There are a few types of creatures in existence that are of questionable purpose. Skunks, mosquitoes, and yes, you guessed it, gophers. The only benefit they can offer is a meal for their predators when they get caught.
On flood irrigated ground gophers are driven to the ditchbanks and outer perimeter of the field where it is easier to stay out of the water when it comes. But, because sprinkler irrigation systems don't saturate their tunnels with water and either drown them or force them to relocate, gophers thrive in fields irrigated by handlines, wheel lines, and center pivots. In spite of many efforts to eradicate them, since the farm's sprinkler irrigation system was put in in about 1995, the gophers have been gradually increasing in population.
In June of 2014, I took my boys, then ages 4 and 2, out to the field with one of my old box traps so I could show them what a gopher looked like in real life. The first two times we set the trap the gopher plugged it with dirt. On our third try we finally caught one. It was big, ugly, and had the nastiest teeth and claws ever seen before. I told the G. and R. about how you can cut their tails off, take them in to the irrigation district office, and get a dollar for each one. They were so excited that we had to keep setting that trap so we could get more gopher tails. I rounded up a couple more traps and we were officially in the gopher trapping business.
There are 3 reasons we are doing this:
- It is an opportunity for my family to spend a little time working together outside every day.
- It is an opportunity for my children to earn a little money and learn about working hard for it. (most purchases in town are discussed in terms of how many gophers they had to catch to pay for it).
- It is an opportunity to help reduce crop loss and equipment breakdowns caused by gopher mounds.
Since June 12th, 2014, we have caught more than 535 gophers on the farm. In 2 of the fields we trap in it is finally starting to appear as though the gopher population is in a decline. We have actually had a difficult time finding fresh gopher mounds to set our traps in. But, we are far from running ourselves our of business. There are other fields we haven't been able to trap in as much.
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| First gopher of the year |
Below are pictures of our young gopher trapping professionals and how they identify recent gopher activity, dig the fresh gopher mounds, find the holes, and set the traps.
Step 1. Find a fresh gopher mound. There are two ways to do this. Either look for dark brown dirt mounds, or simply follow the dog. He has a high success rate of identifying good holes to set traps in.
Step 2. Find the circle in the mound and start digging. On a typical fresh gopher mound you should be able to find the hole after removing 2-4 shovels full of dirt.
Step 3. Stop everything to pick some blooming weeds.
Step 4: Clear out the entrance and smooth the dirt in front of the hole. (Keep in mind that gophers will bite fingers). Set the mechanism on the trap and carefully place it directly in front of the hole. Lightly cover all the gaps between the trap and the hole (except for the hole in the back of the trap) with dirt. Mark with a flag, and you're done!
Step 5: Pull up the traps. After 24 hours, any trap that is not set off will either be plugged or was set in an abandoned hole, so pull them all up.
After you have completed steps 1-5, you will hopefully have a gopher caught. The last step is to smile and do a happy dance (and then fill in the hole).
Trapping gophers may seem like an odd topic to spend so much time doing and talking about, but this has turned into valuable and rewarding family time for us. This is one thing we do together, but you don't have to live on a farm or trap gophers to find new ways to bond with your kids. For the innovative thinker, opportunities are everywhere for families to spend time together doing fun things that will create fond memories at little to no cost.
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