Pocket Gopher Control

Hey my name is Stevenl and am a program coordinator for wildlife damage

management

at the school natural resources universally nebraska-lincoln

we're here now fell for field in north eastern Nebraska

this is prime pocket gopher country his pocket gophers love

alfalfa fields we're gonna be beginning with talking about how

to identify a pocket gopher mount where to find that plug because the plug is

critical

for finding to get into that main berle system review to be setting your traps

we're putting your toxicant depending on which method you want to use

so when we begin looking at a pocket gopher mound before we can begin talking

about controlling pack Gophers we have to identify

the mound correctly tonight we're not confusing or more mound

with the pocket gopher mount we have a represent a pocket gopher mound right

here

no notice something distinctive about the shape

and that is it an all blonde shaped or other what's called a fan

or kidney shape notice the through teardrop design here

and if you look carefully you'll notice the plug this you could feel the see

this on all the mount

what happens is the pocket gophers coming out of the ground at a  degree

angle

and he's throwing the dirt this is why I have positioned myself

on the be inside amounts that way when I take my probe

I can dig probe down to find where it's

where I get less resistance and that's where the pocket gophers

tunnel is you can see how my are screwdriver your slides very quickly

if you don't have a screwdriver such as this is probably a  in screwdriver

you can't buy other probes like this and simply probe around

to find we get down to that main that mean tunnel

but I want you to be sure that you understand how a pocket gopher mound

works

is that one-sided amounts could have a lot more

soil than the other and the reason is the pocket gopher doesn't throw dirt

behind himself

he only pushes it out this particular way

so we're trying to identify where that port lateral tunnel is

would wanna make sure we position ourselves on the flat on the larger side

and then probe this wave to find that spot where we get less resistance

you just keep probing to find where that whole

where that whole as there's

there's a whole

this is called the lateral total

and we did that out to we get down to the main tunnel

not maybe down  to  inches

the depending on the soil conditions in your area

and you keep digging until you find

the main trouble the main tunnels gonna branch of

in two directions because the other man's here

I'm expecting the main run to be somewhere in here

now that we have the lateral tunnel opened

down to the main tunnel which is located here we have two options to control

these pocket gophers one of them is with traps of course

or we have the option of using toxicants I'm to begin talking about

setting a trap here again this is for trapping the lateral

the lateral tunnel so this is a DK one I'm gonna take the strap

said it here quickly notice I have a wire

cable do not use training because pocket gophers are trapped can chew through

that has to be a wire

cable and then we take the bend the wire around

so now we have it set it's not sort of have configured yet cuz I gotta move the

trigger back

to its just ball red-letter let the dog out this

peace here's call the dog now my trap is set

I put it down times first you can I want to try to get a feel for where that main

tunnel is

I want the trap to be placed just prior

to entering the main tunnel that I can take this

take the wire with my surveyors flag

and secure it doubt now so if you may have heard that we need to cover this

whole

research that i've done shows that there's no statistical difference

between effectiveness with leaving the tunnel open

or leaving a close the only reason why I would close the stun Elizabeth I was

worried about children getting access

or pets having access but we're out here in the middle for

about alfalfa field no one's gonna be walking through here so I'm not worried

about someone being injured

but if I was in a more urban area I would cover this

to protect children and pets even though there's no bait

someone may hurt themselves bikes putting their foot into this whole

not to not looking where they're going but that's all there is for now we just

simply check this

each day now we're not suggesting one

Friday a trap more is better than another its love it's just personal

preference

in your own particular interests Arden I just picked the DK one

I I have my research use the DK one as well as the McAbee this is the McAbee

trapped with the DK one

I believe this is called the Easy Set there are

a whole host of pocket gopher popular for traps available

the all they all work they'll have their pros and cons

and different car cost points it's just a matter of personal preference

began the process for setting the mall learned about how to do that but setting

them all into the tunnels

is exactly the same you just simply put times down first

and then make sure you stay could properly with your surveyors flager

something more substantive

and always use of wire not accord

because you don't want the pocket gopher biting through it

now in the lateral tunnel we can also use toxicants rather than setting traps

and here we have a zinc phosphide Bateman as well as

of phosphine up Fostex phosphine

tablets I can be places for a fumigation member you to fumigation

management plan when you using this particular product

by want to focus here on the toxic Bates

again you'd wanna dig out that lateral title down to the main tunnel

and then you'd put a teaspoon are far oats

treated oats onto your spoon you take that down

into the main tunnel put it poring over

and then you would close the borough making sure

that you don't cover the Oaks that's critical because people bury the bait

the pocket gopher won't be able to find you'll also want to make sure you doing

this during a time when the soil is dry

and you not anticipating any rain in the next several days

Singh phosphide is moisture sensitive so if you're worried about moisture in your

crop land

you'd wanna go to one of the into coagulant Bates

that's available I believe it's die Fasano

I is available for controlling pocket gophers are my pic or fasten on

but you'd wanna go with a are waxed

wax debate for the pocket gopher rather than using zinc phosphide

moisture is a concern in your area we talked about putting traps

in bait down lateral ton of to the main tunnel now we're gonna

to a different show you a different process of what's called hand baiting

going to the main title directly now the key to finding the main tunnel is to

recognize how pocket gophers build a tunnel systems

as we said before the lateral tunnel comes off at a  degree angle

from the main tunnel so you'll notice amount here

in the mound here these are crossed by tire tracks cuz I recently mode today

but we know that the main titles gotta be in between Lisa

so free probe their own with are narrow and this has a narrow and a fatter and

we got on the narrow end

see how drop show is we've made the main

we found the main tunnel in with flip it over wine it out

and then we take our spoon with toxicant

pour down to the whole

then kick it shot that's basically all you do you just keep doing that

according to label

and you put that fresh make sure you watch when using zinc phosphide make

sure the soil is dry

you not expecting rain anytime soon you know somewhere in the nitrile gloves

this time

the reason is because I'd be in closer proximity to the poison

using this particular technique that I was using the lateral

tunnels but I didn't the label did not require me to have nitrile gloves when I

was using a spoon

but I'm wearing now just to remind you the summer your labels will require you

to wear

nitrile gloves when using that particular toxicant to save the step

from using a spoon

there's another device uses the same principle but the toxic and it's inside

the storage rebirth

when you press the button he comes out the bottom so again

we push down push down find that spot we get down to the main tunnel

for minnows really hard here we have amount here we find if

lifted up slightly push the button make sure enough toxic and comes out

poured out kick it closed flock we have now

stated this particular spot without for pocket gophers

so let's summarize what we have for pocket gopher control

number  identify the mound correctly we should be oblong

kidney-shaped or fan-shaped we wanna find the

plug which will be on the opposite and

of the large pilots oil secondly we want to find the main runs which will be in

between

the the Rose other pocket gopher mounts

secondly we want to be sure that we are using the toxicants a properly or the

traps appropriately

if you're using zinc phosphide it is read under dry conditions

if you're using an anticoagulant we can use use it moisture conditions

there's also if we're using are fumigants

for just fast toxin we want to make sure using our help have our fumigation

major planned a stylish prior to our using the particular poised

and make sure if using traps he properly stake

your traps with  surveyors flag securely against with a metal

wire check your traps regularly you'll find you have

trapping success or poisoning success as long as you're determined in finals

fresh mouth