Gopher problems?
 

Just a quick question: Has anybody growing bananas in California had problems with gophers? Since I live near the mountains, we get them every year. I haven't noticed anything yet. I don't want them ruining my plants next spring!

Re: Gopher problems?
 

Re: Gopher problems?
 

I just talked to my dad about gophers. He said that we haven't had gopher problems for years. I remember a few years ago we brought a gopher exterminator in and he was getting them left and right. If they decide to return we can just bring him back. Problem solved! :D

Re: Gopher problems?
 

Gophers Suck! I cannot plant anything on my property without using a wire basket. I buy my wire by the roll at $80/roll. I make the baskets myself. I also use traps. I have the most luck with the black hole traps. Gophers LOVE bananas! Good luck!

Re: Gopher problems?
 

If you have gophers in the vicinity, they WILL find your bananas. They love them, almost as mush as figs.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

I should probably put gopher wire around my plants' roots then. My dad said that the gopher exterminator put this stuff all over the yard that repels gophers, but better safe than sorry.

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There are gopher in every lawn in my neighborhood and not a single one in my yard.Maybe it's the neighbors cats.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

They also don't like human hair or urine. I won't elaborate or some of you may think I'm strange.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

Only good gopher is a...


No exceptions.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

Right. I just hope all of this new stuff that I'm getting doesn't lure them back...

Re: Gopher problems?
 

I had some recently and used the gas method. Have not seen any new holes for a week.

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Well, spring has sprung, and so has gopher season. No problems yet.

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that's gotta suck, what do they do to the bananas, chew on the p-stem or dig around them?

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I think they topple them, and maybe even chew on the corm.

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Gophers suck! They will kill anything they can chew. I lost an 8 foot giant bird of paradise and a six foot fig tree to name a few plants. Killing them may be fun but it only thins out the herd slowly. I don't like using poisons but they seem to work the best in cutting the population down. When I catch them I ram them down their holes so they can rot there. Other gophers will avoid that area. Moving to Hawaii in June will be a blessing as they don't have gophers!
Here's a double header from a few weeks ago.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

Andrew, I'd rather have gophers than banana bunchy top virus! No chicken wire cage is going to keep BBTV away from your bananas in Hawaii. I'm just jealous that you're moving to Hawaii.

Back to gophers, I finally won a two-year-long battle with one. Now, admittedly, I had no experience as a gopher hunter prior to this. I tried Macabee style traps and he just buried them (though I did get a smaller, dumber gopher in them). I tried poison bait, and maybe it made him feel ill, but it didn't kill him. I tried "Gopher Goo" to no avail. I went so far as to plant catnip in my yard to attract the neighborhood cats so they might get him, or at least scare him away. Every time I thought I'd finally done him in, or he'd died of old age more likely, he'd open a new hole in my yard. Two days ago, he dug out a new hole under my fig tree, where I think he's been living for months. I tried a different kind of trap, a Cinch Trap. Much to my surprise, I found him dead in it the next morning. It was a bitter-sweet victory over my old nemesis. But boy was he a big gopher, living on that upscale diet of fig roots!

If you haven't tried the Cinch Trap, it's worth considering. You don't need to do all that digging into the main tunnel. You just dig out the plug of the hole, insert the trap, and leave the hole unplugged. When the gopher goes to plug the hole, he triggers the trap. It goes against everything you will have read about using Macabee traps. But the proof is in the pudding.

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It's going to be lonely now out in the yard.

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After the kill, rip up the tunnel, otherwise another moves into a ready-made home, and picks up- where the last one left off.

Re: Gopher problems?
 

I know, just me and the plants. Did Bill Murray ever contemplate how he'd feel if he actually succeeded in doing in his adversary?! :ha:

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I left one in the hole once. Then the skunks dug it up and woke me up from the crunching, nasty.

I used to be nice. Not anymore, I bought more traps. The gophers are all over our yard through the year but don't kill anything. I don't know why.