Looks like a groundhog, but...

I don't think we have groundhogs in California?? There's been a hole near our tangerine tree for quite some time, but it never looked like it was used, so I thought it was just a small sinkhole from god knows what. Maybe 2 inches diameter. Well a few weeks ago, neighbor cat Mister was hanging in our yard looking intently at the ground by the tree, so I went to see what was going on and I saw something dart down that hole! Went so fast I couldn't see it, but I thought it was a rodent. Since then, we've seen one or 2 other holes the same size in random areas of the yard a few feet from the tree.

Today, I saw something sticking its head up by the bird bath! I got the binoculars out, and yep- it's something! It looked like a baby groundhog to me. But a quick search showed that they don't live around here. Or maybe I got it wrong and was looking at the wrong marmot species? It didn't look anything like a mole, or like a yellow-bellied marmot which is the kind that supposedly lives here, and it's not a rat. I tried to take a pic, but it didn't come out too good from the house. And of course when I went outside it burrowed back down and left a pile of dirt. I know BF isn't going to like that one bit. As far as I can tell, it's not eating my garden though (so far. knock on wood!), so what is it?

Oddly enough, I thought it looked like a sea lion with its whiskers, but obviously it couldn't be that. Any ideas?

Yes! I googled gophers, and I think that's definitely it. Thank you! I completely forgot about gophers when racking my brains for little burrowing rodents!

Sigh.. this should be fun to deal with...

No, we actually had some roof rats in our attic which we finally got rid of in May. And that's what pushed us to get a new roof sooner rather than later (we need a new roof anyway, it's OLD wood shake. Getting it done in August!), because there are just gaps everywhere up there. We have an orange tree next to the house, and they ate the oranges and hung out in the attic. I've seen the rats, I've caught some in a humane trap with orange slices (peanut butter didn't work) and let them go in big fields not near anything a few miles away. I hope they became hawk dinner. No more oranges now, I made sure to get the last of them down with the fruit picker, and the rats are gone too. The tangerines have been gone too for a few months. (I wouldn't mind if they ate some lemons, we've got hundreds!)

What I saw in the hole outside was much different, it looked like a gopher, now that i've googled and see what a gopher actually looks like. It has tiny little ears on the side of its head, not sticking up. I looked up voles, and it didn't look like that either. I wish Mister would've dug and tried to get it instead of stared....

No, that squirrel thing doesn't look like what I saw. I went out back a bit ago, and it had made a good sized mound of dirt over that little hole! I just scooped up what I could and threw it into the garden. This critter is not going to be very popular around here if it keeps doing THAT!

Nope, those look like a squirrel. This didn't. With all the Google searches I did yesterday, I am sure it's a gopher. No more mounds in the yard since I posted last, but when BF got home from work I told him about it, and he said he saw some mounds outside our yard, we have a fence in the back and then on the other side is an easement and then a storm channel. Well on the easement side along our fence there were quite a few large mounds!

Sigh. Again.

Honestly, I'm not big on grass lawns in SoCal. We're in a desert, I hate wasting water to keep the grass green. But BF has different ideas about it, so I'm sure he won't tolerate gopher mounds all over. Of course, if they start killing my veggies or roses, then, well... like my mom said, I'll have to watch Caddyshack and take notes.

Well, I guess the gopher is here to stay, until BF decides to get rid of it...

Here was the crappy pic I took the day I started this thread, you can just see the gopher's head sticking up by the right side in front of the green bird bath (plant saucer).


And then this morning:


And here you can see a bunch of mounds along the fence, the closest one is along our yard, and the others are along neighbors' yards:


Boo. Why can't they dig in the park across the storm channel???

Yeah, I hope we don't kill the little bugger too. I mean, I even took rats in my car to a field to let them go, and they were in my HOUSE! (well, the attic, not the living space, but they kept me up at night running around!) Like I said, I don't really care about the lawn, just my veggies and flowers, but BF does, so, we'll see what happens, if this keeps up and gets worse. I only saw him that one time though, well 2 times if you count when Mister was staring him down by the tangerine tree. I haven't seen any grazing or running around or anything.

No, this critter doesn't have that squirrel face. Definitely a gopher.

Anyway, BF doesn't want to kill it either. If we caught it in the Havahart trap, how far away would we have to take it? Of course, there may be a bunch of them, who knows...

OK, there was an even bigger mound by the bird bath thing this morning!!! I'm going to not move the dirt this time though, maybe that will be enough and they won't dig out more? I wonder how big the network of tunnels is by now.... and if they mess with our roses or the tangerine, lime, or apple trees, then critters might have to die. I'm already worried about the tangerine tree, it's got some yellow leaves, and hasn't blossomed or anything yet. This time last year there were a bunch of little green tangerines already growing on it. Sigh.

We might set out the humane trap tonight. I'll do some googling on what they might like to eat while getting trapped...

Oh, no, I didn't think you're cold-blooded or anything, sometimes critters have to die. I understand that. I prefer to try other means of evicting them if possible though. So... grain.. would that include birdseed? Or oats? I'm just thinking of things we have.

I haven't seen any laws in Long Beach regarding trapping animals, and I did look up all I could find about it when we had the rats. All I know is that the city will take care of rats and things in public places like parks but not private property. If it gets too bad and we can't get rid of the gopher(s), maybe I can call the city about the mounds on the other side of the fence, since that's a city easement. I'm sure they'd kill them, but if that's what ends up happening, then so be it. I still wonder how far I'd have to take a gopher if I caught it in the humane trap so it wouldn't come back. For some reason I just keep thinking it might stay on the other side of the storm channel. When I relocated the rats, I went a few miles away, I didn't trust them in the park across the channel.

Well, I haven't seen any new dirt mounds or activity since Friday... I wonder if the gopher(s) moved on, or if a neighbor 'took care of it'.... I hope they stay away!

That said, this morning around 5:30 I heard something in the attic... again. GRRRR. I can't wait to get our new roof in a few weeks and get all the holes and gaps closed up.