I always thought there was only one. Because I’ve never seen two together in the yard. The holes haven’t been reopened. I don’t think he can reopen them because I stuffed them with big rocks. But I know he’s out there because I saw him outside after I shut the holes and threw in Giant Destroyer.
Now I’m starting to think there has to be another burrow somewhere near by. but I know not on my property.
I ordered a live trap so I can try and trap him. I don’t want to drown it or get rid of it myself so I checked with a critter control and they’ll come take him away for a disposal fee of $90. I’m going to try that. Better than having them trap and charge me $300. Hopefully they won’t release him as soon they get to the next block.
Hopefully this is the only one/last one. If not this year’s tomatoes will cost me a small fortune.
If he hasn’t reopened the holes, he may just leave and dig a hole elsewhere! Or maybe you are seeing a neighbor groundhog, and got rid of yours already.
Doesn’t matter where he lives or who he belongs to, he was munching on everything in the veggie area again this evening, so he has to go! 
I may have put information on different posts so this is how I deal with gophers. A long time ago I didn’t have fruit trees so they showed up on the lawn. A company charged $175 for six months protection. They put some chemicals in the holes once and it worked, but they said the hills are full of gophers and they would come back. It was expensive so I tried all the DIY solutions from the internet, none of them worked. When I started planting fruit trees they killed a lot of them, even when planted in the gopher baskets, by coming down from the surface next to the tree trunk so I have to put layers of chicken wire around. They liked fig trees the most, even the labels on the fig trees in the nursery said so. Eventually, I put pavers around each tree to stop them but there is no way to cover every place. After so many years I kind of know their underground routes and focus on those. However, with the drought they were active even during the day while I was putting on the pavers. I read somewhere about the eggs, it was so cheap to try, and it worked. It will take a few days to watch out and treat the new entrance but they would give up, maybe going to the neighbor yards instead because I see the mounds pop up randomly. I put new trees in containers now because we can’t climb the hills to take care of them anymore, but I haven’t lost any trees for a while. I notice that the squirrels no longer show up from the same tunnels, but the tree rats will during the citrus season, which I have to use the trap to remove. The entrance from the rats is a very neat round hole and not covered with dirt, for which I would put some soil in and put a brick paver on. California is gopher territory so they are on the hills everywhere. I hope this will help some of the members so they can save their trees.
Susu, I have a groundhog trap you could borrow. I think you live relatively near me. It is old but has caught a groundhog last year.
Thanks Jim. But they already shipped my trap. Besides I will probably have to give away my trap with the groundhog since they are going to take it away.
Interesting and impressive thread! When we have friends visiting I always tell them that what they see (our orchard or veggie garden) is a war zone, not the bucolic place they think they see…
I have a question: does the WCS tube trap kill birds? If so, that’s a no-go here.
Also, doesn’t the PB just feed the ants? Argentine ants are a real problem here and I’d hate to feed the ants. Maybe I can mix boric acid into the PB, that’s a thought…
'been using the various live traps for ground squirrels for years (they’re a real problem in CA) and the dunking is just not pleasant.
First year we trapped over 30, now the “upkeep” is lighter, thankfully. Early season (right now) they’re difficult to trap because they’re still exploring and don’t have established routes where we can place the traps.
For gophers I love the cinch traps. It takes a while to figure out where the real tunnel is plus sometimes quite some digging, but so far any gopher that enters out orchard or veggie garden area has lost.
I’ve never caught a bird in my tube trap.
i have caught a few birds but only a few, as far as the ants go i just spray the ortho home defense spray all the way around the traps on the boards i have the traps mounted on…no more ants in the traps.
why will you kill a squirrel but not a bird? they are both a orchards worst enemy, just curious.
I haven’t caught any birds either. But the tube trap pretty much only works every now and then these days. 90% of the time bait gets stolen and nothing caught inside. I’ve tried and tweaked with it but no luck. Last year it caught a squirrel pretty much every time. This year I’ve been trying for two months almost and only caught 2 squirrels so far.
I have been catching a lot of birds in mine recently. Part of the issue is I lubed the trigger and that makes the weight of the birds enough. But without the lube I am often not triggering on squirrels.
In fact they are not set now because of that, I have decided to use them only when the squirrels are mobbing me. The Kania traps almost never get birds and the squirrelinator never do.
Thanks for the bird info. I’ll have to noodle on that. Perhaps buy one and test.
The reason I don’t want to kill birds is that we’ve seen the bird population decline quite dramatically over the past 20 years and we don’t want to contribute to that. We often track individual birds by their song over weeks and then finding them dead in the trap is really shitty. Happened with a canyon wren…
In the orchard the #1 bird pest are the crows and to a lesser degree the jays. The ground foraging birds that tend to get into the traps are not the ones doing damage to fruit. In any case, birds are relatively easy to exclude with netting as long as the netting is placed before the fruit colors and they get a taste of it. We have to use netting for the crows if nothing else and I don’t think there’s a way to trap crows…
all your birds must be a my house.
Crows are too smart
Today was the debut of my squirrelnator (after noticing that birds started wiping my tube and Havhart traps clean) and I caught two squirrels in it today. I definitely like the fact that it is bird proof, since last year birds raiding my squirrel traps was a major issue… I may get another squirrelnator soon (which will be my sixth trap; three Havehart, one tube trap and one squirrelnator). So far I have caught close to a dozen squirrels!
Looks like it’s going to be a banner year for squirrels. I just trapped squirrel # 28. All last year, I only trapped 30.
After reading the above, I decided to order a Squirrelnator with tub last night. They haven’t gone after our fruit badly, but I want to be ready if they do!
Took me some time but finally finished my fortress. I closed in the last panel today and now I am feeling pretty secure. Fruit, which is usually either in the process of getting stripped or already stripped has been untouched. Now I sit back and PRAY!
Just for a refresher, my backyard orchard is fenced in. I created panels wrapped in hardware cloth. Dug in 6” on the bottom, back filled and mulched. Middle panel is a rectangle wrapped in hardware cloth.
4ft and down 
Above the fence built a structure on 2 sides and strung 12ga wire between the posts then netted the orchard. So… do I have a shot at peaches? Feedback, or improvement ideas welcome!
Great and secured job.
Did you use any “hot” wires (electric)?