Ha, interasting. Our moles look similar but our gophers do not. Yours look kinda cute, like a squirl, ours look like sons of the devil it self, with big yellow teeth, small eyes and no tail. they will destroy a line of potatoes each, no problems. Ruin fruit trees, you name it.
They do not like draft, that is trie! If you do find a tunnel, chances are they will come and plug it in a matter of minutes. Women used to sit by the opened hole with a hoe and when the beast came to seal them, the hoe helped them do that
Apart from feald mice, thats the only rodents we have here. On the fealds that is, we do have a few kinds of rats, but those are more aristocratic. Preffer warm places with better food
Haha, I have spent some time peering into a gopher hole myself, although I usually opt for a 20ga. Once a gopher gets caught in a trap, but escapes, it becomes an infernal nuisance to get rid of.
This is what I would call a gopher, by the way. The varmint pictured above looks more like a prairie dog to me.
As far as moles go - they do not damage crops, so I ignore them. If you do try and trap them, expect a fight. They are clever and shy and not easy to get rid of. They are also territorial, so once you get rid of one, your lawn will immediately go on the market, and a new mole will move in. The mounds are distinct, so you can tell them apart at a glance. Moles make perfect little domes that are centered over the hole. They push the dirt up from below, and probably never even come above ground. Gophers will make a fan-shaped mound, as they like to bulldoze the dirt up a sloped tunnel. When they are done digging for the day, they will make a little plug of dirt, and then backfill the tunnel a ways.
I got paid to trap gophers as a kid, and have always been kind of fascinated by any critter that digs tunnels. Its a shame they are such a nuisance, but as Garry points out, we have probably not helped things by killing off their predators (and also making millions of acres of prime habitat for them).
Our rats live in a colder weather conditions. I found one big rat the cat killed when shoveling the last snow off the driveway. From the nose to the tip of it’s tail it was about 10" long. I have trap bigger ones. We had a big blackish rat come into the garage last fall. The cat looked at it and walked away. The packrats are even bigger. @mggibb let’s us know now the traps work. Maybe they can be used around the chicken coop in the tunnels the rats make.
Bob
Funny mole story. When my. Daughter was little. Wife came home with her in the car.
There was a dead mole in the drive right beneath the car. Door. Wife thought it was a stuffed toy that had fallen from the car, so picked it up. When she realized what itwas, she screamed like she had seen a ghost and ran all aroud the house.
Yes, those are the sons of devil! Look at that face… ugly beond words, and 3 times as destructive.
Same on moles. However l sometimes harvest their hills.
A healthy mole population is a indicator of healthy soil. They will only thrive where there is enough worms, and those must have a goid soil with lots of organic matter to thrive.
Gophers hate meat thugh. My grand father wuld always burry a cat (don ask for details) under young trees to deterr them. Seemed to help…
Errrr, Navigation may have been the the main motivating factor.
The ancient Babylonians tried to make mathematics easier by using numbers they could recognize and work with easily. Thus
3x4=12 hours on the clock face,
3x4x5=60 minutes in an hour,
3x4x5x6=360 degrees in the circle.
Rindert
