This is the number 1 selling gopher trap in the USA
Use Blackhole For Gophers, Rats, and Moles.
Find a Fresh Gopher or Mole Mound:
1. Lightly "prime" blackhole trap with loose soil to conceal cable noose and floor of trap.
2. Find a fresh gopher or mole mound. Dig up and expose open tunnel. In lawns, carefully spade up a rectangular piece of sod and save to cover hole once rodent is caught.
3. Install blackhole trap in tunnel opening and seal all cracks with loose soil to insure no light enters.
4. Keep vent hole in the back end of the trap clear of soil to allow air to enter.
Why Gophers Pack Dirt in Trap:
a. Trap improperly set in tunnel.
b. Light leakage into trap.
c. Trap too "stiff." Readjust trigger for tripping with just a slight touch.
d. Maybe you have a smart gopher. If packing persists, stick a carrot in the vent hole and reset trap. Let's see how smart he is!
1. Lay blackhole trap on flat surface.
2. With left hand, depress spring down flush with top of trap and hold down.
3. With tight hand, lay "spring bar" across spring and insert end in "trigger bar" across spring and insert end in "trigger" hold. Gently release.
4. The trap is now set and ready to install in gopher tunnel.
A Few Extra Trapping Tips:
1. Trap evening and early morning.
2. Cover gopher & mole trap with loose soil, sealing all light except vent hole on end.
3. Wash blackhole trap with water after use.
4. Set gopher & mole trap in fresh tunnel only. If no activity in a few hours, move trap.
For Rats:
1. Set trap as per gopher instructions.
2. Drop bait through vent hole in rear of trap, keeping bait behind trigger grid. Sprinkle a small amount of bait at the mouth of the trap to entice rats. For bait, use corn, nuts, seeds, grain, bread crumbs, peanut butter, etc.
3. Set the rat trap in areas where rats are active-under sinks, behind appliances, in storage areas, etc.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: The Black Hole works! Comment: I have been battling pocket gophers in my yard for several years. Poisons didn't work, smoke bombs didn't work, gassing them didn't work, hiring professional pest control companies didn't work. The foxes who lived in a nearby culvert this spring worked but I couldn't convince them to stay around all summer. A neighbor told me about the Black Hole and I bought two to give it a try. So far I've caught 6 gophers and the amount of activity in my lawn has decreased dramatically. These work! Find a fresh dig, set the trap and you'll get them. Customer Rating: Summary: Works great...a little patience definitely helps though Comment: My poison probe seemed to stop working (didn't stop fresh mounds from appearing). My local paper printed an article about a couple that had just bought a property, only to discover there was a bad gopher problem there. The property owners seemed to swear by this product, so I ordered 2 of them right away.
Gopher activity seemed to stop a couple of days before I received them, so I knew already that a little patience would be important. After a couple of weeks, I finally found a fresh mound. I set the first trap that evening, then discovered that it caught a gopher before I went to work the next morning. A week or so later, I found another new mound in the back yard and set another trap. It took a couple of days (no new mounds were popping up anyway), and I at first wondered if I was really even dealing with a fresh gopher hole, but after a couple of days...it caught and killed yet another gopher.
Things to know about this product:
1. Trap diameter is probably at least twice that of a typical gopher tunnel. You will probably need to make the "damaged" area a little more "damaged" by displacing a little more soil in order to get the trap set. Consider the alternative (additional new mounds throughout) and you will hopefully realize the necessity of doing this.
2. Don't worry about setting trap completely parallel to tunnel. It doesn't take much light coming in the back of trap to get a gopher's attention.
3. Cover as much of the trap as possible without covering the end hole, if necessary. The first mound I had success with was in my front yard right next to the sidewalk. I also live at the end of a cul-de-sac where kids frequently play. Hiding as much of the trap as possible might be necessary to decrease the odds of a curious kid tampering with the trap. Don't be afraid to completely conceal the mechanism with a little soil. The springload on it is sufficient to make it easily throw the cover soil out of the way if it catches something.
You might have a hard time stomaching the site of a dead gopher hanging by its neck or chest from the end of this thing, but I personally take joy in getting payback for the damage that frequently gets caused to my lawns. Even if you can handle the site, you won't have to even touch the animal. Just hold the trap over an open trash bin, push down the mechanism, and the carcass will fall into the trash bin.
As long as you cover the trap entrance with dirt, this thing should work well - even if you have to wait 2-3 days for the gopher to return. Customer Rating: Summary: Caught gopher within 60 minutes of UPS truck delivering it. Comment: I don't know anything about gophers--but I followed the instructions and within an hour, I caught a gopher. Out of two tries (once in front yard, once in back yard), I have caught two gophers. It seems about as humane as any gopher trap can be--it causes instant death. After catching the gopher, it is easy to empty the trap into the trash without touching dead gopher. Customer Rating: Summary: These traps do work! Comment: We can attest to these traps working great on gophers. We have caught over 220 on our 5-1/2 acres in the last 3 years. We just bought two more to have as back-up when parts fail on the other 5 traps we own. We use to have 6 traps until the hubby ran over one with the garden tractor so please mark them with flags if you have a lot of property for ease of locating the traps again (and to keep running them over with the mower).
Customer Rating: Summary: Trapping Gophers in WI Comment: The trap didn't come with much for instruction so we didn't have any luck at first. However when I emailed the company for instructions they were extremely prompt with their response. My husband got 4 gophers in the next few days! We have tried several other traps and 'smoke bombs' in the past with no real luck. The gophers haven't been quite as active this spring given the wierd weather we've been having but we're hoping this is finally the answer!
