How sad, Anne. I hate gophers. They have eaten a rose and 6 daylilies so far along with a few other perennials. I'm sprinkling "Gopher Scram", and my husband is carbon monoxiding them with car exhaust. He trapped a few. They do seem to be endless. The squat pots do sound effective.

Oh, Anne- I'm so sorry to see that... hope you were able to stick a few cuttings from some of the stems...

I do think squat pots are a good idea... time to "Drill, baby, drill" before those rodents wreak more havoc.

Virginia

I have quite a few roses sunk in 5-gallon pots with just the bottom holes they came with. Some of these are now massive climbers, so they didn't need any extra holes. I don't supplement the water for them anymore either, and they weren't bothered by the drought, so the roots found their way out those bottom holes and down to the water table.

I use Macabee traps on the gophers, and a few times one has been caught but not killed. The first time I let it go (my husband said it would probably die a slow painful death from infection). The next couple times, I had my husband whack it with a shovel. After that, I worked up the nerve to whack it myself, but I hate to have to do it. Last year my daughter and I saw a baby gopher walking near a hole in the veggie garden. We couldn't kill it, but we couldn't let it go, either. So now my daughter has a "pet" gopher. It's not tame, but she has fun packing food treats into cardboard tubes and watching the gopher find them, eat them, and tunnel through the soil in it's large plastic container. (She's 28 by the way, not a child.)

I use the black hole traps. You have to get the traps in at the very first sign of a gopher, before they get a tunnel network done. I usually get them within an hour of setting the trap. I walk my garden every day, so I can see activity right away.

The past few years, very few gophers--only two in four years. Coyotes are alive and well in my neighborhood, and quite well fed.

Please don't use poison. Bobcats and flying predators like Owls and Hawks will catch a dying gopher who comes above ground and be poisoned themselves.

Anne, I almost cried when I saw that rose. I have shoveled out many unwanted roses, but to lose one to a critter is nasty.

We fenced our yard to get rid of rabbits and gophers... A solid cedar fence, close to the ground, with a bottom border of 1/2 inch wire grid strips cut about 4" tall and dug into the ground about 1" and stapled to the fence. We didn't have any holes in the yard at the time and they never got interested enough to find their way in. Make sure to use wire in areas that have spaces, like where the fence meets the house. Our yard is only 50'x60', so it was a fairly simple solution.

You might want to try grated Ivory soap flakes which is extremely effective protection for my front yard roses against rabbits (I know we are talking gophers) or how about trying this... http://www.critter-repellent.com/gopher/gopher-repellent It has a money back guarantee. My son used fox urine for woodchucks under his shed and it was extremely effective.

Juicy fruit gum was very effective for mice, but I just felt so bad, I couldn't use it anymore. Instead, I stopped feeding sunflower seeds to birds and just use the suet feeders. Problem solved.

Jill, we used to have pet gophers on the farm that Dad would bring home after he plowed their tunnels open. Ours were real pets, and we bottle fed them until they got older and then let them go. Ditto for rabbits and once a fox that became tame and ran around outside with the dog. Fun memories!

Rebecca

I'm torn between trying to root cuttings from roses that are under patent. I guess one would be okay since I purchased one. I am one of those dreadful people who is honest when no one is looking or cares. I am rooting a 'Sourire d'Orchidee' Rose which I assume is past it's patent life coming out in 1985 I just pulled up a row of standards, which doesn't really bother me because I discovered standards are purely for the convenience of the deer, they can browse without bending down. I haven't lost any great treasures, yet. Hoping the gophers will stay by the creek and not venture into the greater woods. It is quite a production planting a rose now with the holes in the pot and the deer cage on top. The pet gopher sounds fun, Jill, what a good heart you & your daughter have not to kill the babies. I even surrounded some of these roses with daffodils hoping that would protect them but discovered they just weave between them.

Anne, Are you in the countryside? What about BB gun? Is it allowed? Don't want to see you on ABC news, check the rules first. I hate gophers now just by looking at your pic.

I don't have gophers here (I think), but I got skilled gum chewing rabbits, they finished 1 bag plus 1 pack of gum, I see no dead rabbits in the garden......I will buy 10 more bags of gum from dollar store, if gum doesn't work I'd be totally out of rabbit killing ideas...... I can't use BB gun here, I can use paint gun which won't do a thing.

Might try fox urine, thanks for the idea Rebecca.

It's unfortunate we're in a drought. There are the motion activated sprinklers that are VERY effective for scaring deer, rabbits, raccoons AND gardeners. You turn on the hose to just a trickle, so if something goes wrong, such as a split hose, you don't lose hundreds of gallons of water. The pressure builds until something trips the sprinkler, when it shoots a strong stream of cold water. From personal experience, it can scare the daylights out of you! But, they WORK.

Anne, I was able to save two gopherized roses similar to yours. Absolutely no roots left, just a concave with gnaw marks from gopher teeth. After cutting it down to about 12 inches, we potted it up in planting mix and gave it a 'quick start' dose. Kept it on an afternoon shaded porch with morning sun for the next 8 weeks. Maybe just lucky, both regrew roots and are doing ok now. -

Nancy

As long as you can prevent the plant from totally drying out, you can VERY often save it after a gopher attack. Worst case scenario, you have to bury it under a pile of soil or planting mix as you should bare roots until you see new growth emerging from the canes. They WANT to live. It actually takes quite a lot to "murder" a rose, as long as it doesn't dry out. In one of Trevor Griffiths' books, he relates how people had returned "dead" bare roots, which they had allowed to dry out. He buried them under damp soil and then planted them in soil bags to take with him to his talks to demonstrate just how hard it is to kill a plant when it wants to live. I'm glad they worked for you! Congratulations!

Summer, rabbits are easy. Take a large bag of IVORY SOAP BARS, (I think there are 8 to a bag) and use a large hole box grater to grate them up into a baggie. In the spring before there is a lot of rabbit activity, sprinkle a line of IVORY grated chips around each rose. They hate the smell and the soap doesn't hurt the roses. If you do this before they start to lunch on your roses it is easier to deter them, but it's ok to do it afterward. It works like a charm for me! I have never had damage after I start putting this down, and by the end of the season, I don't even need to. They just hop on by without realizing they just passed up free Burger King with fries!!

Rebecca

Thanks Rebecca. I have tried Irish Spring soap bars.....didn't work. Will give Ivory soap bars a try in the back yard, have 500 roses, would need a lot of soap bars. :-) Still hoping the gum would work. Sprinklers idea sounds good in the summer, but now everything is frozen solid.

It's come to this:

Fencing sounds wonderful BUT I have about 3 acres of tall (150') pines, and other conifers. Periodically they let loose with big falling logs that have killed any purpose the chain-link fence had around part of the yard, also has a year-round creek so well, you just can't fence a creek. so here it is 15 gallon pot for the new Princess Anne rose to take the place of Carding Mill which is on life support as I write. Next to it a Telham Beauty campanula which they probably leave alone because there are some native campanulas around but just to be safe I gave it the pot the rose was in. The fencing is for the deer and hopefully it'll help with the jackrabbits. Thankful for my easy to dig sandy soil Last year I just made circles of the 2" poultry wire but added the bamboo with zip ties as the snow knocked most of them over. Planting my many roses in pots is going to be time consuming but satisfying knowing no gopher will get to them. Now to find some violets or violas to cover the pot edges. :)

Mulch. Lotsa mulch.

Summer, 500!!!! ???? Good grief, Girl!!! My mind can't even begin to comprehend!!

Anne, that looks like a war zone!!

We used to have 10 acres and a big house, it was peaceful, quiet, and wonderful... Until the grasshoppers moved in after farmers mowed their hay fields nearby. The grasshoppers moved in and I watched them devour my garden in 2 days. It was a double dug soil added on top garden that was my life's dream. :) We sold that big house, moved into town, and settled on a much smaller lot with a 50x60 back yard we fenced in, that doesn't have critters or grasshoppers. I built a raised bed dream garden, planted some roses (30 or so) and I absolutely love it!!! I'm not saying move... :) I am saying I got bit by that bug and this was my solution. :) I hope your solution is easier than mine was.

Rebecca

We must each find our own solutions -- our own paths.

One small point to make about our pets eating gophers - gophers have tape worms, and quite likely other worms infesting them, and if our pets eat them, they get the worms also, making our pets need additional worming. I had a Dr tell me wildlife eating cats should get wormed monthly, after we spoke about the cat we had that killed and ate gophers nearly every day. Just a small PSA...

Yes Jeri. We all have a different book in life.. My path is to the dollar store to get more gum. :-) No matter what kind of paths we take, all lead to achieve one goal- save our roses. There is always a way, will never give up! .........what about electric fence? That should work. Set up the electric fence around gophers holes. Zap them one by one. I am thinking about putting the electric fence around one garden shed, the rabbits live underneath the shed. But for the next 2 weeks I will stay with the gum, $20 gum is still much cheaper than $200 electric fence........

Rebecca, That's no big deal. Half of my roses are landscaping roses, they're pretty easy, my rose gardening started with carefree roses from Lowe's, then I found DAs, old garden roses, now I am a rose nut. :-) I didn't know the grasshoppers could do that big a damage, that's really sad. I am glad you found your happy place and started a beautiful garden there. Life is an interesting book.......now I am stuck in a chapter of gum chewing rabbits.....,,,,pop, pop, pop; Anne is in a diff chapter-what to do with gophers..........zap, zap, zap.

Jeri, I love your wisdom!!

Summer, Between you and Anne, you will sound like a box of Rice Krispies!!!

I think I have found a solution for all of you!!! I used one of these that are made for dogs barking and it worked perfectly!! So worth the money to get the neighbors dog to stop the barking. It took a few weeks to accomplish the goal and it was way better than fighting with the neigbors. Mine didn't work around solid fences, though. It's sound waves.

http://www.bird-x.com/yard-gard-products-74.php?page_id=137 It generates sound to get rid of rabbits and rodents.

• Unit Dimensions: 6.75" x 5.5” x 3.5”
• Box dimensions: 10" x 8" x 4" / Shipping weight: 3 lbs
• AC Power Cord Length: 30 ft (all versions)
• Coverage: Up to 4,000 sq. ft.
• Motion Sensor Range: 35’ x 70’
• Frequency Range: 15 – 25 kHz (adjustable)
• Sound Pressure: 90 dB @ 1 meter
• Working Current: <200mA
• Power Supply: 4 x 1.5v “C” batteries or 120 VAC adaptor
• Unit switches to battery power during a power failure (if batteries are in)
• Electricity Costs: less than $0.25 per month
• EPA Est. 089624-CHN-001. CE marked

- See more at: http://www.bird-x.com/yard-gard-products-74.php?page_id=137#.dpuf

This information was under specs. Cost is $100 each. I used the electric adapter with mine so I wouldn't have to mess with batteries.

Rebecca

Did it drive your dogs crazy? As far as war it is war! But I'm going for defense rather than offense. No gopher is going to stop me from planting roses! I'm even looking at the pot in pot system some nurseries use, move them around at will :) I have some new friends in the back woods, a Tom Turkey and 2 hen turkeys. These are not wild as they approach you looking for food and are quite large. Think I'll go buy some grain. Ever see chickens eat mice? They do, quite amazing with the tails sticking out of their mouths. I wonder if turkeys eat gophers?

My new friends!

No, Anne, the dogs whimpered a little at first and then actually calmed a LOT!!! They went from being wild and crazy to being calm and friendlier. The real problem was big dog in small area and never walked, but that's a whole different story.

Be careful of fowl... We had chickens that ran free. They like to scratch and eat vegetables (read roses and leaves????). They make a real mess of a garden by scratching in the dirt for stones and bugs and seeds. We had to fence our garden on the farm to keep them out. On the plus side, gophers may not like them and move out, or just dig more holes. :)

Rebecca

Oh WOW!!! Love those wild turkeys!!!

I don't let the chickens out much because my back yard is tiny, and they turned what had been a decent flat area into moon craters... Let alone their chomping many things down to the ground! My rhodie now has REALLY scalloped leaves, thanks to those birds. I fenced off some stuff, and they reached under or flew over. So, back in the run for THEM!

Miniflick, that is SO FUNNY!! They love to take dirt baths and eat anything edible and not so edible. :)

Rebecca

Thanks Rebecca, will check into it. My two Komondors are already crazy, not sure if they can take it. :-)

Anne, cute birds. Wrong new friends though, you need fox and coyote to be your friends, they hunt gophers. :-)

Georgous dogs, Summer! Can you teach them to hunt gophers?!!

Lol. They love people food. There are some Yard Guard on eBay for under $30. Have to check out the reviews.

I don't think we have gophers here in zone 6, we have groundhogs. I could be wrong though.

Yeah, I expect if you dug up a gopher tunnel, you would find it went from North Dakota to Texas!!

Well, thank the Lord we don't have gophers here...wild boars, roe deer, badgers, wolves, but no gophers. And I wouldn't trade.

I think it's the badgers that dig up the freshly planted areas with their well amended soil. I understand they're looking for earthworms. The mess is huge and they kill a fair number of plants. The dog dashes roaring out into the night after all kinds of enemies, but he's not a match for a badger. The boars aren't a problem if we don't plant tulips or crocuses and other edible bulbs. I agree about the importance of predators, and I hear that since the wolves have shown up locally (they came third, after the wild boars and the roe deer) the boar population has dropped. The deer do their share of damage: we've begun protecting the young trees we plant, after finding several chopped off or gnawed. Occasionally I see a hare in the garden. I want to think that hares don't do much damage, because I like them. Ours look quite prosperous, possibly nourished at the expense of roses and seedling oaks, but I don't see them often--only often enough to be charmed--so I don't worry about them.

Perhaps my new friends the turkeys wil entice back the foxes and coyotes?? I used to have many chickens in our relatively safe backyard in Concord. Free range they were fairly safe and did minimal damage to the garden walking around eating snails and adding fertilizer to the earth. Caged they were sitting ducks for raccoons who would go so far to pull their heads through the wire and bite them off leaving the rest of the carcass inside. I lost heart having them then. Concord is fairly lenient, allowing you 12 of any fowl, roosters included. It helped when we had a rooster to lead the hens to the trees every evening. Since we have bears up here I wouldn't attempt to make a bear proof cage. So I enjoy my free range friends, who only spend a little of each morning on my property.

My goodness Anne, I am not a country girl, the things you mentioned really freak me out. :-) Give you a lot of credit to deal with all those. Hope the coyote and fox would be back and help you with the gophers.

Ann, a run covered in 1/2" hardware cloth is much safer than the usual 'chicken wire' or 2x4 fencing stuff. Check out Back Yard Chickens for a ton of info from people who contend daily with all kinds of predators, and yet, through sharing of info, manage to keep their birds safe. I've had raccoon fight on top of my chicken run and not get inside to the birds. The only bird I've lost died of what looked like a heart attack.

So, here's a fake coyote... Do you think it would work for you gopher warriors??!!

http://www.problemsolvers.com/coyote-decoy-pest-deterrent.htm

Anne, I found this gopher thread, there is a plant can keep gophers away from your yard: Gopher Purge!

http://www.examiner.com/article/gophers-do-not-want-this-the-garden

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3470866/is-it-safe-to-plant-mango-into-ground-where-there-are-lots-of-gopher?n=18

Gopher spurge had no noticeable affect on the gophers, that I ever saw!

I was hoping this would work for her......I have never had this plant in my yard. It does have some not so good reviews, and it gives people rash too...... be careful with this plant.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55261/#b

Doesn't work. Trust me on that.

Summersrhythm, NO plant, period, will "purge" gophers from any plot of soil. Supposedly Gopher Purge will drive them out. NOPE. Been there, done it, took over ten years to get rid of all the bloody seedlings from seeds which remained viable in the soil for a decade. Amaryllis belladonna? Nope. Daffodils? Nope. There are plants they won't eat, but there are no plants that will drive them out. I had a huge clump of Naked Lady, Amaryllis belladonna, promised by a local "expert" to keep gophers from entering the area. Nope. The blamed gopher dug through the roots and used the bottoms of the clump of bulbs as the roof to the entry tunnel at the top of the hill. I surrounded roses with the Naked Ladies and daffies, nope. They dug through the roots and ate the rose. I battled gophers and rabbits in that canyon for 18 years. I tried every remedy there was from 1989 through 2007 and none of them worked. The only preventative for gophers is a physical barrier, whether it's the squat pots Jeri has success with, gopher cages or enclosed raised planters. Other than that, you trap or bait. Good luck!

Ok Kim, got it, no plants, go back to bait. There is no easy way to control gophers and rabbits...... should BBQ rabbits for Easter, have a block party.

Jeri, love your Grandma's Hat, hope mine grow like yours, have 2 one year old bands, have a long way to go.

I heard using fish emulsion or burying raw fish, heads, parts etc., around rose roots fertilizes the plants and repels the rodents. Can anyone confirm or deny?

I'm going to go with 'doubtful', myself. I think wire baskets are the only sure thing... Which is not to say I do one every time I plant, because I don't.

Dead
fish under and around the roots attracts dogs, coyotes, cats, raccoons and rats which will
dig up the soil and plants to get to the "food". It did nothing to prevent
gophers and moles. It increased the mole activity due to the increased earthworm
populations. Anything that increases the plant growth and proliferation of
succulent new roots will attract increased gopher activity as surely as
increased water will. Supposedly some of the homeopathic gopher and mole sprays
containing strong smelling things like caster bean oil, oregano, mint, rosemary,
etc. liberally applied and watered in, may repel them, but I've never had anyone
report back they worked. The only "smell" in the ground I can vouch for the
effectiveness of is that of a dead, rotting rodent carcass. If I did not put the
dead body back into the tunnels before stomping them closed, new ones moved in
rather rapidly. Those I put dead bodies in, seldom had new tenants. The other
thing that helped repel them was washing the cat box contents and the dog poop
from the yard down the tunnels with a strong stream of water from the hose.
Everywhere I filled them with pet waste remained empty for many months. It got
where that stuff was going in to mole and gopher tunnels and never into the
trash. Believe me, I have experimented with MANY things in my efforts to repel and kill those pests. Several of which I shall never admit to and am content to leave to your imagination.

I am busy digging away with a new McNab puppy to help me. She thinks it is so much fun that we dig in the dirt together! Almost used up the 25 15 gallon squats I got (need many more but shipping is so darn expensive, apparently getting a whole pallet of goods is the way to go) and the assorted other large pots I have lying around. I am just as busy potting up eaten rose bushes in hopes they will root. I keep discovering more but can only do a couple a day when the weather is good. I'm beginning to feel like a bit of a gopher myself. Gotta watch my front teeth to make sure they aren't getting longer.

Oh and I LOVE the plastic coyotes, think I'll get half a dozen and have them chase some pink flamingoes on the front yard. ;)

Better yet, a roadrunner.

Roadrunners
were wonderful! They ate the snails in the Newhall garden. One would glide over
off the facing slope, dart up into a bush then glide back across the fire road
to the top of the retaining wall where he/she would break open the shell and
gobble the insides. I kept finding piles of broken brown snail shells in a few
spots. I figured it might have been opossums or something, until I witnessed the
roadrunners eating snails. Who knew? There was a menage a trois that kept us
entertained for many weeks. The female would run up and down the golf course,
eating insects, while the two males fought over her, strutting their stuff and
clicking their bills. She ignored both and just kept eating. One afternoon, I
heard a moaning like an injured dog. I looked all over for it until I found a
roadrunner sitting in the Mexican Honeysuckle making that moaning noise. Another
afternoon, two were chasing each other along the paths, took the sharp right up
the hill until they spotted me. You could almost hear the cartoon breaking sound
as one darted to the left while the other went right. I LOVED the
roadrunners!

Well, I thought it apt that the 'Jeri Jennings' Rose I bought last July as a band that is now a happy, healthy three-caned beauty 18" tall should get one of the last remaining pots before I figure out how to get more. No gopher dared to get near this rose. They must've heard from their Southern cousins to STAY away. Now, she is well protected, with 15 gallon squat and deer fence to boot. A great pot full of newly mixed soil and some spring water to ease her thirst. Paisley the McNab likes tags and I had to chase her around the yard to get Jeri's back.

HAHAHA!!! Anne -- "I" like a little extra water, if it is available, and I am happy to take dish-rinse water. OH! I like coffee grounds, too!