Warm weather brings out gophers

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

Like the famous Warner Brothers cartoon character Elmer Fudd, farmers will be preparing to deal with 2018 gopher infestations.
The gophers – Richardson’s ground squirrels – create havoc to farm fields and public parks, creating up to 30 holes per month. They eat roots and buried wires and piping. They have ticks and fleas, and some can carry viruses. However, they are also a part of the food chain and supply higher animals with needed food.
Under the province’s Agricultural Pests Act, gophers are classified as a nuisance, which means they are to be controlled but not eradicated. In the past, federal animal cruelty bills listed gophers as wildlife and may have eliminated many control methods used had those bills passed.
Some residents in Wheatland County have seen the gophers peek their heads aboveground recently, however with this amount of snow, residents might have time to consider control ideas.
Most farmers use strychnine as effective rodent control, which needs to be handled with care. However, control by other means may not control widespread infestations.
Wheatland County has two per cent liquid strychnine for sale at 10 per cent plus cost, or the equivalent to $227.20 per case, which will be sold Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 a.m. to noon, from March 13 to June 21. There will be a minimum of three cases sold per person. Only agricultural producers and certified pesticide holders can purchase the chemical.
“This will have a positive impact on the agriculture community by helping keep the Richardson’s ground squirrel in check, thereby reducing crop losses and damage,” said Russel Muenchrath, agriculture manager for Wheatland County.
Strychnine is a toxic chemical and employed through treated grain put down the holes, prior to birthing season in April. The dead carcasses have to be incinerated and buried in 18-inch-deep holes to protect wildlife and domestic animals. Protected species such as the swift fox and burrowing owls will use old gopher holes as homes, so if they are on the property, strychnine should not be used.
The City of Calgary uses chemical smoke bombs fired down the tunnels for gopher control.
Often farmers will shoot gophers, but care with neighbouring farm animals needs to be taken to prevent people and stock injuries. Some farmers say gophers don’t like areas where the ground cover is left uncut as they can’t see distances, which may be a good reason not to mow.
Kill traps can be used and are meant to be buried in the tunnel, so other domestic and wild animals are not injured. There are also live traps, but then you have to find away to humanely kill the gopher, as there are no gopher release sites.
For smaller infestations, people have developed some interesting control ideas, but often the result is to chase the gophers into neighbouring yards – much to the neighbour’s dismay.
Gophers are said to have a keen sense of smell, so some recommend planting gopher spurge, marigolds or daffodils around the hole, but by the time the plant is grown, so has the gopher’s extended family. Spreading things like castor oil, coffee grounds, tabasco sauce, dryer sheets, mothballs, fish, and dog or cat droppings have been used.
You can also flood the holes with water through hoses placed down the tunnels in an attempt to drown gophers, but they’ll often simply move to an unaffected tunnel.
Technology has been developed using vibration: stakes that vibrate are driven in the ground. And old-school technology uses transistor radios shielded in plastic bags set to annoying music down the holes, which may also annoy others nearby.
Whatever method is used to control the Richardson’s ground squirrel, the general consensus is that, like Elmer Fudd’s dilemma, it is a never-ending process.