Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm a newbie, with a knothead question.

Here's the deal. I know no more about snakes than any other kid who grew up in a time and place where you could go out in the tall grass and catch 'em and bring 'em home until Mom made you let 'em go.

All grown up now; I live on about 1/3 acre in a semi-rural area of Coastal California. We've got a helluva gopher problem in our yard.

Was a time you might go catch a gopher snake or two, put 'em down the holes, and say "go get 'em, boys!". I gather times have changed.

Other than the fact that it apparently costs anywhere from forty to a couple hundred bucks for a gopher snake these days, does it make any sense to cut one loose in your yard, or will they just take off in a week leaving you poorer and still battling the damned burrowing rodents?

Help! These warm blooded SOBs are ruining my wife's garden.

Another option would be a .22 rifle.

We have alot of copperheads around here, (seen one last night}I have thought the same thing about kingsnakes.

I don't think purchasing a non-local gopher snake would be a good solution to your problem. There's probably a good reason why you're not seeing any and the gophers are getting out of control. Maybe something else in the environment isn't right for them, even though there's a lot of food running around. Now if any of your neighbors happened to find a local gopher snake and didn't mind you relocating it to your property that might work out, though I don't know if it would stick around. I'm glad to hear you're thinking along the lines of native species to solve your pest problem.
I did a quick search on google.com on gopher control and came up with a few good links. So if you can't get a local snake to introduce to the food chain, trapping or a fencing barrier around your garden may be another alternative.
Good luck!
Lora

I don't think anyone can flame you on your post. It's sound analytical thinking using a natural predator in the food chain to control another. There's a couple things that you might want to weigh though. It's illegal in California to release any native or nonnative reptile and/or amphibian whether w/c or captive bred. Technically you cannot pick a snake up on one side of the road and release it on the other. That's pushing the intent of the regulation, but it is technically correct. So it is illegal to do what you are suggesting. Another thing, as already suggested, there is a reason that you don't see gophersnakes in the area when they seemed to be all around when you were growing up. There might be some kind of ecological balance in effect now that might be broken even with the addition of one or two gophersnakes. One other thing I think of concerning your post is that you would be polluting the current gene pool by introducing a gophersnake in your area. A snake will breed. If you add one snake to your area, it will breed at some point in time. Don't think it won't. They've been doing it for millions of years. That's the basis for their survival.

You didn't mention if you had looked into other ways to get rid of your gopher situation. If you haven't checked, I would suggest looking into it before introducing any gopher predators in your yard.

You can do what you would like on your property. I agree with that and your thinking is pretty good along the introduction of a gopher predator to resolve your problem. I just wanted to make some points for you to consider which I understand is the reason you made your post. Your question most certainly is NOT knotheaded.

Terry Parks

Wow. Thanks Lola and Terry for the great feedback (Doug, your suggestion --while primally attractive-- assumes a time commitment to "lying in wait" that I just can't see working into my schedule).

Thanks, especially for the legal feedback Terry. I had no idea the regulations are so tight allhough, on thinking it through, I guess I can see the logic. Does make me wonder though, if the release prohibition is limited to "cold blooded" critters, what the unintended consequences are to the eco-balance.

I realize the following is gonna spin pretty far "off topic" for this board, and I'm not trolling, so perhaps private posts to yahonly at minus-1santacruz dot com would be better (replace the words at and dot with the appropriate punctuation).

I'm wondering what suggestions folks may have regarding other natural predators for the gopher. Yes, we have a couple dogs and one cat that still actively hunts (the other is old and retired). They're somewhat effective as a "harassment tool", but they sure haven't cleared out the colony.

Thanks again for your feedback and encouragement. Snake folks are nice folks!

If you're from Santa Cruz as your email suggests (city or county) you should have gopher snakes, if you don't, it's because they've been exterpated from the area most likely by human development. In any case, I've had similar problems with gophers in the garden and I really don't think the introduction of a few snakes will help you. You could try trapping them, but honestly, the most effective way is to release a gopher bomb into their burrows...toxic, yes, but effective.

cheers,
gabriel

I use to put peanut butter out on brightly painted sticks.This works great as bait.Then use a .22 pellet gun to start the bloodbath.On one morning I shot 16 of the little bastages.They were tearing apart everything in my grandparents yard,flower gardens,veggies,potted plants,etc.This will only be temperary solution because others will follow.If you give them a buffet they will come back.Good Luck.