THE DO'S & DON'T'S WHEN IT COMES TO GOPHERS
We are 100% GREEN, ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE, and NON-TOXIC
This information is here to try and help you make the right decision when you have gophers. This should help you keep from damaging your property, your neighbors property, and keep your family, pets, livestock and wildlife safe as well.
Let's start with Do's:
- Immediately contact a professional gopher trapping service
- Ask if they are 100% GREEN and NON-Toxic - Do NOT hire anyone that baits gopher traps - they don't know what they're doing
- Ask if they provide a written guarantee that they will show you all dead gophers - if they tell you that the gophers die inside the tunnels, like mice inside a wall - then they don't know the first thing about gopher trapping
- Keep your pets away from the gophers and soil
- Keep out of the dirt, and free of diseases the gophers carry and spread
- Leave the mounds of dirt as they are, your trapper will clear this for you
Now with the Don't's:
- Don't stick a garden hose into the tunnel and try and flood out your gophers
- The water will follow the tunnels and wash away the foundation underneath your home, pool, walls, roads and other structures, then when the water dries up, the tunnels collapse and foundations buckle.
- Don't use exhaust fumes!
- Gophers ALWAYS tunnel underneath homes and den under bathtubs. If you use this method, you can kill someone in your family, or a neighbor. All you're doing is wasting fuels. The gophers knew you were there before you opened up their tunnel and they blocked off the main tunnel before you even started.
- Don't use Dry Ice!
- See above
- Don't use gum
- This is an Old Wives Tale - one of the silliest of all. It goes like this: the gopher eats the gum, gets constipated, blows up and dies. In fact, gophers love gum, and we have many times opened up food storage's and found large quantities of gum. This doesn't ever work but I know the gophers love it.
- DON'T (EVER) USE EXPLOSIVE GASSES/EXPLOSIVE DEVICES!
- Too many people don't understand what a gopher is. They use the term "gopher" to describe all rodents. A gopher is a TUNNELING rodent. Others make short tunnels and dens. When you use propane, gasses and shove them into the tunnel, then spark it, those highly volatile gasses can and do blow up and start fires! People are lighting fires on vast prairies, setting themselves on fire, destroying their homes and foundations. As stated before, gophers tunnel inside homes and den under bathtubs; gas can easily fill that space if a gopher hasn't blocked it off and you can be responsible for injuring or killing a neighbor, or one of your own family members.
- DON'T EVER USE POISONS!
- Regardless of what your applicator tells you, all poisons and baits have a scent. Just because they can't smell it, doesn't mean it doesn't have one. These highly toxic poisons kill indiscriminately and your applicator has no clue where your gophers are tunneling. Those gophers will push those poisons above-ground into someone else's back yard where a child can eat it and die. Horses and cattle have been known to die from these poisons. Birds also ingest these poisons and fall to the ground, where pets and wildlife eat and die as a secondary kill. These applications need to be illegal in the usage for gophers. The public needs to take a stand against it's usage in this country, and demand stricter limitations for it's usage.
- DON'T EVER USE TOXIC GASSES - AND DON'T ALLOW ANY EXTERMINATOR TO EITHER!!!!
- These toxic and deadly gasses are responsible for the deaths of many people, including children. While the companies are making money using this application, it's certainly NOT killing your gophers and keeping them away. The gophers will simply return once the gas has dissipated, which is why they guarantee only for a short time. Here is an article you need to read, so you will understand why not to use this method.
- THE EPA RULING - EPA bans residential use of pesticide
While we can tell you that gophers can tunnel underneath your home and under your tubs, here are some photos to prove it.
In this above photo, we had to go buy an industrial size shop vac to remove all the backfill the gophers had flooded the interior walls with. To the right, the garden tub in the master bedroom.
Gophers follow water and sewer lines directly into homes. When you see mounding near sewer cleanouts pipes, you can expect that you have gophers inside or underneath your home.
Gophers tunnel alongside pipe that has been buried in the ground. From water, drainage, sewer, electrical and irrigation lines, gophers will always utilize these due to the ability to tunnel easier through the soils.
Above are another sign that the gophers have come inside your home and usually, there is a bathtub on the other side of the wall. With this customer, this was her laundry tub inside her garage of her new home. Her master bathroom was on the other side.
We are always happy to answer any questions you may have. There is much false information regarding gophers on the Internet, so please do your research before attempting to go after your gophers, or hire someone to do it for you.
We strongly advise you to only hire a professional trapper, that strictly uses only traps, without any baits, poisons or gasses. Make sure you get a written guarantee as well. If anyone you speak to cannot give you physical proof of a dead gopher, then you are wasting your money.
Chasing gophers from one property to another is not doing you any good. Gophers must be trapped and killed. If anyone tells you that a gopher eats or is poisoned inside their tunnel, do not believe this as well. By the time anything is inserted into their tunneling system, the gopher has already blocked off that tunnel and has already started constructing a new system, causing additional damages.
It is true that trapping gophers is a tough job, but when you hire professional trappers, the job gets done right the first time. Spending money over and over again, each time the gophers return is wasteful and unethical. Trappers are able to kill the gophers, show you the dead gopher, and you know right there, that gopher will never return to damage your property again.
We hope you find the information you're seeking here, but if we haven't provided it here, please do not hesitate to e-mail us with your questions or comments. You can also find us on Facebook by clicking on the link. >> The Gopher Getters Facebook Page .