Because of the lack of irrigation water experienced last year many farmers are seeing an increase n the pocket gopher population. The following information may help in trying to reduce their numbers for the upcoming year.
Quick Facts...
•Pocket gophers prefer alfalfa. Pocket gophers reduce productivity of portions of alfalfa fields and native grasslands by 20 to 50 percent.
•Damage by pocket gophers can be reduced by exclusion, cultural methods and habitat modification, trapping, and toxicants applied by hand or with a burrow builder.
•Pocket gophers feed on roots they encounter from digging, from vegetation they pull into the tunnel from below, and vegetation above ground near the tunnel.
•Pocket gophers usually construct one to three mounds per day although the rate varies. One gopher brings about 2 1/4 tons of soil to the surface each year.
•Pocket gophers are consumed by owls, hawks, badgers, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, skunks, weasels, bullsnakes and rattlesnakes.
Pocket gophers reduce the productivity of alfalfa fields and native grasslands on which they are found by 20 to 50 percent. If gophers are present on 10 percent of a field, they may reduce overall forage productivity of the field by 2 to 5 percent. Gopher mounds dull and plug sickle bars when harvesting hay or alfalfa. Gophers sometimes damage trees by girdling or clipping stems and by pruning roots. Gophers may at times, destroy underground utility cables and irrigation pipes.
Alfalfa varieties with several large roots rather than a single tap root suffer less when pocket gophers feed on them and are more resistant to grazing by grasshoppers. Each cut section of roots from a multi-rooted variety will send up a new shoot that may compensate for losses due to gophers.
Rotating alfalfa with grain Crops effectively controls pocket gophers because annual grains do not produce large enough roots to support gophers year round. Planting 50-foot wide buffer strips of grain around a hay field can provide unsuitable habitat and minimize immigration of pocket gophers.
If water is available, flood irrigation can effectively control gophers, especially in fields that are leveled to remove high spots that might serve as refuges. The wet-flooded soil generally prevents diffusion of gasses in and out of the burrow and sticks to the pocket gopher's fur and claws creating an inhospitable environment.
Trapping is one of the best methods to reduce pocket gopher numbers on small to moderate-sized fields (less than 50 acres) and to remove remaining animals after a poison control program. Body-gripping traps (Death Clutch 1, Macabee, Victor, Guardian Gopher Trap), available from hardware and trapping supply stores, work exceptionally well for capturing gophers. Trapping usually is most successful in the spring and fall when gophers are actively building mounds.
Four rodenticides are registered for pocket gopher control:
•strychnine (0.25 to 0.5 percent active ingredient),
•zinc phosphide (2 percent active ingredient),
•chlorophacinone (Rozol) (0.005 percent active ingredient), and
•diphacinone (Eaton's Answer)(0.005 percent active ingredient).
To poison pocket gophers, place the bait in their tunnel systems by hand or with a burrow builder machine.
Fumigants, such as aluminum phosphide and gas cartridges, are not very successful for controlling pocket gophers because gophers either sense the poisonous gas and plug the tunnel or the fumigants diffuse into the soil, particularly when it is dry. Pocket gophers reportedly can be controlled by injecting exhaust from an old vehicle without antipollution devices into the burrow for about 3 minutes.
Shooting pocket gophers may improve your marksmanship, but it is impractical because they seldom wander above ground unless flooded out by irrigation water.
Once you have controlled pocket gophers, monitor the area on a regular basis for reinfestation. Level all existing mounds after the control program, and clean away weeds and garden debris, so you easily can see fresh mounds.
It is important to check regularly for reinfestation, because pocket gophers can move in from other areas, and damage can reoccur in a short time. If your property borders wildlands, vacant lots, or other areas that serve as a source of gophers, you can expect gophers to reinvade regularly.
Be prepared to take immediate control action when they do. It is easier, cheaper, and less time consuming to control one or two gophers than to wait until the population builds up to the point where they cause excessive damage.
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