I have 13 acres and I have tons of gopher activity as do my neighbors. I have mastered the art of killing them one at a time with the cinch trap and I've killed about 11 now in a week.

I worry there could be hundreds of them.

Any ideas on how to accelerate the extermination?

Foxes?

Anyone have experience with owning a barn owl?

gopher bait and a bait applicator

gopher bait machine

Snakes. Lots of snakes.

I had t he same problem and found a machine that kills them with pressurized carbon monoxide. Not cheap, but very effective. I have about a 90% kill rate meaning 9 times out of 10 a mound, or group of mounds,I have treated does not come back. Easy to use, it takes about 2 minutes per application. Name of the company is H&M Gopher Control, you can find them on the web. I have used it around the house/barns and out in pastures, the model I have pulls behind a Gator. Again, not cheap but if you and your neighbors are serious about getting rid of them this is an effective answer.

Attack dachshund, a blood thirsty lil'*******.

BCStalk said:

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The only correct answer

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There is a rancher in Shasta who had enough and now hosts a gopher shoot. He grills burgers and provides a keg and has about 40 rednecks over for good ole shoot out.

sw@n said:

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Attack dachshund, a blood thirsty lil'*******.

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Dachshund's and Corgi's are outstanding for gopher control, my parents have a Corgi that is fat from eating all the gophers he kills. Other than that, they are surprisingly easy to kill by creeping up on them and using a 20 gauge. Knock all the mounds flat, check the yard every 10 minutes, and let the fun begin once you see a little dirt getting kicked up. They'll poke their head up every 30 seconds or so, ease up and wait for your opportunity, and blast away.

There's a hand applicator that's a probe. Probe down, find their tunnels, and pull the trigger to apply bait. Make sure the bait you use contains strychnine, it worked much better for me. I had luck using this method, plus traps for mounds that the poison missed.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009YZKHSC/ref=psdcmw_3737941_t3_B00EOMCJE0

Something like this.

https://www.solutionsstores.com/gopher-bait-50-strychnine

With something like this.

Been chasing this one for a while. Hopefully he was working alone. My yard is a wreck.

Gopher Hawk finally got him.

We get them at our family farm and besides great shooting for the younger kids, my FIL and I pull out a portable generator and pipe the exhaust into tunnels. It does work. Unfortunately I don't have an answer to totally get rid of them.

We just pack their holes with ammonia rich cat box scoopings. They stop coming around after about 3 applications.

maroon barchetta said:

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Been chasing this one for a while. Hopefully he was working alone. My yard is a wreck.

Gopher Hawk finally got him.

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huge fan of the gopher hawk. didnt like the price but after using a few times its money well spent.

But then the yard smells like cat piss.

No, actually not a bad idea. Same concept as using coyote piss for other rodentia.

We have this problem in Pearsall (South Texas) at our ranch house yard. Are they gophers or moles there? Trying to figure out which bait/poison to buy.

The AntAGonist said:

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But then the yard smells like cat piss.

No, actually not a bad idea. Same concept as using coyote piss for other rodentia.

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In our case, we dumped a few scoops worth down the hole, then kicked some of the excavated dirt over the top and tamped it down. No smell anywhere but down the gopher tunnel. In our case they were pocket gopher tunnels, but I assume it will work with any of them.

When I was in high school and butane was relatively inexpensive, we had so many prairie dogs covering the west end of one half section field (the other half section was pasture), that the wheat was nearly not worth cutting.

My dad came up with a solution. We pulled a thousand gallon butane tank into the field. It had a hose attached so that if you opened the valve on the butane tank, it would spew out the butane full force.

We would stick the hose down a prairie dog hole, cover it with dirt, and turn on the butane. While the butane was on, he would look around for signs of butane coming out from nearby holes and cover them up, too.

That pretty much solved the problem.

The GOPHER HAWK is my go to trap. Used them all nothing beats the gopher hawk. Around my place with it sandy soil I now have them at bay for the time being. I have about about 10 of them that I use over my ranch.

Rab79 has the only real solution but your neighbors need to be doing it too if they are small acreage and have the same desire to annihilate those little *******s.

Edit to add…ya'll could probably go in together to buy one and if one of you has a small tractor you are in business.

I'm south of San Antonio in the sugar sand.

The applicator RAB 79 showed is the least amount of labor but a little more expensive; but by far the most effective if you're working more than 2-3 acres total.

Smaller areas, the traps would probably work but are more labor.

Understand- any animal - I mean ANY ANIMAl that eats that strychnine will most likely die. Don't let any of it get left on top off the ground. Cat, dog, sparrow- it kills em all dead pretty much where they stand. Not trying to scare or discourage anyone but just be aware of consequences of not applying it correctly.

As mentioned, neighbors for as far as possible in all directions need to apply also or they will migrate back in short order.

You can buy bait in 5 gal buckets. Last time I bought, they were about $200. That should treat close to 10 acres - just depends on how close you run your lines. You might consider making lines closer and doin a cross hatch pattern the fist time to make sure you get a good kill.

Also, get the hand applicator linked above to get the strays that "get away" and use in between large applications.

Good luck and hope you kill all them suckers. One of the things Noah should have left off the Ark.