Moles, Voles and Gophers OH MY! Or Bye Bye Little Gopher

Well for a few months we had little mounds of dirt in our garden.  They would appear overnight.  Hmmm.  So I googled and googled and learned much about Moles, Voles, and Gophers.  Thought we had a Mole because none of the plants were disappearing.  Dug around, found a tunnel, stuck a garden hose in, turned on the water, water spurted out about 5 feet over and 3 feet down between the railroad ties holding up the hillside.  Hmmmmm.  Harumph!!!! says I and I call hubby out who immediately begins laughing.  He asks the question "Have you never watched Caddy Shack?".  So I began laughing too and then the games began.  I kept unhiding the opening to the "tunnel" and in the morning a little mound would be up where the opening was the night before.  And Repeat.  And Repeat.  And Repeat.  Well a few months go by and I am actually thinking having a mole for a garden pet is kind of funny.  THEN one morning I go outside and half of my marrigolds are just GONE!!!!!  WHAT!!!  Okay so now this is not funny or cute anymore.  The next morning,  more marrigolds have disappeared to be stored in the gopher larder.  Not kidding.  Moles store worms and grubs, gophers store roots and vegetable matter. 

So I was talking at church and one of the sisters had a gopher and had a brother from the ward come and take care of it.  So I went and talked to this brother and he and his family own a pest control company.  He came out on Monday afternoon and put some poison in the ground.  Two weeks later and no mounds of dirt.  It is kind of icky to think of a gopher dead in the hillside but at least he is "buried".  While he was at it the brother from church sprayed for spiders and ants, etc.  We are officially on a pest control plan. 

No more gophers, black widow spider bites, or spiders falling from the ceiling onto my face at night.  That is icky let me tell ya!