I just set one trap before dinner and went out and it had caught another.
I think the biggest secret is setting the black “box of death” so that the slightest bump triggers it. It looks like if the two levers are fully hooked the gophers will feel or see the trigger before it trips. I hated the green wire traps but I have a friend with a big lot that has gotten used to them and is also a great gopher hunter like Rustico.
Here is the whole story this is a frequent topic and hopefully if anyone finds it useful, this post can be linked to help others in the future.Yes, I am serious about this topic:
The angle doesn’t seem to matter but I tend to tilt the box up a little because rumor is that this is the right way to do it. I make a clean fit,box to hole.
I don’t touch the any dirt with my hand.
I also throw weeds on top of the trap not covering the little hole in the closed end of the box. This may not even matter but it gets rid of weeds and gophers at the same time…cool beans.
I don’t worry too much about putting traps in both openings in a excavated tunnel. If I dig and have two openings I guess at which one is more likely to go to the den and set it at that one. If I miss, the hole I didn’t chose will be filled. I dig past the fresh plugged tunnel opening it and setting the trap catching that gopher. I’d rather go after another gopher someplace else with the other trap and make the same guess as to where the den is. I guess right more than not and evidently they are also in the den area more than elsewhere. This is why I frequently catch two at a time with only two traps. I also collapse tunnels with the shovel frequently and believe making life harder in this way for them makes catching them easier.
Sometimes I can see they have started a new system, usually near a prized plant. In this case I get the garden hose and stick it in the hole… a five gallon bucket dumped in will work too. They often pop up very stunned, a perfect opportunity to prepare them for “relocation” with an implement of your choosing. Sometimes a rat or a toad pops up. The toad is relocated alive. Water does not work in a big tunnel system.
When I have cleaned them out from my ever expanding garden, I start watching the perimeter and trap as needed.Having a perimeter is huge to the long term control of gophers in important areas.
That’s what I think it takes to be effective on a large property… at least without poisons. Not so much once you get used to it.
