go get one of these 3.0MHP | Lifan Power USA - Quality Power Equipment and one of these PME Rounded Cake Pans (3 in Height) or something similar 3 inch deep around 10 inch diameter.
turn the cake pan over and bolt the engine down on the flat part of the pan. take the muffler off of the engine and screw in a pipe elbow where the muffler was. put a short piece of metal flex conduit on the pipe elbow down and into a hole drilled through the cake pan . with a spoon open the gopher hole then set the running engine mounted on the pan over the hole and let it idle for five min. move to next hole and repeat. by by gophers.
turn the cake pan over and bolt the engine down on the flat part of the pan. take the muffler off of the engine and screw in a pipe elbow where the muffler was. put a short piece of metal flex conduit on the pipe elbow down and into a hole drilled through the cake pan . with a spoon open the gopher hole then set the running engine mounted on the pan over the hole and let it idle for five min. move to next hole and repeat. by by gophers.
So this is a joint effort...neighbor lady will set traps in my yard if she sees them first...and I try to do the same. Went outside this morning to fresh mounds and 2 traps set by neighbor. I put my 2 traps up so we had 4 going. She just knocked on the door and asked if I wanted to do the honors, apparently one of the traps I set at 11:30 had success sometime after 5pm today. When I pulled it out, it was the bastards entire leg so he may not be dead right now but I dont think he'll survive too long with so much of his body pulled off. I knocked the mounds over, pulled the traps and will check back later tonight and early in the morning. Maybe that was "the one" or maybe there's more. We'll see but its nice to have some sort of success.
You want moles, not gophers. Moles go after bugs, but gophers go after plant roots.
I caught a gopher last weekend but I suck at catching moles. And the little jerks are destroying my yard. The yard is actually hazardous to walk on in some areas. You'll turn your ankle.
Drive your shovel in pile of dirt, push handle forward, drop gopher bait in behind the shovel, and remove shovel.
Was watching a Caddy Shack documentary a few years ago, and they talked about rampant drug use on the set. I just can't see it, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Michael Okeefe, Cindy Morgan and Rodney Dangerfield? Pillars of the thespian community, they wouldn't sully there work with drugs................
I think this was propane
I have fought gophers and moles for over 30 years living in the country with sandy soil. Hundreds of them.
Gophers are easy to catch. Day or night although they typically get caught at night.
For gophers:
4 TRAPS-GOPHINATOR GOPHER TRAP-STAINLESS STEEL-USA MADE | eBay
First thing is to find a 1/4" to 3/8" rod to drive into the ground to find the tunnels on both sides of the mound. (with a T handle if your a welder) Gophers put out a half moon mound with a small circle in the middle which is the last place they pushed dirt out of the tunnel.
Use the push rod to find the direction of the tunnel,(when you find the tunnel, the push rod kind of drops without any effort through the hole and then gets harder to push) then take a long handled steel soup spoon to dig out the small circle in the direction of the tunnel. You will find the tunnel when the spoon breaks into the tunnel, typically 90 degrees away from the half moon mound.
Open the side tunnel where the mound is. Dig wider than what it takes to put the trap into. It will typically be at a 45 degree angle or less. The object with the bigger hole is that it takes extra effort by the gopher to back fill in the bigger hole resulting in the critter getting into the trap.
After getting the trap set, push the rod into the ground and attach the gophinator to the rod with nylon string or whatever to keep a gopher that is just wounded from dragging the trap back into the hole, resulting in losing the trap which I have experienced.
Typically takes a few hours with the fresh air going into the tunnel to make the gopher want to plug it.
For moles. We have night crawler worms in the yard which is a favorite food for them as well as grubs and other subterranean insects.
We have tried dozens of different mechanical and chemical treatments to get rid of them with zero success until lately.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LWDRSRM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
Bought these traps. Caught 5 moles in two weeks. My yard is clear of moles currently.
Here is the method.
Used the three wheeler and a roller I built that weighs about 300 lbs. Ran it around the yard to collapse the tunnels.
The next morning, got up to see where the new tunnels were located. Put a trap in each and over two weeks of rolling over the new tunnels and catching them with the traps, we are mole free for now.
Living in the sticks like we do, it's an ongoing process to keep them under control.
Edited to add pic
Gophers are easy to catch. Day or night although they typically get caught at night.
For gophers:
4 TRAPS-GOPHINATOR GOPHER TRAP-STAINLESS STEEL-USA MADE | eBay
First thing is to find a 1/4" to 3/8" rod to drive into the ground to find the tunnels on both sides of the mound. (with a T handle if your a welder) Gophers put out a half moon mound with a small circle in the middle which is the last place they pushed dirt out of the tunnel.
Use the push rod to find the direction of the tunnel,(when you find the tunnel, the push rod kind of drops without any effort through the hole and then gets harder to push) then take a long handled steel soup spoon to dig out the small circle in the direction of the tunnel. You will find the tunnel when the spoon breaks into the tunnel, typically 90 degrees away from the half moon mound.
Open the side tunnel where the mound is. Dig wider than what it takes to put the trap into. It will typically be at a 45 degree angle or less. The object with the bigger hole is that it takes extra effort by the gopher to back fill in the bigger hole resulting in the critter getting into the trap.
After getting the trap set, push the rod into the ground and attach the gophinator to the rod with nylon string or whatever to keep a gopher that is just wounded from dragging the trap back into the hole, resulting in losing the trap which I have experienced.
Typically takes a few hours with the fresh air going into the tunnel to make the gopher want to plug it.
For moles. We have night crawler worms in the yard which is a favorite food for them as well as grubs and other subterranean insects.
We have tried dozens of different mechanical and chemical treatments to get rid of them with zero success until lately.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LWDRSRM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details
Bought these traps. Caught 5 moles in two weeks. My yard is clear of moles currently.
Here is the method.
Used the three wheeler and a roller I built that weighs about 300 lbs. Ran it around the yard to collapse the tunnels.
The next morning, got up to see where the new tunnels were located. Put a trap in each and over two weeks of rolling over the new tunnels and catching them with the traps, we are mole free for now.
Living in the sticks like we do, it's an ongoing process to keep them under control.
Edited to add pic
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