The McClain County OSU Extension Office will host a meeting dealing with gopher control options. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. March 7 at the McClain County Extension Office, located at 1721 Hardcastle Blvd. in Purcell.
The speaker will be Nicholas Waters, owner/operator at Gentlemen Gopher Removal. This meeting is free and open to the public.
Any persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication, program information, or reasonable accommodation need to contact the McClain County Extension Office at 405-5272174 at least two weeks prior to the event.
Controlling Gophers
Pocket Gophers are stocky, short-legged, medium-sized digging machines. There has been a sizeable amount of activity that has been noticed during the last couple of years. These rodents should not be confused with moles, though they often construct similar tunnels.
Gophers usually live in rangelands, and improved fields, but often invade lawns and flowerbeds. They feed mostly on roots, grasses, seeds, leaves, tubers, and bulbs.
The characteristic fanshaped mound, which may be 18 to 24 inches in diameter and 6 to 8 inches high are at the end of short lateral tunnels that branch off of the main runway. One Pocket Gopher may make as many as 200 soil mounds per year.
Pocket Gophers are active throughout the day, and are seldom found above the ground, though they may come out of their tunnels at night and on cloudy days. Most gophers are solitary animals with individual burrows in the same field that may form colonies.
Pocket Gophers are not currently protected by federal or state law, so controlling them is an option. Gopher populations can be reduced or eliminated over a considerable area with persistent control efforts.
Control efforts are best conducted when gophers are most active near the surface, usually in the spring or fall. New activity is usually indicated by fresh mounds of soil.
Control methods include poisoning, trapping, flooding, gassing, encouraging natural enemies, and exclusion. Over large and heavily infested areas, poisoning is the most economical control method. Gophers not controlled by poisoning will throw up fresh mounds and these individual can be trapped.
On small areas, such as lawns or where there are only a few gophers, trapping is the most practical method. Poison such as Strychnine, either alkaloid or sulfate is quite effective.
Corn, oats, wheat, and grain sorghum are readily eaten in some locations and when treated with poison are quite effective baits.
Poison can be applied by two methods. The first is done by hand using a probe to find the tunnel and to make a hole through which the bait is inserted. A good probe can be made of ¾ inch gas pipe with a sharp end and cut 34 inches long.
The second baiting method uses a tractor-drawn machine called a burrow builder. This machine makes artificial burrows and automatically drops toxic baits into them.
Materials used for poisoning gophers are dangerous to man and to other animals so extreme caution should be used when handling, storing, or applying them. All labels on toxicants should be read and followed closely.
Special traps are required for trapping gophers. Small spring traps of varying sizes are widely used. Two traps of appropriate size should be placed in the main runway, one set in each direction. Using a stout garden trowel or a lightweight shovel, find the freshest mound and follow a lateral from the mound to the main runway.
Gophers will instinctively cover open burrows to keep out enemies. Each trap should be fastened to a stake with a light wire. After traps are set, tamp down the tops of mounds so that mounds made by gophers you miss will be evident on the next visit.
If you have any questions about gopher identification or control methods call McDaniel at 580-332-2153 or come by the Ag Extension office.
