Re: gophers
- To: "mediterranean climate gardening e-mail forum for gardeners in these climates throughout the world"
- Subject: Re: gophers
- From: r* l*
- Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 18:41:59 -0700
Oh Linda!
I commiserate. I seem to do that a lot on this list, being plagued with
bermuda grass, heat, aridity and an army of gnawing rodents.
I find plants that can survive my climate. I nurture them from seed, plant
them in carefully prepared beds, only to discover that I am raising the
world's most expensive crop of gopher food.
We have voles as well, which are in some ways more insidious.
(We also have moles, but they do not eat the plants. Occasionally their
tunneling will damage roots, however. I do not resent the moles, and they
are welcome as long as they do not tunnel too much.)
Although I tend to be a compassionate type, and usually ooze environmental
correctness from every pore, I can be reduced to a frothing mass of hatred
by the furry pestilence known as gopher.
Once, after witnessing a valuable and precious plant pulled into the ground,
I actually stalked around my garden brandishing a colt 45 and threatening to
shoot anything that moved.
Thank God the neighbors weren't watching.
I have heard and tried probably every trick in the books: juicy fruit gum,
rocks, gravel, unpalatable plants, raised beds trenched by aviary mesh.
Baskets of mesh around each plant. Nothing seems to work 100%. As I am also
a rock gardener, baskets of aviary mesh around each plant is impossible.
Every time I see a gopher snake on the road, I catch it and bring it home.
The neighbors caught me performing that little trick, and eyed me strangely
for months.
My only hope is to try to trap them heavily in the spring and fall. (This
seems to be when they are easiest to trap.) I use the Blackhole traps, and
the green wire ones. The trick to trapping them is to dig down to a lateral
tunnel. Then cover the entire excavation site with a cardboard box. Seal
the edges where the box encounters the ground with dirt so no light gets
through.
I have probably dug more tunnels in my yard trying to trap gophers than the
gophers dig themselves.
(Isn't that a war proverb--One must become the enemy to triumph over him.)
On those rare occasions when I do catch one, I shake my trophy to the sky
and howl in fiendish delight.
The neighbors shutter their windows and call their children inside.
Rebecca Lance
Sonora California
>
> My biggest problem comes from below ground rather than insects and
> disease. (Although the squirrels tear up a lot of stuff too) I am
> plagued with gophers and moles which destroy so many plants I could
> cry. The moles let air to the roots and in our miserable heat, they dry
> out and wilt, often die.
>
