Pocket Gophers and Pasture Damage

Particularly during the spring and fall months of the year here in East Texas mounds of earth can be seen dotting the pastureland.

These mounds result from digging by pocket gophers - medium-sized rodents ranging in size from 5 to 14 inches long varying in color from almost white to black. They have chisel-like incisors and small claws on their front feet. Prolific diggers pocket gophers are capable of bringing tons of earth per month to the surface.

Damage caused by gophers includes destruction of garden seed beds, tree roots, utility cables, and irrigation pipes. The large earthen mounds damage haying equipment and their digging can undermine the stability of irrigation ditches and ponds. It is not uncommon to find their mounds inside your garden beds, around the foundation of your home, in the barn, in the corrals, if there's earth - there's a gopher.

Needless to say this damage needs to be controlled and there are various control methods practiced including trapping, deploying electronically control vibration devices, baits, predator scents, etc.

Here on the J Bar D we have our own method of gopher control - Slim - a 22-pound bundle of energy that lives to catch gophers.

Now, all good hunters know you have to be still and quiet so you can target your prey and once you have targeted a location - get down to the business of capture. This includes going where the gophers are - underground whenever necessary to get the little boogers. Nothing is ever easy!