Hi everyone!
Haven't been on here in awhile, but I need to know if anyone can help with gophers/woodchucks (other than shooting them...I live in town, and can't do that!) in the yard, and ants in the house???
My dad is battling one woodchuck in his yard now, but I had 5 last year at my old place (they had 3 kids in the spring)...they even came up on my front porch & ate the flowers off my pansies!
I am going to put a chicken-wire fence around my garden soon, and haven't seen any here, yet, but they are ALL OVER TOWN!
AND...I have ants all over the house!!!!Thanks for any help!!! Vicki

Try various compost tea mixtures using an extra ingredient of either castor oil, garlic, onions, hot peppers, or even humuan urine, as a repellant.

I can't be much helps on the gophers or woodchucks since I've never found anything that really works.
What kind of ants are "all over the house". Carpenter ants are symptom of a major problem and are in the house because there is wet wood inside there someplace. That must be fixed and once fixed those Carpenter Ants will simply leave.
Other ants need to be redirected from inside to outside. Sprays of lemon juice or peppermint oil will deter them and can be used to move them outside. Once they are outside plug the entry holes they used so they cannot return.

If you have little ants, they come inside looking for food and water.... find where they enter the house inside, and put out some poisoned bait...

boric acid powder (or liquid), 1 Tbsp
pnut butter, 2 Tbsp
honey or syrup, 2 Tbsp

mix together and smear a small bit on a little piece of cardboard and put this where they enter...

vacuum up all the ants in the house, then take a q-tip and dip it in some strongly scented oil such as citronella, peppermint or eucalytus. Run the oiled q-tip in a band surrounding that entry point, but not too close to the bait... the oil should deter the ants from crossing over it into the house...

the bait will become covered with ants for a few days, then it will suddenly have none or few....

take the same bait stuff and place it outside, a few feet from any ant colony you can find. AND place some outside the house where the ants enter on the outside too (if you can find the place).

Hopefully, this bait will reduce the numbers of ants, drastically.

Make sure you don't get any of that scented oil on the baits or the ants will avoid it...

Keep the inside of the house very clean. No crumbs anywhere! One scout ant will tell the whole colony about the food source.... that means vacuum, sweep and mop, daily for a week or so... and twice a week after that. Make sure no one eats food while wandering around the house...

use the citronella oil in pantries, on the floorboards, and reapply it weekly.

Thanks for all the help...I think they are just little ants...my daughter is bad about leaving crumbs and spilling sugar on the counters, so I have been really trying to keep things cleaned up, and I have seen a reduction in them!
I also found a zillion ants in an "empty" cat food bag in my son's bedroom, too, so I guess we have just been feeding them!

Any "bait" ideas for the gophers?????
Thanks ...Vicki

Can you borrow a dachshund for the wookdchucks?

Neatest idea I ever saw on dealing with woodchucks was in a magazine article. A woman used dachshunds to hunt them! The breed was originally created for hunting badgers which are ferocious...she had a big mutt to kill the 'chucks when the dogs chased them up out of the den. (She used the same little hot dogs to flush rabbits for her redtailed hawk. Farmers would invite her to clear out nuisance animals.)

I imagine a borrowed dachshund would devil the chucks till they pulled up stakes--they're rather active little dogs.

The boric acid is a great one, I use it all the time.

I'm going to try something this year, and if you or anyone wants to try it too, we can swap information and results.

I am desparate about gophers, so desparate that I have a plan. It may sound hairbrained, but I'm going to try it. I have used egg yolks in spray above ground for years to keep critters away. So....I'm going to try it on the gophers.

I've planted 3 sacrificial tomato plants into the ground with two 1/2" by 8" PVC pipe pieces stuck into the ground 6" on either side of the tomato. I took one yolk, and added 2 cups of water, stirred it, and put a cupful in each pipe. I want the yolks to be watery and filter through the soil, saturating the whole area, not just be blobs at the bottom of the pipes. And with any luck, since they gross out every other mammal I've put them near, I am just hoping....praying....it may amount to nothing at all, but what the heck!

Great advice on the ants. I learn something almost every time I log on to this site. As far as gophers, I have caught them in a live trap, put the trap in the truck, and taken them several miles away to another wooded area. I guess it worked. We didn't see another one for several years.

While that may sound like a good idea in Michigan to transport any wild animal requires a state license. The DNR does not want wild animals from one area taken to another because of potential disease problems and because this stranger will be attacked, and if not killed, maimed, by the natives in the fight over territory.

Hi all...thanks for all the help...

The bad thing is, I HAD a dachshund, but had to give him away when I moved into the woodchuck-infested apt....my neighbor across the street here has one, though, so I will borrow him if I see them here! GREAT IDEA!!!

Mine was a great little hunter!!!

I have a Pomeranian/Chihuahua that loved to chase them, but they always escaped into their burrows, and SHE wouldn't go in!
Thanks again...Vicki

I had a big problem with gophers, but I found something that works very well. It's a trap (yeah, it kills them..." sniff " ]) that is very simple to use and VERY effective. I've seen it sold under different names, but the most common is "Death Clutch Gopher Trap". Cumberland's sells them for $4.95 apiece. http://www.nwtrappers.com/catalog/traps/gophermole.asp

All you have to do is find a gopher mound, dig into it until you locate the tunnel, then set the trap at the mouth. When the gopher shows up to plug the hole, he gets plugged himself. I've completely ridden my property of the little buggers with this trap, and when another shows up once in awhile the trap makes short work of him. These things really work!

Ok, Weedkicker, is it?
Sounds like the trap works...is it reusable? What EXACTLY does it do to the gopher? Snap like a rat trap?
I don't think my dad would mind killing the one that's driving him crazy!!!
Thanks...I will check-out the website...Vicki

Ok...I just looked at the trap on the website...looks like it STABS them? Eeeeewwww!!!!! Maybe my dad can do it though!

And I was feeling guilty cause KimmSr said the gopher I tried to save was killed by the locals when I deposited him in his new home!!

> And I was feeling guilty cause KimmSr said the gopher
> I tried to save was killed by the locals when I
> deposited him in his new home!!

Sorry...last year I had 5 gophers...parents, and 3 babies in the spring...I thought they were cute, and I didn't have a garden there, but I didn't like them any more when they came up on my porch one night, and ate ALL the flowers in my flower boxes, and some of my seedlings!!!
Then they kept looking for MORE!!!!
The local animal control guy eventually came out & trapped them, but I suspect that he missed one...I don't live there anymore, and I hope they don't find me here!
Vicki