McComb Family

Of our entire 5 acres, we have a little postage stamp sized lawn, but I guess it was enough to attract a dreaded gopher. Or maybe I should say family of gophers. These guys are moving more earth than Bret does with the backhoe. When our lawn first started showing fresh mounds of dirt -- that telltale sign of unwanted guests -- he put the garden hose down their hole and tried flooding them out. Water started coming out of very unexpected spots letting us know that their tunnel system was much more elaborate than we had anticipated.

Time goes by and we discover them over by the pond. Now, the only way to get over there from the lawn is to go under the slab. Yep, piles of rock are now showing up on our lawn which they are digging from under the driveway. We expect the whole thing to collapse on us one of these days!!

In the meantime, obviously the water method did not work so Bret went on to try other methods of destruction. He tried pouring gasoline down the tunnels and lighting them on fire. No such luck. Maybe diesel would work better. Again, fresh piles of dirt soon showed up. Patiently waiting with a shovel over their hole.....well, he got one that way but it didn't seem to make much of a dent in the destruction taking place. There must be dozens of the little buggers down there. Let's see.....he also tried gopher bombs, one of those emitters that vibrates and makes chirping noises around the clock, even chocolate X-Lax (now that was embarrassing having to ask for in the store!). Needless to say, the list goes on and on.

His latest method has just been to stop watering the grass completely and hope they'll go find a more lush home elsewhere. Let me just say that the sod and trucks of soil we had brought in cost a pretty penny and there was plenty of work involved in putting that postage stamp lawn in......I'm not willing to give it up!!! So, sure enough yesterday I go out to see he has come up with yet a new method. Now he's trying to fumigate them out with a little help from the quad and Adam the throttle controller.

Can you say Caddyshack anyone?!

Posted in: on Monday, July 28, 2008 at at 9:35 AM