gophers

Fire ants dig deeper into the ground in the winter and can make some pretty big mounds. I always loved killing them with Amdro in the fall, because it was so easy to see where they were, and they were gathering food for winter.

They are pocket gophers...there is no hole in the mound as the gophers close it up behind them. Pretty sure if they were fire ant mounds the millions of ants in the mound would be a giveaway:)

Thanks for the info. I just researched the pocket gopher and that's it. I have only native plantings, nothing formal, and according to UF websites, they are beneficial to the sandhills ecosystem. So, I'll keep an eye on the activity and hopefully won't have to trap them.

Mine left after a few months. We don't have a formal yard either. I hate to kill anything.

I also have these big mounds of sand in my yard and vegetable garden. At first I thought that it was from a turtle but one day I saw the critter. Gopher. What do they eat? Hopefully not plant roots.

They eat plant roots, tubers....

Thank you for posting your question. I learned a lot by researching for the link below.
The link has photos and information you might enjoy.

From UF:
The southeastern pocket gopher, Geomys pinetis, is also known as the sandy-mounder in Florida.

Unfortunately, there are no chemical repellents known to be effective against gophers. Vibrating devices have not been proven to repel gophers. Reports that Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum kills gophers by blocking their digestive tracts have been proven to be false. Finally, tunnel flooding has been used successfully in other parts of the country. However, this method usually does not work here since the southeastern pocket gopher is restricted to deep, well-drained sandy soils in Florida.

Here is a link that might be useful: Southeastern Pocket Gopher

Thanks for the responses :) It appears that it must have moved on down the road as we haven't had any new mounds for a week.

Those look like earth zits to me....
Dab on a little bit of Clearasil and they will clear right up.

MOO

In N. Florida we call the tortoise "gopher". We call the gopher "sandy mounder" or "Salamander". We call a salamander "scorpion".
Take that, northerners!

Well, the gopher seems to have moved on but left me a welcome gift: tunnels for my first burrowing owl :). I saw him/her the other evening and it hopped around on the ground before flying up to a low branch. I watched it for 15 minutes before I headed in and it was still there when I went in.

Gopher pics...my husband got one!

We had gophers when we lived in the Mojave...same sandy conditions. We tried all the common methods and none were successful...BUT an old-timer told us a trick that worked. Human hair, of all things. Along the food chain, man is a predator.

Find their airhole or take a bamboo plant stake and poke around near the mound for the tunnel. Save the hair from your comb/brush and when the mounds appear, stick a big wad of your hair in the tunnel.

Funny thing is, when I asked my hairdresser for the hair she'd swept from the floor she said...oh, you've got gophers, huh?

Interesting, barbwire. I've heard of that for snakes. A few years ago a neighbor strewed the clippings from her hair salon everywhere, but I can say for sure that it just intrigued them rather than repelling them.

Maybe it works better for mammals.