Gopher problems...

[Drew99GT]

I have a small family of what I've determined to be striped ground squirrels, living in my yard. They haven't done anything bad until the last week...............

I noticed a hole being dug under my driveway. I though, oh well, they'll hit some hard dirt, stop, and move on to digging out in the yard. Well yesterday, I walked out to my garage on the sidewalk that passes a window well for a basement window, and I heard some rustling around in there. I looked in and saw a huge pile of dirt! The friggin squirrel/groundhog monster dug a tunnel from my driveway all the way to the window well! In about 3 days. Probably 20 feet. Needless to say, my Have A Heart trap is already set. I've used it many times to remove unruly vermin from my yard.

My question is, how in the heck to I fill in the tunnel this thing burrowed??? Should I just fill in each end the best I can and pray it doesn't cause any sinking of the sidewalk???

Thanks! I'll post pics of the little [censored] when I trap him.

I did that a few years back when a baby red squirrel got stuck in my garage.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

It should be easy enough to mix up a slurry of sand and water, block the end of the tunnel that goes into the window well, and fill the tunnel from a higher point. Once the water dries you'll have a tunnel filled with sand.

If it were my place I'd simply park the tractor over one of their tunnel entrances and run a flex pipe from the tailpipe of the tractor to the hole in the ground. Set the carb to run a little rich and let it run for 15 minutes or so. Mole, gopher or ground squirrel problem eliminated.

 

[Blueskies123]

Can you collapse it by jumping on it or hitting it with a pick or shovel? Then fill in the crater with the dirt that was piled up or buy sand from the store.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
It should be easy enough to mix up a slurry of sand and water, block the end of the tunnel that goes into the window well, and fill the tunnel from a higher point. Once the water dries you'll have a tunnel filled with sand.



That will work perfectly! The end of the tunnel at the window well is at least 4 feet lower than where it started at the driveway. i can't cave it in by jumping on it because it goes under the sidewalk concrete (that I just had poured 2 years ago...)

 

[Best F100]

Go to Youtube and look at the ways folks have pump a gas vapor down the hole and ignited the entire tunnel. Sort of like what you saw on the Caddy Shack movie!

Last year, I had a problem with mole/vole tunnels throughout my yard. A local service came out to my house and used the above method to collapse several tunnels that were up to 200 ft long for under $100. It was quite effective. The area which was the "den" exploded to such a degree, that I had some dirt on my roof. Killed the critters underground, where they slept.

I am sure this method would work for gophers or groundhogs as well. A few folks have even used liquid nitrogen.

Good luck.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

yOUR SUPPOSED TO SHARE THE PLANET.

I had chipmunks undermine my driveway and it collapsed ruining it for a 10' strip acrossed it.

Blamed the wife for feeding birds and then squirrels munks and the like eat the stuff too.

We Don't feed the birds anymore.

 

[opus1]

The neighbor feeds the birds and chipmunks worked their way over to her and then my yard. As long as they stayed in the yard, I was fine with that, but, noooo, they had to start burrowing under my front walk, around my porch and around and under my deck in back. Give them an inch and they won't stop at a mile.

Kill them. Kill them all.

 

[Drew99GT]

Got him. I won't take a pic because it's a bit gruesome... His foot got caught in the trap and I had to dispose of him with an ice pick. Hope I'm not going to [censored] for that one...

Anyhow, I'm thinking of callin a mud jacking company to fill in the nest. This wasn't a ground squirrel, but a straight up gopher, and it looks like the entire area around the window well and under the sidewalk is dug out. Great...

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Got him. I won't take a pic because it's a bit gruesome... His foot got caught in the trap and I had to dispose of him with an ice pick. Hope I'm not going to [censored] for that one...

Anyhow, I'm thinking of callin a mud jacking company to fill in the nest. This wasn't a ground squirrel, but a straight up gopher, and it looks like the entire area around the window well and under the sidewalk is dug out. Great...


You killed a golfer! You're going to jail!!

 

[Killer223]

electrified metal rods shoved into the ground about a foot will encourage them to leave your property. just chase them out. see a new burrow, shock treatment. very very effective after a rain or watering.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

People are the most disease prone, destroyers of this planet at this point.

Anyone procreating on purpose is ringing the death knell.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: Killer223
electrified metal rods shoved into the ground about a foot will encourage them to leave your property. just chase them out. see a new burrow, shock treatment. very very effective after a rain or watering.

That will be a never ending process. Only solution is to trap it and get rid of it. There are plenty of gophers and moles.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
People are the most disease prone, destroyers of this planet at this point.

Anyone procreating on purpose is ringing the death knell.


If you're that worried about it, I know how the count can be reduced by one.