Mole and Gopher Trapping in San Francisco

[Steve Albano 21]

Here are a few pictures from a job I started a couple of weeks ago. This is at an upscale golf course which will be hosting the US Open in a couple of years, and I guess the management don't want to have the moles and gophers around for the big event.

 

First picture shows some mole damage on the course. We've taken 315 animals off the course in the first two weeks of trapping, about 50 moles, the rest gophers.

 

Second picture shows 25 moles we took out a couple of days ago. the course has very soft sandy soil, as it's right on the ocean, and the sandy soil makes mole trapping a challenge. We use out of sight mole traps (similar to Talpex), tuned to have very sensitive triggers for this sandy soil. The Trapline mole trap that we manufacture works great in most soils, but the moles tend to dig around them in this pure sand.

 

Third picture shows some interesting color variants in pocket gophers. I've been trapping them for 17 years and never caught either an albino gopher or a melanistic (black) gopher, and on this job we caught both on the same day! So picture show normal, albino, and melanistic gopher.

 

Fourth picture shows rodent teeth growth. Gophers have to keep their teeth worn down by using them to dig through the soil or by gnawing on very hard woods, and this picture shows what happens if they get behind with that. Not sure why this guy couldn't keep his teeth worn down to normal proportions, but this picture shows what happens when they don't. Can't imagine this guy could feed very effectively with teeth like that.

Edited July 18, 2009 by Steve Albano

[hopelander 0]

are the moles the same as the ones we have over here? and can you catch gophers on the lamp with dogs or shoot them on the lamp ie are they nocturnal and do they stray far from the burrows?

[stubby 175]

what pictures

[Steve Albano 21]

Hopelander, they're a different species of mole, but very similar. Ours are just a bit smaller than yours are, but not by much.

 

The gophers do not leave their burrows, though they'll poke their heads out to feed on grass or other plants right next to the hole.

 

Stubby, sorry, I had all kinds of problems with file sizes when posting this. Hopefully it's working now.

[hopelander 0]

thanks

[The one 8,408]

Very nice mate like the differnt colours

[foxdropper 17,098]

Interesting mate ,thanks for sharing