Re: Varmint's
Linda wrote:
> I am plagued with gophers and moles Do you have a remedy to get
> rid of them?
I sympathize with you. No easy solutions. Even if you can totally
eliminate gophers, as soon as you stop an eradication program, they will
migrate in again from your neighbor's land. Expensive and time-consuming as
it is, you have probably found the only total effective solution - wire
mesh. One solution is to put wire mesh underground (and underneath) a
planted area, and keep this a "gopher free" zone, and give up on the rest of
your land. The sides of this area could be anything impervious, such as
concrete or plastic board such as used as a bamboo barrier. Expensive , but
permanent, and would allow you not to have to cage each new plant. Some
people have said (and i do not have personal experience to know) that if you
plant a mass of certain euphorbes (which have poisonous roots) around your
desired plants, that will protect them from the tunneling gophers, since the
gophers wont eat the roots. This would probably NOT work for moles, which
are eating little insects and other critters under the ground, and not
roots. If you're out in the country, you can encourage 22-carrying
teenagers to use them as target practice. Most people use poisonous baits,
which are reasonably effective, and must be constantly put out (and traps
for moles - there is this type of trap that is sensitive to the vibrations
moles make in their tunnels, and is set above ground, and springs and
impales them as they pass under.) If you had enough hawks or coyotes, you
probably wouldn't have such a big problem. (Do your fellow South Texans
regard coyotes as an asset, or as a varmit? ) I am told, though I have no
actual experience, that Abyssinian cats will eliminate a large part of a
gopher problem. Of course that means keeping them outside, and I imagine
they would have to have been trained by their mother to hunt. (They may
themselves become the meal of a coyote if they are around, and they may also
take a few birds with the gophers)
