Gophers About Gophers
Pocket gophers are medium size burrowing rodents which spend 99% of their lives living in underground tunnels and nests. Gophers have external fur-lined cheek pouches located on the outside of their mouths. The pouches are used to store food which is carried back to its nest. There are 35 species of pocket gophers in the Americas. This mammal is powerfully built in the forequarters and has a short neck. They are powerful diggers and have front paws with large claws. The external ears and eyes are quite small. The incisors are perhaps the largest in relation to body size of all mammals. The pocket gopher is simply adapted for digging, and when overpopulated, is one of the most difficult to control.
Pocket gophers occupy a variety of habitats which range in elevation from above 12,000 ft to sea level. Soil type, texture, and moisture determine whether or not gophers will occupy a given area. The tunnels excavated by the mammal range from 0.5-1 ft below the surface. Deeper tunnels, as deep as 6 ft, are common with most species. The sub-surface tunnels are used mostly for feeding and the deeper ones are used to escape extremes in climate, nest-building, and raising litters.
Pocket gophers eat the roots of grasses, forbs, shrubs, and even small trees. They can be quite destruct in forest plantations. In fact, each year the US Forest Service contract work to control pocket gopher in order to protect newly planted tree seedlings. Pocket gophers are herbivores and raise havoc in yards, damaging lawns, gardens, and flowerbeds. The burrow system is multi-branched and individuals tend to be territorial. In studies in California with radio collars on gophers, some animals were observed to move 200-300 ft per night. A single pocket gopher may construct as many as 300 soil mounds in a year while moving over 4 tons of soil within a few weeks of work. Burrows are continually changing, with old tunnels being sealed off and new ones excavated. No one really knows how many linear feet of tunnels a single pocket gopher can construct in a lifetime, but it is undoubtedly in the thousands of feet.
Pocket gophers are active all year, even when snow is present. In alfalfa fields, the mammals are often observed feeding above ground. Typically, the mammal cruises along its tunnel system and nips the roots of plants growing above the tunnel found dangling within the corridors. An easy method to determine if a pocket gopher occupies a tunnel system is to simply dig open the tunnel. If a gopher lives in the tunnel, the hole will be plugged with a day or two.
These animals are one of the toughest to control in the U.S. Traps, EPA approved baits, and exclusion are often used to reduce damage. Baits may include active ingredients such as strychnine, diphacinone, chlorophacinone, and zinc phosphide. Fumigants in the form of tablets or ignited cartridges can be used to control pocket gophers. Because of the length of the tunnel systems, such fumigants may not be very effective
