Gopher attack

My rule of thumb is after a couple of gopher attacks automatic gopher cage plantings must be employed. Learning how to make your own chicken wire or metal cloth gopher cage is a must needed skill for every fig affectionato. See above hardware cloth gopher cage.
 
I've seen them for sale pre-made... convenient but pricey. Even a larger cloth with wire spaced at 5 cm would keep the gophers out, leaving lots of room for roots to do their thing.... At least I think... I've never needed to do this. Sometimes I wish I could put an electrified wire dome over my trees.
 
When I lived in Kansas, there were ground squirrels that look like chipmunks. They were destroying my squash plants. The one time my wife's lap dog (Maltese) earned it's keep. Between that little dog and the blow gun that I made, we killed atleast 5 or 6 of them and we had no more problems with squirrels after that. I hit one so hard with that blow gun that it's guts exploded.
 
Um...You were supposed to cut it open and take a bite of it's liver, and wipe some blood on your face.

I do feel the same though...I don't like resorting to these measures, but what do you do otherwise.
 
@TorontoJoe If you're making protective cages yourself out of hardware cloth or chicken wire they will be any size you manufacture. Traps are not anywhere near as useful as heavy duty cages. What would the penalty be if you just employed a 22 LR rifle? Would they catch you how close are your neighbors? Would anybody likely turn you in? What is the penalty if caught?
 
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We have a ground squirrel, and gopher problem that is not really stoppable in Sun Valley California. They just have not used lethal means to control the population tell I'm not really sure it's controllable on two and a half acres. What we've had to settle for is homemade cages with everything we plant. Whether it's heavy duty chicken wire or hardware cloth everything gets caged. We use really big cages and make them ourselves. my cousin refuses to use lethal means If we also employed traps around the cages it might be a winnable War. But right now we're just stuck with the approach we've got... it's a lot like Vietnam the wrong approach in the wrong real estate.Nothing absolutely nothing survives that is not first cage protected.
 
Figless said:
@TorontoJoe If you're making protective cages yourself out of hardware cloth or chicken wire they will be any size you manufacture. Traps are not anywhere near as useful as heavy duty cages. What would the penalty be if you just employed a 22 LR rifle? Would they catch you how close are your neighbors? Would anybody likely turn you in? What is the penalty if caught?
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A .22 (or any) isn't an option here. In my case I have nothing attacking from below ground, so it will need to remain a process of, relocate early and often. I am legally allowed to live trap and relocate within a defined distance. Intentionally harming them comes with steep penalties. Plus I promised my kid that I wouldn't hurt them. My wooded drop off location has become quite the raccoon community.
 
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