Day 300 of our Green Year: Dealing With Gophers

Well here we are! A big day here at Our Green Year! We hit our 10 month anniversary with Our Green Year, and at the same time, we have passed into the 300s. Only 65 more days to go before the Our Green Year odyssey is over.

Today, we are going to be dealing with the gopher population in our horse pasture. The problem with gophers and moles is that they dig holes in the ground. Then, when the horses walk through the field and they run the risk of stepping in the hole and breaking their leg. This is disastrous for the horses and it is something we don't to happen. Hence, we need to deal with the gophers.

Now, while some farmers around here do use poison, we are in no way even thinking of using this. Relocating the gophers with traps may be too large of a job for us, as we found out helping to relocate ground squirrels a few years ago in Trail through our work with Natural Control Alternatives.

Instead, we are using a two-prong method. First, we are going to buy sonic repellers. These proved to be highly effective in Trail when we used them with NCA. So, we are going to use them here. Using D batteries, these devices send a pulse through the ground that irritates the gophers and sends them to a new location. It is cheap and highly effective.

Our second method will be using raptor platforms. We are going to build a raptor platform, which is essentially a pole with a flat spot on the top for a nest to be made. This was another thing we did with NCA and we are hoping for the same good results here. A raptor can eliminate as many as 300 gophers in one summer. It is natural, there is no poison and it keeps the bird populations fed with something they eat anyways.