Climbing gophers?
Carl Cole
How high does a barrier need to be to keep gophers from climbing into my
raised beds with aviary netting bottoms? We are in Northern California with
sandy loam so the beds are being raised primarily so we can screen out the
little varmints. I assume that there will be enough root mass below the wire
mesh that the plants will be okay so we won't need extra height for holding
growing medium. A neighbor said the previous owner had beds six inches high
and that didn't do it, but what I found had the top of the boards barely
above ground level.
DGholston
>How high does a barrier need to be to keep gophers from >climbing into my
raised beds with aviary netting >bottoms? We are in Northern California
with sandy loam >so the beds are being raised primarily so we can screen
>out the little varmints.
Others may disagree, but I have never had a gopher go over the top of any
of my raised beds, and the edges of some are only a few inches above the
soil lline. My raised beds are 12 inches deep with aviary wire on the
bottoms. I did run into a problem when some of the buried boards (redwood)
became a bit punky. Then the gophers came through them. A couple of years
ago I retrofitted all my beds with wire up to the inside edges and have not
had a problem since, even though I have see apmple evidence of gophers
nosing around the beds.
Don Gholston
Jan Sand
In article <5ufnm9$b...@mtinsc05.worldnet.att.net>,
Carl Cole <cnc...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
#How high does a barrier need to be to keep gophers from climbing into my
#raised beds with aviary netting bottoms? We are in Northern California with
#sandy loam so the beds are being raised primarily so we can screen out the
#little varmints. I assume that there will be enough root mass below the wire
#mesh that the plants will be okay so we won't need extra height for holding
#growing medium. A neighbor said the previous owner had beds six inches high
#and that didn't do it, but what I found had the top of the boards barely
#above ground level.
Are these puppet gophers? If so, merely cut their strings.
JS
kflo...@kermode.net
On Tue, 2 Sep 97 00:46:30 GMT, "Carl Cole" <cnc...@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
>How high does a barrier need to be to keep gophers from climbing into my
>raised beds with aviary netting bottoms? We are in Northern California with
>sandy loam so the beds are being raised primarily so we can screen out the
>little varmints. I assume that there will be enough root mass below the wire
>mesh that the plants will be okay so we won't need extra height for holding
>growing medium. A neighbor said the previous owner had beds six inches high
>and that didn't do it, but what I found had the top of the boards barely
>above ground level.
Someone is likely to tell you this doesn't belong in rec. crafts.
textiles <g>, but here goes anyway...
a) Gophers are *burrowers*. Hence...gopher holes. They can drill
through the toughest, most cement-like prairie cover, so I leave it
to you to figure out how they'd get under your raised beds and up
to the "nibbles"...:)
b) Depending on the size of your gophers (ours are the size of
small dogs (*not* Chihuahas), it would be no trick for a gopher to
pull him/herself over a 6" barrier - when upright, they often measure
around 12", bottom to top. If yours are of a comparable size,
obviously you'll need a barrier of 12" or more.
They don't climb, but they're quite adept at hauling themselves
over an obstacle to get at "the good stuff" - they just stretch up
their little arms, grab hold and start wiggling. It may take a while,
but a determined gopher is a ..... determined gopher..<g>
If, after taking all precautions, you still feel "something" is
definitely climbing up and over...check the neighborhood for
racoons. Now *there's* a climber!
Good luck,
K
Mark Zenier
In article <341c57cd...@snews.zippo.com>, <kflo...@kermode.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 2 Sep 97 00:46:30 GMT, "Carl Cole" <cnc...@worldnet.att.net>
>wrote:
>
>>How high does a barrier need to be to keep gophers from climbing into my
>>raised beds with aviary netting bottoms? We are in Northern California with
>>sandy loam so the beds are being raised primarily so we can screen out the
>Someone is likely to tell you this doesn't belong in rec. crafts.
>textiles <g>, but here goes anyway...
followups snipped.
>b) Depending on the size of your gophers (ours are the size of
>small dogs (*not* Chihuahas), it would be no trick for a gopher to
>pull him/herself over a 6" barrier - when upright, they often measure
>around 12", bottom to top. If yours are of a comparable size,
>obviously you'll need a barrier of 12" or more.
>
>They don't climb, but they're quite adept at hauling themselves
>over an obstacle to get at "the good stuff" - they just stretch up
>their little arms, grab hold and start wiggling. It may take a while,
>but a determined gopher is a ..... determined gopher..<g>
>
>If, after taking all precautions, you still feel "something" is
>definitely climbing up and over...check the neighborhood for
>racoons. Now *there's* a climber!
Not only that, but the poster was in Northern California, so it might not
be gophers, but Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia Rufa), a unique rodent native
to the northwest (N. Cal., all the way to B. C.). These live like gophers
in complex burrows, but get their food by climbing shrubs and trees and
cutting off branches that they haul back to their burrows. They usually
leave the mouths of their tunnels open (about 5" in diameter), which I
don't think gophers do. I've seen them 2 to 3 feet up a small maple,
and my former neighbor was quite upset to have one of them pruning her
rhododendron.
Mark Zenier mze...@eskimo.com mze...@netcom.com
Gary Popa
Gophers or groundhogs can climb a fence. I electrified my chicken
wire fence around my garden and don't have any more problems. It
has solar cells and a battery that keep it running 24 hours.
Gary
DGholston
>Gophers or groundhogs can climb a fence.
Groundhogs perhaps, but I beg to differ concerning gophers (at least the
western pocket gopher that we have). In all my years of gardening around
gophers I have never seen any evidence of one climbing over a barrier of
much height. I have seen them get into a protected area through a mound of
dirt that they pushed up, but that is all. I have also had them surface
outside my raised beds or buried cages and eat the foliage and fruit that
was hanging down on or near the ground. Moles will climb over some
barriers, but they are after insects and such.
Don Gholston
Andrew Lopez The Invisible Gardener
Hey way cool!
I personaliy never saw a gopher climb over things to get into the garden
etc,
but why not?
I also like your idea of using electrified chicken on top to keep em
from climbing but you can also bury the wire 1 or 2 feet down and while
the electricity despences into the ground, it also transmits freguencies
deterent to them (gophers, moles etc). You will find that different type
of metals such as copper, steel, iron, give off different signals which
gopgers etc can 'sense'( maybe even hear?)
--
Andrew Lopez "The Invisible Gardener"
The Invisible Gardeners of America
P.O. Box 4311 Dept W3 Malibu Ca 90265
http://www.invisiblegardener.com
John & Carolyn <<>@
Gary Popa wrote:
>
> Gophers or groundhogs can climb a fence. I electrified my chicken
> wire fence around my garden and don't have any more problems. It
> has solar cells and a battery that keep it running 24 hours.
> Gary
Gary Popa,
You would never zap a guinea pig, would you? <wink> We have special
planters just for the squirrels, another for the srcub jays, and then
the indoor planters that we grow with various veggies just for our
cavies.
The outdoor visitors tend to go to their own planters and leave the rest
of the garden alone! Mission accomplished!
--
John, Carolyn and the cavyherd
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/5362/
-under construction-
kflo...@kermode.net
>Gary Popa wrote:
>>
>> Gophers or groundhogs can climb a fence. I electrified my chicken
>> wire fence around my garden and don't have any more problems. It
>> has solar cells and a battery that keep it running 24 hours.
We must have the laziest gophers on the continent - I have
never seen one climb a fence - not one! Step over a few
tree trunks, etc. - even run up an incline in the hope (I guess)
of taking a flying leap over the obstacle in question (now *that's*
funny - but probably not to the gopher <g>), but deliberately
climb up a fence in order to get at the good grub on the other
side...no.
You folks have *fascinating* gophers! Got any pictures of
"The Climb"?? I'd love to see one...seriously!
K