LACOMBE, Alta. – When it comes to killing pocket gophers, wildlife researcher Gilbert Proulx has tried just about everything.
Forget about setting out juicy fruit chewing gum laced with poison or chocolate-flavored laxatives. The smart little creatures won’t touch them .
“Save your money and don’t buy the poisons,” said Proulx. Besides traditional poisons, he’s tried poisonous plants, some so toxic they’ll kill a horse or a cow.
“They ate the bushes and asked for more,” he said.
Pocket gophers, sometimes called moles, churn up mounds of earth, causing extensive damage to fields and machinery. Proulx told about 130 farmers at Lacombe that the pocket gopher has probably been around since the earliest mammals appeared on earth. Through research on their behavior he’s found them to be clever, tenacious and almost invincible.
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No effective control
The gopher control research program in Alberta is sponsored by 18 municipalities, several conservation groups and the Alberta Cattle Commission. Although they know a lot more about their behavior there still isn’t an effective control, said Proulx who’s counted as many as 400 gophers on 20 acres.
Proulx, who works for the Alpha Wildlife Research company in Edmonton, has found setting traps around the borders of hay fields and pastures still works best, and provided some advice.
The best traps are those set in the gopher tunnel. They’re usually small boxes with a hole in the back. Outside air flows through the hole and down the tunnel which attracts the animal. While investigating the hole, the gopher triggers a striking bar or wire snare.
To set the traps, find fresh mounds of dirt. The main tunnel is found by probing the area in a line between two fresh mounds. Less resistance is noticed when the probe drops into the main tunnel.
Once the tunnel is found, use a shovel to remove enough soil so the trap can be pushed into the tunnel opening. The trap must be well sealed with dirt, allowing air into the tunnel only through the trap’s back hole.
Visit the traps twice a day. Reset traps in treated areas regularly to catch any gophers that were missed the first time around. With diligence it’s possible to remove 90 percent of them.
“If you remove the traps for a month, as many or more as you had before will invade. Gophers are always on the move,” Proulx said.
Pocket gophers don’t hibernate. They rely on good snow cover in grain and hay fields that provides leftover green plants and grain for food. If there isn’t much snow they’re forced to eat roots, which probably leaves them vulnerable to starvation, he said.
He estimates the females bear six to eight young each spring. They spend about half their time sleeping, eat their weight in food each day and only appear above ground about three hours daily.
This reduces their chances of being caught by hawks or coyotes. When they’re not eating or sleeping, they’re tunneling, said Proulx.
