INFORMATION ABOUT GOPHERS
Quick Gopher Facts:
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Solitary rodents that live one animal to a burrow system.
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Burrow systems are kept closed with holes plugged by the gopher.
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Gophers eat plant roots, especially alfalfa roots, damaging or killing the plants.
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Gophers do not hibernate and are active year round. Mound building is most active in the spring and fall as well as after sprinkler irrigation.
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Burrow systems are usually two tiered; that is subsurface burrows that lead to the mound or the surface for shallow root feeding. A lower burrow or lateral is from six inches to twelve inches deep (or deeper) and connects mounds and feeding laterals.
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A single burrow system can be 600 lineal feet and have 100 cubic feet of air space to fill with fumigant.
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In ideal conditions, gophers can have three litters a year with 2 to 6 pups per litter.
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Sprinkler irrigation provides ideal conditions for gophers.
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Gopher infestations can have 100 rodents or more per acre and can cause crop loss of a ton of hay per acre.
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Machinery breakdowns from gopher mounds cause harvest delays as well as repair expenses.
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Severe infestations that have depleted plant stands should probably not be treated, but worked up and replanted.
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Young crop stands (2 to 5 years) can be profitably treated if crop stands have not been irreparably damaged.
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Flooding can reduce gopher infestations, but if the gophers are not killed at the time of flooding, with shovels etc, they will continue to multiply and cause crop damage. Depth of water levels that will drown gophers will also cause crop loss of stands.
Additional Gopher Information:
Gopher Treatment with PERC:
- Old mounds should be harrowed or otherwise reduced prior to treatment.
- First treatment can reduce gopher populations by 66 percent or more.
- Population reduction of 95 percent can be achieved with two or three additional treatments after new mounds have surfaced.
- Gophers will reinvade a field and occupy old burrows.
- Maintaining clean gopher free field borders can limit re-infestation.
- Light to moderate gopher infestations can be treated at a rate of 3 to 8 acres an hour.
How to properly probe a gopher burrow:
