Gophers

Normally I don’t mind sharing the harvest with a gopher or two.  They are usually very polite and only eat an onion or garlic every now and then, not a big deal. This year how ever they were taking down several onions, garlic, broccoli and cabbages a week. The population I assume has increased with the consumption of my farm crops.  A second issue was that of safety, the underground tunnels were all over in every direction and so close together that if you stepped just right you could end up tripping, falling or worse yet spraining an ankle. I finally decided it was time to trap them.  I ordered 2 different trap styles, the large scissor type and the Victor easy set traps, both purchased from Peaceful Valley, I was ready!  After 2 days of failed attempts I sought help.  My kids say Youtube has everything you would ever want to learn posted somewhere and so it was.  I spent 30 minutes watching gopher catching techniques. Armed with fresh information I enlisted the help of my new Head of Gopher Patrol (aka my Husband) and the hunt was on! With in 20 minutes He had successfully captured our first gopher, a robust 10 inch long fellow!!! He was caught using the Victor easy set traps.  The gophers have so far eluded the scissor traps by going around them instead of through them.  Will fine tune the hole digging process and keep at it.