University of California Gopher Control Study

In December of 2008, we were contacted by Dr. Roger Baldwin, Vertebrate Pest Management Advisor for the University of California's Kearney Agricultural Research Center, about contributing our traps and trapping expertise to a gopher control study that he was planning. Roger's study was designed to compare the efficiency of various methods of gopher control, including trapping, pesticidal baiting, and burrow blasting. The study was to be conducted at a large commercial vineyard owned by the E. J. Gallo company located near Sebastopol in the California wine country.

Sections of the vineyard were divided into equally sized study plots, and we got to put our Gophinator traps to work on 3 study plots totaling approximately 12 acres. These study plots were heavily infested with gophers, and we wound up pulling out about 550 gophers off the plots with an initial treatment and a follow up a couple of weeks later. A small portion of our catch is shown in photo above