Gophers

We love our home in Clatskanie but we sure don’t like having to deal with the gophers. This picture just shows some of the mounds we have over our back yard. So far I have tried several ways of ridding our yard of them. First I bought poison pellets that I had to place carefully in every hole. That didn’t even faze them and in fact I think they enjoyed the snack. Later I tried three different types of traps, all of which they just pushed up out of the ground. Next on the list was poison smoke bombs. The only thing they did was burn my thumb a couple of times. The gophers even pushed the burnt leftovers out of their holes. My neighbor was having luck with a shotgun and though Teri absolutely hates guns she suggested I go buy a shotgun. I went and got one and managed to get one gopher with it. I am not a fisherman, though I love to eat fish but because I don’t like to just sit in one place doing nothing that didn’t work for me so… do any of you want to buy a shotgun? Next I heard the idea of poring gasoline down the holes and lighting them on fire. It doesn’t burn the little critters to death but is supposed to kill them with the fumes or the lack of oxygen or something. That cut down on the population a bit but didn’t get rid of them. Now I have found a little device that hooks to the exhaust pipe of the car. The device is attached to a garden hose which is then fed down into the hole. I have used it over three days and of the thirty or so holes I have put it in I am only seeing one mound come back. Maybe I finally am onto something that actually works. It may even be considered humane since it just puts the cute little furry creatures to sleep… a never ending sleep to be sure.