Gopher and Mole Abatement

Adult pocket gopher, Thomomys sp. Credit: Jack Kelly Clark, UC IPM

Got Gophers?  I did – I once had a gopher cat, she was good and never bothered the birds.  Since I won’t use poison I tried traps a number of times, but I never caught a gopher.  In fact, I lost two or three Macabee-style traps, which in theory, are retrievable from deep within the hole.  So when I saw that Janice Moody and Judith Dean were teaching a class on how to lethally trap gophers, I signed up for it.

One of the many training classes that our Master Gardeners teach periodically is how to get rid of gophers without resorting to poison. 

The class was held at Portola School in San Bruno, which has a gopher problem, to say the least.  The intent was to teach school staff how to do this since their field maintenance budget is extremely limited.  We were able to trap one gopher just during the class, under the school raised beds, but since the traps are lethal the school principal isn’t able to implement. 

Lethal traps work well and are easy to set once you know the simple trick, the number one key is to find an active hole.  That’s it – they plug up their holes to block light.  If light enters their hole they will plug it up – light is the bait.  To identify an active hole, look for dirt mounds that are slightly moist as those are brand-new.

General Information on Gophers and Management:
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/QT/gopherscard.html

How to set a Cinch gopher trap
https://youtu.be/42pIgharmuU?si=3sA9xC5Px4YhYeJK

How to clean a Cinch gopher trap
https://youtu.be/0K8C19x8MBU?si=jAlKHkJwr546QHnZ

How to set a Cinch trap and find the freshest gopher hole
https://youtu.be/l6VLHhWFndo?si=wtXRxKWpfiFe9v4q