Gophers and Moles Are Already Home
Image by Martina Janochová from Pixabay
According to my mother, when I was a toddler, I made a very persuasive case for allowing gophers to live on “our” property. Understanding then, as all children do before potentially being convinced otherwise, that the ground could not “belong” to anyone, I apparently told her, “Don’t hurt them! This is their home, too!” She had been about to put a water hose down a gopher hole to try to force the gophers to leave the area.
Humans have for generations disagreed with gophers and moles about the right to use, as they wish, the land where they find themselves. It is a pretty absurd battle, when one examines it closely. Gophers and moles are not trying to kill humans. They are not attempting to cause us a smidge of harm, not even trying to run us out of our homes. So why exactly do humans want to kill gophers and moles, or at the very least motivate them to vacate the premises? Because gophers and moles dig tunnels beneath the land where humans want to plant the plants they want to plant and design the gardens they want to design. The motivation seems such a bizarrely selfish one it is almost incomprehensible to contemplate. It is ludicrous to believe that we can “purchase” a plot of land and expect all creatures already living there to immediately evacuate and stay away forevermore. (I put “purchase” in quotation marks because, at the end of the day, who gave anyone permission to own or sell land in the first place?)
Some humans throw up the white flag pretty early on, or simply don’t worry about the gophers’ or moles’ presence in the first place. My dogs love to walk by the yards outside these humans’ homes, slowly stalking the mounds and waiting for an innocent gopher or mole to rear its adorable head. Of course, my dogs are on leads when we walk around various neighborhoods, so on the few occasions an unwitting little gopher or mole has popped its precious little head out of the soil to take a look above ground — maybe feel a bit of sun on its face, enjoy a refreshing breeze — my dogs have found themselves unable to fulfill on their instinct to kill.
Some humans refuse to share space with gophers or moles and instead go to battle with them. Often, they take a kindhearted pacifist’s approach and use gentle deterrents like castor oil pellets, peppermint oil, or fabric softener sheets to encourage the gophers or moles to move on. Sometimes, they show a little less restraint, a little less compassion, and use traps; once they catch the gophers or moles who have been inadvertently disturbing them, they relocate the gophers or moles far away from their homes, apparently failing to consider how little they themselves would like to be trapped and moved somewhere unfamiliar to them without any say in the matter. Imagine a species alien to us popping over from another planet and saying, “You don’t belong here. I don’t like you here in this piece of my galaxy. You are making my universe look untidy. I am going to relocate you to Mars.”
Some humans actually go as far as poisoning the adorable little critters, either not considering or not caring that in addition to causing the gophers or moles to experience a torturous death the poison they use will seep into the soil, water run-off, and ultimately the air. The poison could also be absorbed by any other animal that feasts on gophers or moles, and it could pose a risk to any “pets” or children who might play on the lawn beneath which the poison was placed.
As for myself, the one time in my adult life that gophers decided to cohabitate with me, I purchased a little battery-powered ultrasonic emitter* to place in the yard. It emits a sound every twenty-eight seconds that apparently annoys gophers and moles, encouraging them to go elsewhere. I figured it was a bit like if I had a flatmate who played techno, trance, and dubstep all hours of the day; that would certainly be sufficient motivation for me to move the heck outta there and go find another place to live. The ultrasonic emitter’s box said to expect increased activity for up to two weeks and then expect to see the gophers retreat, but I never noticed any increased activity, and after only a few days it was clear the gophers had packed up and gone. No harm to them, no harm to any other animals or children, and no harm to the soil, water, or air. A win-win-win-win-win-win-win!
Safe travels, little guys!
*NOTE: I am not an affiliate with any products or stores to which I link in this or any other blog post. In fact, for many reasons you can find detailed here, I encourage you to visit your local, independently-owned businesses to make your purchases rather than shop online. I only link to products and businesses in blog posts when I want to illustrate a product or service to which I am referring.