Local Weather Forecast
Today: Current:78	Thursday: 90/72	Friday: 94/75
Complete Forecast for  Jul 24 2008

What feeds on your trees, grass, and favorite garden plants almost at will without being seen? If you answered pocket gophers you are right. Pocket gophers cause damage to all types of plants in their subterranean quest for nourishment. Usually the only visible signs of a gopher infestation are the telltale mounds they leave in your pasture or landscape.

Gopher tunnels are a series of underground runways that can range in size from 2 to 5 inches in diameter and are typically found from between 4 and 15 inches below the soil surface. Burrows, which vary in size and depth, serve as homes, storehouses and routes used in the search for food.

A single gopher can have a tunnel system that traverses an acre of land. Except for mating and rearing young, gophers live solitary lifestyles, which means that most of the year there will only be one gopher per burrow. However, these burrow systems often overlap, enabling you to have several gophers on a given parcel of land.

Mounds seen at the soil surface are created by gophers as they push out soil to expand and repair tunnels. Mounds are characteristically horseshoe shaped, 8 to 24 inches in diameter, 6 inches tall, and typically have a depression on one end. Gopher mounds play a critical role as a starting point when attempting to control gophers using individual trapping and/or baiting methods for control.

A single pocket gopher, according to information from Oklahoma Cooperative Extension, is capable of producing up to 200 mounds per year. Texas AgriLife Extension Service information reveals that a single pocket gopher is capable of moving 2.5 tons of soil to the surface per year.

If you have gophers and they are not causing you problems such as eating your plants, interfering with your farm machinery or damaging your underground irrigation pipes and electric lines, you might consider leaving them alone to work the soil. However, if they are causing problems, you might want to consider a chemical or mechanical control method this spring.

In small areas, trapping gophers is typically the best option. Gopher traps are inexpensive and usually sold in pairs. Locate the newest mounds and use these as your starting point. Probe the soil about 6 inches from the mound (going in a circle) with a blunt object (I use a short piece of concrete rebar) until you locate the main tunnel. This will be felt when the rebar pushes through the top and taps against the bottom of the tunnel.

Next, dig into the tunnel with a shovel until it is exposed. Set traps, one on each end of the hole, as far as you can into each tunnel. Leave the hole open but slightly covered. Secure traps with wire to above ground stakes. Traps set in the evening will often result in a caught gopher the next morning. If the gopher covers up the hole, pull the trap out of the ground and start over in a new location. Some gophers can take several attempts to catch.

Gophers can also be controlled in lawns and pastures by using a toxic bait product containing either strychnine or zinc phosphide. For small areas, hand bait using a metal rod to probe for burrows. Once the burrow is located, remove the probe and insert the recommended dosage of bait and close the opening. There are also commercially available probes that dispense a measured amount of toxic bait all in one step.

For large areas, a tractor-mounted burrow builder baiting machine is often best. These machines, which dispense bait underground, are pulled back and forth across a field to make a series of parallel burrows about 25 to 30 feet apart at the same depth as the gopher's natural tunnel. The goal is for the gophers to tunnel into the artificial burrows and find the bait.

Always read and follow label instructions when using toxic baits. For more information, contact your local Extension office and request a copy of publication L-1904, "Controlling Pocket Gopher Damage."

Brian Triplett is the Smith County Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources. He can be reached at 903-590-2980 or via e-mail at b-triplett@tamu.edu or on the Web at http://smith-tx.tamu.edu.