Petty traps them. That's as good a solution as any, said Brett Dunlap, a supervisory wildlife biologist who handles animal damage control for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He spoke Tuesday to the Washington Hay Growers Association Conference in Pasco. Although there are 13 different species of gophers in the United States, the primary one in the Northwest is the pocket gopher. We've been trapping them for years.
Gophers eat roots, foliage, just about anything a plant produces -and more.
The rodent gnaws right through the line, Dunlap said. The gopher spends most of its time underground, merrily digging tunnels big around as pop cans. Gopher mounds are just as troublesome as their creators' appetites, said Ernest Petty. That dirt gets in the windrows and into the machinery and tears it up. Plus, the mounds cover up and kill alfalfa.