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How do I know if I have gophers?

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What damages can they do to a property?

Do gophers carry diseases?

Who is responsible for gophers and the damages they cause?

Is it safe to let pets go after gophers?

Facts about baits, poisons and gasses.

Copyright Protected The Gopher Getters©1966-2016
All information on this web site is protected by copyright laws and theft of content, information, and images is strictly forbidden and punishable by law. For permission for usage, contact us through our contact page and make a request for usage of images, content, ideas.

 

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Arizona, California, Utah Offices.

California counties and cities we are available to trap or train you to trap your own gophers are: Alameda County, Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, Union City, Alpine County, Amador County, Amador, Ione, Jackson, Plymouth, Sutter Creek, Butte County, Biggs, Chico, Gridley, Oroville, Paradise, Calaveras County, Angels Camp, Colusa County, Colusa, Williams, Contra Costa County, Antioch, Brentwood, Clayton, Concord, Danville, El Cerrito, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, San Pablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Del Norte County, Crescent City, El Dorado County, Placerville, South Lake Tahoe, Fresno County, Clovis, Coalinga, Firebaugh, Fowler, Fresno, Huron, Kerman, Kingsburg, Mendota, Orange Cove, Parlier, Reedley, Sanger, Selma, Glenn County, Orland, Willows, Humboldt County, Arcata, Blue Lake, Eureka, Ferndale, Fortuna, Rio Dell, Trinidad, Imperial County, Brawley, Calexico, Calipatria, El Centro, Holtville, Imperial, Westmorland, Inyo County, Bishop, Kern County, Arvin, Bakersfield, California City, Delano, Maricopa, Mcfarland, Ridgecrest, Shafter, Taft, Tehachapi, Wasco, Kings County, Avenal, Corcoran, Hanford, Lemoore, Lake County, Clearlake, Lakeport, Lassen County, Susanville, Los Angeles County, Agoura Hills, Alhambra, Arcadia, Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bellflower, Bell Gardens, Beverly Hills, Bradbury, Burbank, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Compton, Covina, Cudahy, Culver City, Diamond Bar, Downey, Duarte, El Monte, El Segundo, Gardena, Glendale, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood, Irwindale, La Canada Flintridge, La Habra Heights, Lakewood, La Mirada, Lancaster, La Puente, La Verne, Lawndale, Lomita, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Maywood, Monrovia, Montebello, Monterey Park, Norwalk, Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pasadena, Pico Rivera, Pomona, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, San Fernando, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, South Pasadena, Temple City, Torrance, Vernon, Walnut, West Covina, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier, Madera County, Chowchilla, Madera, Marin County, Belvedere, Corte Madera, Fairfax, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato, Ross, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon, Mariposa County, Mendocino County, Fort Bragg, Point Arena, Ukiah, Willits, Merced County, Atwater, Dos Palos, Gustine, Livingston, Los Banos, Merced, Modoc County, Alturas, Mono, Mammoth Lakes, Monterey County, Carmel-By-The-Sea, Del Rey Oaks, Gonzales, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Salinas, Sand City, Seaside, Soledad, Napa County, American Canyon, Calistoga, Napa, St Helena, Yountville, Nevada County, Grass Valley, Nevada City, Truckee, Orange County, Aliso Viejo, Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Dana Point, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, La Habra, Lake Forest, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminster, Yorba Linda, Placer County, Auburn, Colfax, Lincoln, Loomis, Rocklin, Roseville, Plumas County, Portola, Riverside County, Banning, Beaumont, Blythe, Calimesa, Canyon Lake, Cathedral City, Coachella, Corona, Desert Hot Springs, Eastvale, Hemet, Indian Wells, Indio, Jurupa Valley, Lake Elsinore, La Quinta, Menifee, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Norco, Palm Desert, Palm Springs, Perris, Rancho Mirage, Riverside, San Jacinto, Temecula, Wildomar, Sacramento County, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, San Benito County, Hollister, San Juan Bautista, San Bernardino County, Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Chino, Chino Hills, Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Hesperia, Highland, Loma Linda, Montclair, Needles, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Upland, Victorville, Yucaipa, Yucca Valley, San Diego County, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, El Cajon, Encinitas, Escondido, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, Lemon Grove, National City, Oceanside, Poway, San Diego, San Marcos, Santee, Solana Beach, Vista, San Francisco City & County, San Francisco, San Joaquin County, Escalon, Lathrop, Lodi, Manteca, Ripon, Stockton, Tracy, San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, El Paso De Robles, Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo County, Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, Woodside, Santa Barbara County, Buellton, Carpinteria, Goleta, Guadalupe, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Solvang, Santa Clara County, Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz County, Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Watsonville, Shasta County, Anderson, Redding, Shasta Lake, Sierra County, Loyalton, Siskiyou County, Dorris, Dunsmuir, Etna, Fort Jones, Montague, Mount Shasta, Tulelake, Weed, Yreka, Solano County, Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo, Sonoma County, Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, Windsor, Stanislaus County, Ceres, Hughson, Modesto, Newman, Oakdale, Patterson, Riverbank, Turlock, Waterford, Sutter County, Live Oak, Yuba City, Tehama County, Corning. Red Bluff, Tehama, Trinity County, Tulare County, Dinuba, Exeter, Farmersville, Lindsay, Porterville, Tulare, Visalia, Woodlake, Tuolumne County, Sonora, Ventura County, Camarillo, Fillmore, Moorpark, Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, San Buenaventura, Santa Paula, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Yolo County, Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, Woodland, Yuba County, Marysville, Wheatland.

In Utah, we service Salt Lake City, North Salt Lake, Alpine, Alta, American Fork, Beaver, bluffdale, Bountiful, Brigham City, Brighton, Cottonwood Heights, Cottonwood Heights City, Delta, Draper, Eagle Mountain, Herriman, Hildale, Hill Air Force Base, Hill AFB, Kaysville, Kanab, Layton, Lehi, Midvale, Murray, N SLC, SL,UT, Nephi, North Ogdon, Ogden, Orem, Park City, Pleasant Grove, Provo, Riverton, Roy, South Salt Lake, Sandy, South Jordan North Jordon, South Ogden, South SLC, Spanish Fork, Sundance, West Bountiful, West Valley City, West Valley, and we do provide personal training for those outer lying areas.

In Arizona, Awatukee, Anthem, Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Cave Creek, Central Phoenix, Chandler, Chandler Heights, Coolidge, El Mirage, Eleven Mile Corner, Eloy, Florence, Fort McDowell, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Glendale Luke Air Force Base, Gold Canyon, Goodyear, Guadalupe, Higley, Laveen, Litchfield Park, Luke Air force Base, Marana, Maricopa, Mesa, New River, Paradise Valley, Peoria, Phoenix, North Phoenix, South Phoenix, West Phoenix, East Phoenix, Dreamy Draw, Queen Creek, Queen Valley, San Tan Valley, San Tan Heights, San Tan, Scottsdale, North Scottsdale, South Scottsdale, Sun City, Sun City West, Sun Lakes, Superstition, Superstition Mountain, Tempe, Tolleson, Toltec, Tonopah, Wickenburg, Youngtown and we provide training for those in the outer laying areas. All others throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico or anywhere else in the world that has pocket gophers and needs training or assistance, we are happy to help you.

If you are interested in becoming part of our team, please contact us today! We need trappers everywhere and are always actively searching for hard working individuals.

For the Deaf and HOH, we are happy to assist in ASL. Include your TTY # and we will be happy to contact you.

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100% GREEN, ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE, NON-TOXIC

By now you can tell that I've been trapping for a very long time. I've heard and seen everything and I'm not too tolerant of the misleading information and flat lies some are telling the public, so I am going to set the record straight. I tend to sound crusty but if you and I are standing together in your yard, you'll hear the same thing, so let's get to it.

Pocket gophers are not rats, mice, moles, voles, ground squirrels or prairie dogs. Pocket gophers must be trapped by a professional trapper, I recommend this as well with ground squirrels. Rats and mice can be very hard to eliminate because of their ability to live inside walls, in attics and crawl spaces, so do as you choose but the thought of some dead flea-infested rodent rotting inside my home is something I don't want to worry about or smell! The benefits of trapping is that you actually SEE the dead rodent and KNOW it will NEVER return. When someone tells me that, "It eats it and dies elsewhere..." is a danger to other animals, domestic and wildlife.

Let's talk Gophers, shall we?

Gophers are aggressive and will attack children, pets and adults. I get bit all the time and I've been at this nearly my entire life. If you're going to be sticking your hands inside the tunnel of something that has teeth that can chip away concrete, then expect to get bit, this goes for pets too. In the photo below, this was a tiny baby that bit me, tiny bugger but this is just an example. I have scars up and down from gopher bites so don't try handling them, especially since they all carry tapeworm.

gopher bite

Pocket gophers tunnel underneath homes, pools and other structures, and are responsible for costly damages and repairs. I've read on a couple sites where a female gophers will push out her young once nursing has stopped. This is FALSE! Pocket gophers will live in massive tunneling systems and communities that will join with others extending for miles. Anyone thinking a gopher will just move out and make their own solitary system is clueless when it comes to pocket gopher behavior. There is ALWAYS inbreeding of multi generations, and typically, the biggest, baddest male gopher will have many females within his territory. This is why we kill him last, we need to ensure that all his producers are gone and he hasn't lured additional females in through any of the adjoining tunneling systems. Some males are so old and large, by the time we get to him, the is literally dragging his hind quarters from the weight, for lack of breeding, which is why these guys are quite aggressive.

male gopher

Gophers utilize utility, sewer and water lines, walls, fences, curbing, roads and sidewalks, when tunneling. By tunneling underneath these objects, the soil is softer and easier for digging. Gophers will follow these lines into homes and den underneath bathtubs and pools.

pool damage

If these pocket gophers are utilizing these lines, does it make any sense at all to force propane into the tunnels and then blow them up? In the photo below, you can clearly see the gophers are using the sewer lines to this home. The wall next to those cleanouts is bowed due to the backfill dirt that the gophers pushed up and into the inner walls, in between the studs, causing the walls inside and out to swell. When this happens, the ammonia smell will get strong, eventually staining them. If you have pets, they too will urinate on those areas, adding to the already bad situation.

foundation damages

Many properties are incredibly close to one another. At this home, for instance, the wall was just at the edge of this shot. On the other side of the wall, more mounds. This homeowner had small children and pets. Their previous dog had died mysteriously. Once we began digging in this yard, we found deadly baits buried in the mounds, inside abandoned tunnels and also above ground. There were also several dead birds. After setting all the traps, we visited neighbors on all sides, then the next street as well and found that many were finding the brightly colored bait in their yards. All had very active pocket gophers. Several had lost a family pet suddenly.

gopher tunnels

We strongly advise you to only hire a professional trapper, that strictly uses only traps, without any baits, poisons or gasses. Remember, pocket gophers are Herbivores and will ONLY eat fresh roots and plants. They will NEVER eat anything dead, with an odor, or has been handled. A gophers sense of smell is 10 x greater than a dogs and can pick up a humans scent once the closed tunnel system is opened. Even probing and applying these deadly poisons, baits and gasses are useless, as the gopher can have a secure wall up in seconds, long before any gasses reach them or the den. If you've never tried to run after a pocket gopher, I can tell you (from much experience) that they're incredibly fast! On one job alone, myself and 4 of my trained trappers couldn't catch one old fat gopher that we pulled from her den. They run even faster below ground, following the tunnels they've dug that fit perfectly for them and the population. Many times we've video taped these populations running through the lines in absolute darkness, it's like watching a train speeding through a tunnel. We have videoed their behavior opening tunnels at night, in the day, using light, fresh veggies, a blow horn, even a massive gopher snake, so we do know their behavior.

gopher poisons

Pocket gophers have been around for so long, with each generation they are becoming more intelligent. Doing the same thing over and over isn't doing anything for the gopher population, it IS for the pest control industry and those companies making the products and slapping on labels for products that will never work on pocket gophers.

If you're ready to get started doing something and not read further, just make sure you get a written guarantee. Have them guarantee in WRITING that they're ONLY trapping and WITHOUT ANYTHING ELSE AND they will show you proof of a kill. If they can't give you physical proof of a dead gopher, then you are wasting your money.

gopher damages

Recap:

Chasing gophers from one property to another is not doing you any good. Gophers must be trapped and killed. If anyone tells you that a gopher eats or is poisoned inside their tunnel, this is FALSE. By the time anything is inserted into their tunneling system, the gopher has already blocked off that tunnel and has already started constructing a new system, causing additional damages.

gopher tunel

Let's Do Some Comparisons.

Baits and Poisons:

Everything on the market was designed for mice and rats, not pocket gophers. Pocket gophers are much smarter and learn quickly. You may get lucky with a young gopher, but typically the gophers push everything to the surface where children, pets, livestock, birds and wildlife ingest and become secondary kills. Additionally, there's the aquifers; and true, your yard alone may not contaminate the ground water but consider the pest control industry as a whole, how many there are nationwide and how many are misapplying these products, and how much they're dumping into the ground. Now there IS a problem, a great problem! Arsenic and Strychnine are being found is soil samples everywhere, as are dead birds and wildlife.

With a Professional Trapper, trained to comply with our methodology and techniques, will trap and kill your pocket gophers immediately, stop population growth, and also keep new gophers from entering your property. This is why we are able to guarantee our services. We DO know what we're doing, and have over 5 generations to back it up.

Noisemakers of ALL Types:

Before I get into the specifics, I'd like to give you some insight into a gopher and tunneling in the soil. The soil is incredibly dense, and gophers can create a tunnel system that is as long as a football field in only a few days. They create dens (where they sleep) directly underneath air conditioners and pool equipment. So when ANYONE tells you that a noisemaker will chase off a gopher, you will know they are clueless. Don't fall victim to this false advertising. We have had countless customers over the years that were duped into buying not one, or two, but we had even one that purchased over 100 and the company refused to refund on any, even though they didn't work. In fact, they not only didn't work, the gophers would tunnel up to them and pull them below ground, bury them in mounds, and even use them to keep cool with in the summer. Please, do NOT fall for this.

GASSES AND EXPLOSIVE DEVICES: WARNING!!

Of all the things on the market, these are the scariest! Not only will you possibly injure yourself, but you will also damage your or your neighbors foundations. Here's something to consider:

Look at your gopher mounds, can you see the gopher underground running, eating, mating and pushing their dirt? Of course not. Neither can the individual that is shoving flammable gas into a gopher tunnel, which has endless tunnels, going along PVC, copper and other pipes. Gopher tunnel alongside footers and basement walls, they follow water and sewer lines into home (see damages) and if you have gophers that are living under your home, and especially the bathtub as many are, then you or your neighbor fills a tunnel with propane or acetylene, gasoline or any other flammable gasses, then ignites it, odd are that your home, your neighbors, children, pets or livestock will be injured. I have personally witnessed one individual who was so proud of his new toy, and as my customer and I watched him, I told her that he was going to cause some damage, and we should move to her back yard. Just as we did, the explosion happened and he literally blew out the bathroom wall, the front patio was damaged and he had to redo all of his irrigation lines. Not enough? How about the two guys in Canada that started a prairie fire? These are explosive devices and should have never been allowed to people who don't know what their doing. There are wildlife laws regarding the taking of animals, and this should be illegal. It is extremely dangerous and someone is going to get killed eventually. Oh and the gophers? They ALWAYS RETURN! No kidding! I can understand their thinking when creating this device, but this cannot be effective on long runs that are endless, that go in and under homes.

Use common sense, many don't and don't lose your money to these snake oil salesmen.

After 48+ years of trapping, studying, researching and following the lifecycle and habitat of pocket gophers, I am releasing my Do-It-Yourself book. This book will give you the Homeowner all the correct information you will need to know about a gopher, their behavior, how to handle them safely, trap successfully and most importantly, save you money. Another important thing, I will teach you how to keep pocket gophers from reentering your property.

Why am I releasing my book now? Actually, I've been writing it for decades, but once I started finding individuals all over the Internet and throughout the US illegally using my business name and my reputation, as well as writing information to the public that was wrong, I decided it was time. If you would like to pre-order, contact our office.

For those professionals that wish to take our certification course and work with our company, have the steady customer base and network, then we have this available as well. There will always be a need for our professionally trained trappers, not just in the US but internationally as well. Our methods tend to turn most off to the idea of DIY, once they get their first smell...it's not something they want to do, so we continue to service.

I know there will be some that are upset that I'm helping people learn to trap their own pocket gophers, the sad fact is that the population of pocket gophers is so out of control that if every 1 out of 5 people in the U.S. were killing one gopher a day, we still wouldn't be making a dent in the population!

It is true that trapping gophers is a tough job, but when you hire professional trappers, the job gets done right the first time. Spending money over and over again, each time the gophers return is wasteful and unethical. Professionally trained trappers are able to kill the gophers, show you the dead gopher, and you'll know right there that this gopher will never return to damage your property again.

We hope you find the information you're seeking here, but if we haven't provided it here, please do not hesitate to e-mail us with your questions or comments. You can also find us on Facebook by clicking on the link. >> The Gopher Getters Facebook Page .


©1966-2016 Copyright Protected The Gopher Getters
All information on this web site is protected by copyright laws and theft of content, information, and images is strictly forbidden and punishable by law. For permission for usage, contact us through our contact page.