Curbstone Valley Farm: Got Gophers?

Dear Readers,
The kind folks at Curbstone Valley Farm posted this on their fine blog and website and allowed me to repost it. Enjoy!

Curbstone Valley Farm: Got Gophers?
***some images and video not for the faint-hearted***
We have pocket gophers. Lots of them. We try very hard not to interfere with native plant and animal species on the property. However, in the garden and orchard areas we occasionally find we need to address our pocket gopher population. Burgeoning populations can quickly decimate rows of crops, kill small shrubs and trees, and do significant damage to underground irrigation systems.



Valley Pocket Gopher - the mortal enemy of young fruit trees

When we first moved here it was clear that in some parts of the property we had a healthy pocket gopher population. We knew that some degree of effective gopher control would need to be employed to protect our investment of newly planted fruit trees in the orchard.
Our goal was not to eliminate all gophers from the property. That’s neither reasonable, nor desirable. Although pocket gophers are damaging to crops, they do have benefits. They bury organic matter in the soil, increasing soil fertility. They aerate soils, preventing compaction, and increasing water penetration, thereby decreasing run-off. Their burrow systems are often utilized by other species, including our resident Coast Range Newts, as valuable shelter from weather and predators. Gophers also help to increase the rate of soil formation by bringing subsoil materials to the surface, where they are subjected to weathering. A few gophers aren’t necessarily bad, we just want to prevent the population from getting out of control.


In addition to powerful jaws, pocket gophers have long sharp claws

Five species of pocket gophers are found in California. The Botta’s, or Valley Pocket Gopher, Thomomys bottae, is the most widely distributed in this state, and the species we have here. Various species of pocket gopher are found throughout the western two-thirds of the United States, and parts of the southeast.
Regardless as to species, they are all controlled similarly and there are numerous legal methods of gopher control. Popular control methods have included baiting with toxic baits such as Strychnine-treated grain, or anticoagulant rodenticides, or hiring a certified professional to fumigate with aluminum phosphide.
We weren’t interested in using any toxic methods of control, not just to protect our own animals, but also the wild birds and animals here, and to eliminate any risks of residue run-off into the two creeks on the property. We consider this property to be sensitive habitat for numerous native plant and animal species, and have no desire to risk their populations for the sake of controlling a few gophers.
Non-toxic methods of control include trapping, barrier-exclusion methods of control, such as lining garden beds with hardware cloth or gopher wire, wrapping root-balls of sensitive plants in gopher wire, and encouraging natural predators to assist us in keeping populations in check. In the non-cultivated areas of the property we rely on natural predators to keep pocket gopher populations down. Our resident hawks, owls, coyotes, and bobcats are all natural predators of gophers, as is this gopher snake. But honestly, how many gophers can a gopher snake eat in a year?


The Pacific Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer) can't eat enough gophers to control large populations

We caught this bobcat earlier this year catching a gopher, with a side of salad, near the chicken coop.
Video: Bobcat Catches a Gopher at Curbstone Valley Farm
Unfortunately, the bobcats can’t reach the gophers running amok in our fenced orchard, and even if they could, they don’t consume enough of them, often enough, to significantly affect their populations. That’s where trapping becomes our best option.
We’d tried Macabee traps previously, but we had very rare success using those traps.
Unfortunately, the bobcats can’t reach the gophers running amok in our fenced orchard, and even if they could, they don’t consume enough of them, often enough, to significantly affect their populations. That’s where trapping becomes our best option.
We’d tried Macabee traps previously, but we had very rare success using those traps.


Macabee Trap - 'Old Reliable'...wasn't. We had poor success with this time-consuming trapping method.

Our soils here are friable, and it’s difficult excavating down to a horizontal run to place pairs of traps, without collapsing the tunnels completely. Macabee traps also aren’t very humane. They impale the gopher, but they’re not instantly killed. They bleed to death, slowly.


Cinch traps are easier to use than Macabee traps, and a more humane method of trapping

We had tried Cinch Traps, and had even less success with those. They are more humane, as they instantly kill the gopher, breaking its neck. What we didn’t realize was there is an art, and a science, to using Cinch Traps correctly, and successfully. Fortunately for us, we have an excellent local resource available, Thomas Wittman.
Thomas owns and operates Gophers Limited, in Felton, California. He teaches farmers, grounds keepers, and individual gardeners how to evaluate and control their own gopher populations. Desperate to squash the gopher problem that was gnawing its way across our orchard slope, we spoke with Thomas about doing an on-site evaluation and personal training session to teach us what we were doing wrong, so we could effectively trap our gophers. Thomas however recommended that we begin with one of his ’starter kits’, which included two traps, a hori-hori knife, and an in-depth instructional DVD. If after watching the DVD we still weren’t successful at trapping gophers on the property, he’d be more than happy to set up a private consult.



Our starter kit included this instructional video

We purchased his ‘Cinch Method Starter Kit’, and watched the video. We learned a lot more about gophers than we realized there was to know, and finally understood why our previous trapping attempts had been met with such limited
success. Thomas taught us how to think more like a gopher, how to read important patterns in soil disturbances, and most importantly where to place the Cinch Trap, and how to properly set the trap for greatest success.
The next morning, eager to deploy our new found knowledge against the gophers that had previously outwitted us, we set two traps. Thomas demonstrates placing the Cinch Traps in this video excerpt.
Video: Gopher Trapping Using the Cinch Surface Method (see gopherslimited.com)

We didn’t expect to be as successful as Thomas is in this video, as we hadn’t caught a gopher ourselves in months, but before lunch, we’d caught our first TWO pocket gophers in the orchard. Thomas’ kit had already paid for itself as we now had finally caught the most problematic gophers threatening our new fruit trees. As our gophers are killed without toxins, rather than bury them, we leave them at the soil surface. There are plenty of predators and scavengers here, and by morning they’re always gone.


Our first catch of the day

Ever wonder why these little rodents are called pocketgophers? I’d never really thought about it before. Pocket gophers get their name from their extensive external cheek pouches. Fur-lined pockets that extend all the way back toward their shoulders. They can pack a lot of food into these pockets, and transport it through their burrows, leaving their teeth and claws free for digging.


Pocket gophers transport food in their extensive external cheek pockets


Turning out this gopher's pockets revealed an entire crimson clover seed head

We took a little video of our first two successful catches. The video starts with a gopher underground tugging on the roots of some weeds (you can see the plant ‘twitching’).
Video: Checking Gopher Cinch Traps at Curbstone Valley Farm
We don’t usually recommend specific products on our blog, but if you have a seemingly endless supply of gophers, and are interested in non-toxic control of your resident gopher population, we highly recommend Thomas Wittman’s DVD. It was a good investment for us, and we finally feel confident that we can keep our gophers under control. If you reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thomas also does presentations throughout the year, in various locations. See the Gophers Limited website for upcoming sessions.

Living With Skunks

The very idea of skunks make people nervous. A skunks natural defense mechanism - you know the spray, makes them a very undesirable neighbor. But, there are so many skunks around it is almost impossible to avoid them or at least smell them. I get numerous calls about skunks in my business especially by irate dog owners or folks who have those great little cat or dog doors and end up with a skunk in the kitchen eating kibble. This post hopefully will give you some ideas on how to avoid the problems associated with skunks and begin to understand these beautiful animals that we live with.

First of all, there are times of the year when skunks decide that there are better places than the woods (what little is left in urban and suburban areas) to den. The oncoming colder months often drive them under decks and into basements and then in the early spring the need for a safe place to rear their kits. A lot of spraying occurs during mating and then again to protect their dens. I receive the distress calls at these times. Sometimes it is just unpleasant for people and sometimes people are alergic or sensitive to the odor and they have to vacate until the smell goes away.
When I get a call, the first thing I do is to discover for certain if there is a skunk residing under a house or deck. This is usually easy to detect if there is a lingering odor and there are signs of skunk digging and an obvious point of entry such as basement vent that is torn open. Sometimes like in decks that are open all around, the only sign is the odor. Once I am fairly certain the skunk or skunks are there, I determine if the space can be closed up and the animal(s) eventually evicted and excluded. This is easy in the case of a torn open vent but can be more difficult around decks. In the case of decks harboring skunks, I recommend digging a trench arond the edge and putting in a wire barrier about 1-2 feet deep with an "L" bend at the bottom facing out.
Once there is an exclusion option or even if there is not, the next step is to start the eviction process. I like to use Pine Sol and I spray it into the area using a fertilizer bottle on a garden hose. I put the Pine Sol in full strength and set the fertilizer bottle at highest level. Then, I wait until the evening, just before skunks usually emerge and spray the area trying to reach the deep, dark places . Don't worry, I never see them come running right out, skunks are very cautious, they come out later when things are quiet. Often, neither myself nor my clients see them emerge. The next day, and especially if there is a barrier with one opening, I put a piece of cardboard over the exit and see if the cardboard or paper is pushed in or out to determine if the animal returned. At this point I install a one-way door on the opening to ensure that if an animal is still inside it can exit. At this time of year (Spring), I must be very careful not to separate a mom and kits. So, I leave the door open and continue to spray for a few more nights. The mom will relocate the kits and then the sealing up time is right. In the case of an area like a deck that can not have a barrier, constant spraying will do the trick.
In the event of skunks or other animal getting into the house via a cat or dog door, there are a few ways to handle this. You can bring your inside animal at night and not use the door, you can close the door as early as possible in the evening or you can get one of the doors that require your animal to wear a magnetic collar to get in. If you feed your animals outside, particularly cats, then put the dish away at night so you don't attract other animals.
There are only a couple of times one would resort to catching a skunk in a trap. One is if the animal is obviously sick, in the case of a skunk this is usually seeing one during the day or if it is aggressive. It is better then to call the animal control folks in your county or city. Another is if you are unable to evict the animal. In this case you must ascertain if kits are present and be sure not to trap if they are.
Trapping a skunk is easy, I use a special trap called a "Durapoly" live trap that is enclosed and is more comfortable for the skunk or any animal than a cage trap and the skunks rarely spray. I install a view window in these trap so the trapper can be sure of the catch. I usually use dry cat food. Once you trap a skunk, I recommend that you bring it to the SPCA or a wild animal rescue place. Often the same organizations do provide trapping services. They will be able to ascertain if the animal can be rehabitated or if it is not healthy euthanized. This is an example of why trapping a skunk may not be a good idea, you may be ending the animals life as well.So to recap, first be sure you have a persistent problem and not just a one time occurrence; look for ways to evict and exclude to animals for a permanent solution and lastly trapping is the last resort.