the surface. Ground squirrels can be flushed out with a hose if you have the patience and a lot of water; wait until there's been a lot of rain so the water table in the Bluff is high. I've upended a small box trap over a hole and soaked them into it. They're cute as meercats but have bad tempers and make lousy pets.

Gophers aren't going to be flushable. There are various baits for them, but you have to worry about a kid or pet getting ahold of those. Some plants are potentially gopher chasers, even toxic, like castor beans, but again the kids are succeptable. If you found one on the surface, there's no way you'd fall in love with those enormous orange teeth and what they'd do if they got ahold of you. I've heard the pinwheels and similar noisemakers work, and they have to be more user-friendly than cat sheboygan. Sorry I can't be of more help; try the extension agent.

No, the cerpulid reefs aren't unique to our area, but Baffin Bay is about the only place in Texas where they occur. Something happened (probably to the salinity) there which severely stunted or halted their growth a while back, so maybe that's where the extinction/endangered rumor began.
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ironmanstan · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject:

Theres a never ending supply of ground squrriels out on the base especially around the golf course. At my house i have the big tooth gopher. I havent seen a mole in awhile i caught one once a showed it to the kids in the neighborhood and let it go. We have alot of wildlife here in the bluff excluding the ratz. Too bad it will be pushed out due to future devlopement.
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SmokeWagonDan · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:54 am Post subject:

Hey, back in Arizona, we had terrible problems with pack rats. They would build nests underground with various tunnels and chambers. Most times we could dig em up and kill them. But, when they built under large boulders or under the side of a building, you had to be more creative. The neatest thing I've seen to get them was a propane tank hooked to a long metal nozzle. The wand had a trigger to let the gas out the other end and an igniter that you pushed after inserting the gas. Once you pulled the trigger, a flame ran though all of the tunnels instantly killing the pack rats. Occasionally, one would be near the opening to a tunnel and make it out, flaming, running crazy. LOL, what a sight. Anyway, I hear they have those gadgets on the market now. It seems to me they should work just as well on a gopher holes. Might look a bit like Caddy Shack, but fun anyway. lOL Laughing

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iflyabeech · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:13 am Post subject:

I will cordially refrain from any making any bluff rat jokes in this thread. There are endless possibilities! LOL
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Tropical Dillusion · Pony Mullet Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 65

Don’t kill the gophers............they are just aerating your lawn Laughing

^^^^^^I am dazed with your avatar.......................^^^^^^^^^
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Bud · Horse Mullet Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 183

Methyl bromide.
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The Trash Heap · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:46 am Post subject:

ladyfish · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:18 am Post subject: THANKS TO ALL

GOPHER 12 DAVID 0

Fishin Rod · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:06 am Post subject:

Dont use poison you ruin the meat!!!!!! Shocked

Rooster · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:28 pm Post subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umEFHeo6mw&feature=related
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UnderDog · Pony Mullet Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 64

When you finally catch them, use them for bait...

http://www.saltwatersportsman.com/article.jsp?ID=21018513

MJW · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject:

Dexter · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:44 pm Post subject:

I would suggest sticking a hose from a propane bottle down one of their holes, turn it on for a while and then throw a match in the hole. I am quite sure this works as a neighbor did this and it seemed to eliminate all of them at once. There was just one problem though. Upon lighting the propane a couple of small trees were blown out to the ground, the house raised up a few inches , all the dishes fell out of the cubboard and his wife was pretty mad.
No more Gophers though. It works.
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bayphantom · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject:

I too have gophers. They also tend to eat the roots of trees, especially the freshly planted ones. I use a trap that I picked up at a feed store and I also have watched some of the neighborhood cats ambush them as they stick their head out of the their tunnel. They are active early AM and right around sunset. Once I trap one it takes awhile before (several months) before they return to area.