I just lost my beautiful rose bush, a cherry tree, and a blueberry bush. If I managed to upload the photo successfully, it will show what is left of the cherry and blueberry.
Yesterday, I dug up 5 of my remaining Huckleberry, blueberry, honeyberry and lined the planting hole with hardware cloth. My plum, nectarine, apple, asian pear, and cherry are much too big to dig up and line with hardware cloth so I am hoping someone can give advice on what to do.
I have been trapping with the cinch trap, but the little buggers are smart and have learned to avoid the traps.
All of the flowers I have planted they have devoured. I am in desparate need of curtailment suggestions.
I have tried planting extra of EVERYTHING but that has just created a large and healthy colony. They also have at least 13 acres they could forage, but, of course, they LOVE my plantings.

Have you tried using those electronic gopher deterrents? We've used them and while they don't go away entirely, they seem to keep away from those stakes. They make a solar version, but the ones that use batteries seem to work better.
http://www.harborfreight.com/s...

Here's an article about the little pests from the Washington DFW:
http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/goph...

Thanks Woofie- I have tried those, although, mine were the solar ones and the gophers worked the soil next to the vibrating stake. It seemed to attract them

I have no advice for you. But I just wanted to say how sorry I am for you! How frustrating!!

Thank you Jennifer ~ It is frustrating for sure ~ we have 13 acres here and I have to plant in screened in boxed off areas or loose everything to the darn gophers. I know they have some usefulness.... but we have too many. I wonder what a permaculturist would do?

There is supposedly something sold at Home Depot called "worms" that are supposed to get rid of gophers and moles. I haven't looked for them yet. A co-worker just told me about them.

Worms.....? I wonder if it is some kind of poison? A farmer told me the only way he got rid of the gophers was using an industrial strengh "gas pellet". He said they aren't available to the public, and you have to wear personal protection gear to handle it...! I can't imagine that being good for the soil or other life forms. I guess I will just cage off my valuable plants and hope the gophers move to the outskirts of our acreage

Toni- gophers are a real problem for us for the past 2 years here in our area of TX.

As a general rule, we keep our farm as natural as possible. With 90 ac, we host all manner of wildlife, and have a general "life and let live" philosophy. That said, we will do what we have to do to battle the diseases and pests that happen! Gophers are for sure a pest!

Traps from the hardware store work fairly well. Most of the time, our gophers have predictable behavior. You'll see a new mound in the pasture, and the next day another one or two in a line. By the end of the week, there is a long line. When there is 2-3, set the trap in the last one. Often you'll catch them that way. We usually leave the gophers in the pastures alone, but when they get out of hand, we'll set out some traps.

Gophers who have dared to enter our food production area are dealt with as quickly as possible. We both trap and bait/poison using the same guessing game as outlined above. If there is a new mound the day after we set out the poison, we immediately set out more in that tunnel until new mounds aren't found (usually one or two tries takes care of it). We aren't as aggressive as most people in this area in regard to the gophers, but this works well enough for us to keep the pests away from our crops but not having to deal with poisoning our whole land, nor working with the kinds of chemicals that require a hazmat suit!

I recently moved to Oregon and have what I thought were gophers, but they don't seem to both the plants , just make tunnels everywhere. I just bought some of those worms and they are a poison. You are suppose to figure out which tunnels they are actively using and then drop a worm down into the tunnel. My problem is I can't seem to find out which tunnels are active. I have followed the instructions to fine the tunnel with a dowel and then cover the hole and come back in 72 hrs. to see if they have clogged up the hole again showing it is active but that hasn't happened to any of my holes so I haven't gotten the chance to use my worms yet. I am wondering if mine are
gophers being they don't seem to bother the plants. I have berry vines and close to 50 rose bushes and none have been bothered.

Patricia

You could have moles, rather than gophers. Found an interesting article about the difference between moles and voles, but I'm still not sure what we have here.

http://www.greenviewfertilizer...