My West Richland Yard Suddenly Has Gophers

From the 'WTF Department', I've lived in this house for almost a decade and gophers suddenly show up? My wife did a little research and ran across a post where someone else was talking about how gophers are moving around in West Richland due to all the new construction taking their fields away. But our neighborhood hasn't had any new construction nearby for quite a while, so I'm wondering how far these little fellas traveled to settle in my yard.

Having grown up in Montana, I'm well aware of gophers but they never ever invaded a grassy yard. I guess that's because they didn't need to with all the wide-open spaces. The Facebook group Tri-Cities Garden Girls has lots of suggestions on how to get rid of them before they destroy everything. Some of the suggestions use kill traps or poison, others prefer live traps, and some methods just force them to move on. I haven't decided what to do yet, but poison is out of the question to keep our dogs safe. And I don't really like the idea of killing them, but my grass sunk when I stepped near the mounds of dirt, and I can't have that.

One commenter on Tri-Cities Garden Girls said that having a chihuahua will do the trick and run them off. Well, sorry to tell you, but we have a chihuahua and I don't think she even knows the gophers have moved in! Hopefully, I'll have more luck than Bill Murray did in Caddyshack.

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Categories: Animals/Pets