Latimer, Iowa (north central) | I guess I am more of a nature lover then some. When humans insist of removing links of an ecosystem or food chain it can have unintended consequences. I would just let them exist. They are food for the next link in the chain like owls and hawks which i find fun to see around. They eat plants yes, but only bother crops when they are the most tender for a few weeks right now. They also eat caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, and mice. The tunnels turn the soil over and droppings are fertilizer. A pocket gopher, bigger, can move 2.5 tons of soil to the surface every year aerating it.
To put it in perspective, using your numbers, "digging up the first two rows of corn for at least a hundred feet." 2 rows is 5 foot wide, 5 foot times 100 foot is 500 sq feet. 500 sq feet is 0.01147 of an acre. Say an acre grosses $1000. damage is $11.47. How much of your time is worth devoting to $11.47? There are negative consequences of spreading poison just to kill something that isn't really an issue. An owl or eagle could eat the poisoned gopher and then also get sick. I would just enjoy watching the little critters poke their heads up, take a shot at them with a .22 or the batwing if feeling the sadistic the need to kill something without eating it****, but otherwise enjoy other animals being allowed be around. If you are killing them to eat them a .22 takes more skill then a shotgun and less lead to pick through. |
Striped Gophers/13 line ground squirrel issues
