Sweeney's Gopher Trap, 2 Pack S9013

Pro: Effective when used properly: trapped the pest within a day of properly setting it. Inexpensive: compared to the damage done by the pestCon: Not for everyone: Required some hand strength/dexterity to set the trigger and to remove the victim.Unfortunately, I live in a perfect location for moles and gophers to thrive, rural enough to have open fields nearby yet suburban enough to keep their natural predators (e.g. snakes, coyotes and bobcats) from effectively intervening.Moles invaded my pristine lawn a few years back and were caught using scissor traps. However, a year ago, my mole trapping prowess waned as my entire landscape, not just the lawns, was ravaged. Believing that a new generation of "smarter" moles had evolved, I stepped up my trapping regimen while I evaluated "smarter" traps. My past moles inadvertently damaged plants but never destroyed them. As my ornamental scrubs continued to fall prey one by one, I theorized that the culprit was perhaps a gopher, which unlike a mole eats roots, gnaws on the base of plants and chews up grass around its mounds. A couple weeks back, as I stood on my front porch, a gopher popped out from a freshly excavated hole and stared me down with its beady eyes -- it felt like a scene from Caddyshack!I placed my order for these traps within the hour. Although most traps seemed lethal, these traps seemed the least invasive yet preserved proof of "habeus corpus." I chose the Sweeneys because they could be set at the mouth of a fresh opening that the gopher would eventually backfill. This would eschew both the guesswork of finding the ideal location as well as the unearthing the trap when checking or resetting. I suppose the equivalent Victor traps would have sufficed.As soon as they arrived, I anxiously unpacked and familiarized myself with them. When setting the Sweeneys, I found the opening diameter made by my gopher prevented the trap from being placed entirely into the hole. Moreover, it kept the sprung trap from clearing the top of the tunnel. This was remedied with a bit of trowel work, though. The trap itself required some hand strength and simultaneous dexterity to set and arm. I practiced a couple of times arming and triggering it. The entire trap was placed inside the hole but the metallic trigger plate was purposely left visible. The trap was tethered to a stake at the mouth of the opening in case the trapped gopher was still able to retreat back into its burrow. This also made it easier to extract the trapped critter without digging up the entire trap.The next day, the trap was sprung and the gopher was done. Removing it from the trap required a bit more manual coordination given the carcus prevented clear access to the pincers. I inserted the shaft of a screwdriver under the gopher across the arms of the trap and stepped down on both ends leaving my hands free to extricate the deformed, lifeless body. Even though I have had no more visible signs of gopher activity since then, I have reset the trap and placed it in a less conspicious location for peace of mind.I hope this helps.

Until I got my Sweeney Gopher Traps, the gophers were destroying my yard! They killed a huge area of red-hot pokers, they had holes everywhere, they were eating up my garden. Every day I found new evidence of damage. I was getting a completely hopeless feeling and thought " so much for gardening". But then I discovered Sweeneys Gopher Traps. On the very first day I trapped three. Then I saw no damage for three weeks and no signs of new activity until this morning I saw more fresh activity and again I got another gopher.I had watched a YouTube video on how to use them. I use no bait and I just put the trap in the gopher hole and almost always within two hours I have my gopher.They are so easy to use and those stupid little ground rats invariably get caught in the trap within 2 hours. I feel so empowered!!Here is a 1 year follow up. After my initial victory they came back about a year later. It's incredible how much damage voles can do in a short period of time! They devastated my vegetable garden and new flower bed. But as soon as I got out my Sweeneys Gopher Traps I nailed them. I just got my second varmit today.If you wait till new mounds of dirt show up and then carefully place the trap in a main tunnel, you WILL get rid of hose horrible, destructive creatures.Highly recommended!!

I had a running battle for years with gophers in my front yard. This is in a suburban development in Northern California. There is a canal and greenbelt right next to my neighborhood with a massive number of gophers so they sometimes migrate over to the houses (although they skipped several houses to choose mine!) Over the years, I've tried: fox pee salt repellents, flooding, smoke bombs, poison, digging out their tunnels and I forget what else. Nothing worked.Finally, I got two of these Sweeney's traps and two of the Victor traps. I set two of each type in various holes that I found, baited with peanut butter. I know the instructions say to dig into the main burrow and set the traps going in each direction, but I didn't see any way to do that without massive digging (previously, I'd dug down nearly 4 feet without finding any main burrow). So I just dug the exit holes wide enough to fit the trap and let it spring without getting caught on the tunnel walls. Some of them, I could just get it into the very end of the tunnel so the trap would be stuck vertically into the hole. Others, I could dig enough out so the trap sat horizontally into the tunnel. I used cable ties to attach it to a stake or a nail which I put in firmly on the outside of the hole. I covered the hole with a clod of dirt, ball of newspaper or paper plate to keep the light out (if they see light, they will push a dirt plug in front of them, which will set off the trap without catching the gopher).Results were that I caught 2 gophers within a couple days and another within a week. All of these were with the Sweeney traps and none with the Victor traps. I did find that they Sweeney ones fit and sprung better in narrow tunnels than the Victor ones, which would get caught on the tunnel walls easier. A few months later, another gopher moved in at the other end of my lawn and I put a couple Sweeney traps there (don't bother with the Victors anymore) and caught that one in about 3 days.So I would say that the Sweeney traps are the best way to deal with a gopher problem. They work better than the Victor ones and trapping in general has the advantage that you know when you have caught something. With all the poison, etc. methods, you never know whether you got them until there is the indirect evidence that there aren't new dirt piles for a while.