Customer Reviews

Victor 0625 The BlackBox Gopher Trap

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4 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A Gopher can be cute - for about 1 minute. Then, as Captain Jean-Luc Picard says, "This little nuisance is quickly losing its fascination." And if you're INFESTED, you'll soon agree with him - and me.

A friend recommended these gopher traps. She ran down the litany - castor oil repellant, ultrasonic noise repellers, underground bait, above-ground bait, gas bombs - everything she'd tried - and she recommended the Black Box trap as the only sure solution. I went out and bought one the very same day, and dug down near a fresh mound, tracking the lateral tunnel back to the main one, and wrinkling my nose at the smell of castor oil (which, incidentally, served only to double the gophers' efforts; they completely ignored it.) I set the trap, placed it in the tunnel, covered it back over with sod, and went to work. When I came home the trap was full - of fat, dead gopher.

Broken in the middle, the gopher's limp body gave no evidence of struggle. The powerful spring action of the Black Box had snapped his spine and led to a bloodless, speedy demise. It was a bit of a pain to get his nasty, flaccid corpse out of the trap and into the trash without touching him, made worse by the mild guilt I felt at having participated in the slaughter of one of my peaceful backyard friends.

Yes, guilt. Seriously. If you're all about PETA - if you're into ethical coexistence - you know this trap isn't going to be for you. This is a murderous, fiendish device. Imagine one day a giant hand reached down out of the heavens, snapped your spine, and hurled you to the ground, squeezing the life out of you until you perished, in agony and ultimately alone. Justice? Not served. Fair play? Out the window. Cruelty? In abundance.

But you know what else? I'm going to come over to your house, all you PETA folks, and mock your ugly, lumpy, mounded, holey lawn; because you will have an ugly lawn, bearing evidence of the nefarious depredations of order Rodentiae. And you will not get any food out of that organic garden you're tending with worm tea and organic compost, because the gophers will eat the roots and destroy all of your crops. And you will have fat, organically raised gophers; and skinny, malnourished vegan kids.

The rest of you? Go get you two or three of these Black Boxes. Then, start the body count.

My dad started selling these traps in the 1950s. They originally were a treated wood but eventually they would get chewed on by gophers (revenge motivated), stolen by fox, or decayed by weather (forgotten for months). They sold for $3 each or so much a case. In our area a bounty was paid for the tail (today its at $3 each). I had at one time 12 traps and made some good money trapping gophers. Over the years, I've trapped hundreds of the little bastxxs. Why the hatred? Pocket gophers will eat your garden alive, drop 8' Norway pines, ruin your lawn and destroy underground electric wires. What's worse, if you let them be, the fox and badgers will come in to get them and then you'll see what real dirt moving and destruction means. A war zone!

This new plastic version works as well and doesn't get damaged by weather but costs significantly more than other open trap types. However, they work better than any other trap I've used as they are easy to set, no wounded gophers (never seen a live one yet)and will get the gopher 4 out of 5 times. That said, here's some observations:

1. To find a gopher run, take a pointed steel rod (I have one with a cross handle on the top and a stepping bar on one side toward the bottom). Go around the outside of the latest gopher mound inserting the rod 6-12" into the ground and about 12" apart. When the rod "falls" through the ground after initial insertion, you've found the tunnel. Take a square head spade and dig a square hole , flat bottom, with the tunnel at either or both ends. (Use two traps or seal one tunnel if your in the middle of a run). Butt the set trap up tight against the tunnel. Lightly cover the top of the trap with dirt (grass over the tiny gaps where the metal parts enter the trap, then dirt). Not too much as it will eventually interfer with the spring strength. Leave the hole open at the end (I've caught many gophers with the air hole closed too, especially if the trap is in a runway - tunnel going both ways).

2. You may catch the gopher fairly quick but I leave traps overnight before moving them. If the trap doesn't get tripped after a day, there is a 90% chance its plugged with dirt. If full of dirt, reset. However, each time its plugged, the chance of trapping the gopher (they get smarter each time) is significantly reduced. After plugged twice, your chance of catching him there is near zero. Move the trap to another portion of their maze and try again.

3. Wear old, worn gloves so you leave no scent. I've never washed a trap after a dead gopher though.

4. To remove a dead gopher, take the box trap, turn it on end over the garbage, hold the spring bar down and shake hard. The gopher will pop out. (A little messy but it works in rural areas...Take the dead gopher and fling him in the middle of the yard. I've never had a gopher still there the next day as many, many other animals love gophers for a decent meal. Is this green or what??)

5. Don't settle for just one gopher. I always reset the trap into the same hole and its 50/50 you'll catch another. If you think you have them all, remove the trap and leave the tunnel open. If it fills back up after a day, there's more in the maze.

6. Gophers love easy digging so they will follow easy digging directions. Unfortunately underground electric wire make for easy digging and a gopher will follow the wire. For some reason (revenge again?) they will chew on the plastic wire coating as the enjoy the easy digging. Weeks or months later when a wire nick corrodes and when the lights go off, you'll know they were busy.

7. If you have fox, coyote or badgers in the area, stake your trap down with chain and an anchor. If not, a predator will gladly remove the dead gopher but unfortunately with your trap. And you'll never see the trap again.

8. With minimal care (flag so you don't forget where your traps are and anchor when necessary)these traps will last almost forever. I'm still using an original wood box trap from the 1960s. All beat up but still catches gophers.

If catching gophers with minimal effort is the goal, you can't go wrong with this proven box design. Good hunting!

I had struggled with gas bombs, flooding & metal traps. These work....in time. I'm far too impatient & frustated by seeing my yard destroyed while gophers out smart the above methods. The Victor black box has been great! I have a 100% kill rate for the last 2 weeks and generally get my gopher within 4 hrs of placing the trap. Also, you can see if the trap has been tripped without disturbing the trap. Unlike the metal jaw style trap, where I had to trip it when pulling it out of the hole (because most of the time I had nothing.) I put a little bit of carrot in the bait hole in the back of the box & so far, I'm very happy.
This trap appears more humane in terms of a rapid kill (snaps the spine) & it less messy as the gopher doesn't have any wounds to deal with. It's worth the money. There is no way you are going to lose this thing underground either.

My first suggestion is to make sure of what exact pest is digging up your yard. My husband and I had first thought these mounds or hills were made by moles, or maybe armadillos, and after research for local yard problems, found they were made by the Southeastern Pocket Gopher. We have the other 2 pests here too, but their habits are different, and we'll have to get something else for the moles.
We had tried everything to repel or remove this critter, and finally ordered one of these traps after reading good reviews here. To my great surprise, we got the pesky Pocket Gopher the very next morning after setting the trap. We did use the carrot trick at the back of the trap, as shown on the instructions.
So much damage was done to our yard and shrubs, and it appears it was just this one pocket gopher all along. But if another one moves in, we will be prepared with this Victor Black Box trap. Very satisfied customer!

I remember my dad using a similar item (made of wood) years ago to keep our yard gopher free. The new generation Black Box is plastic, but works just as well. The snare is very strong and seems to do its job very quickly (at least none of the gophers have been alive when I've gotten to them). Once tripped, it requires a bit of muscle to release the spring and a little shaking to get the gopher out, but that's just a testament to its effectiveness. I hate to kill these little guys, but they're destroying my yard! The Black Box is a a definite Gopher Getter.

I usually do not write reviews on Amazon (or anywhere else for that matter), but I really have to make an exception in this case because of how well this device works. It is rare for any device to work exactly as expected, but the Victor Blackbox Gopher Trap works above and beyond any expectations that I had for it. I do not work for the Victor company, and I have no financial stake in the sales of their products. I am simply an exasperated homeowner who got fed up wih gophers tearing up his property and decided to give this device a try.

I had used poison pellets, smoke bombs, water hose, and those silly sonic devices... nothing worked and those gophers were probably laughing at me. With the Blackbox, it's nearly a sure thing. Also, you actually get to see the results with a dead gopher right in front of you, unlike smoke bombs and poison which are always a guessing game as to whether or not they actually did their job.

Within 2 day of getting this product, I had already caught 3 gophers. One of those gophers was caught less than 1 hour after I set the trap. Free lunch on my property is now officially over.

The key to the effectiveness of this trap is to find a freshly dug up gopher mound.

My sure kill method:

1) Find a freshly dug up gopher mound.
2) Dig out the mound until you find the tunnel.
3) Place the activated trap flush with the entrance of the tunnel, with the small round hole (on one side of the trap) facing outward.
4) Cover up the gaps at the top, sides and bottom of the trap with dirt so that it looks like the tunnel extends into the Blackbox, but make sure the opening to the trap is unobstructed from inside their tunnel.

The idea is to make the trap seem like an extension of the gopher's tunnel, and by instinct the gopher will head towards that small open hole on the other side of the trap to plug it up (they don't like any openings into their tunnels). Once he enters the trap, it's goodnight Gracie. This trap is so strong that the gopher will be nearly snapped in half.

Before getting the Blackbox, I had also tried using a "Macabee" gopher trap (the one with the 2 pincers that snap together) but the gopher simply pushed that trap out of his tunnel. The Macabee is also a lot more risky to use and harder to set (in terms of triggering it accidentally on your hand). The Blackbox is safer to use and much easier to set because the trigger mechanism and the killing device is contained fully within the box itself. The Macabee trap can also be dragged away by a dying gopher if it is not properly secured. There is definitely no chance of a gopher dragging away a Blackbox.

In summary, I wish I had used the Blackbox from the beginning. It would have saved me a lot of time, money, frustration and parts of my yard.


UPDATE Aug-17-2011: I have just posted some pics as proof of the effectiveness of this device. After 13 captures within the first 4 months of use, I have not seen any more gopher activity since April 2011. I guess word got out in the gopher community that there is now a steep price of admission onto this property.

Excellent product, really easy to use. First, you have to locate the main gopher tunnel which is probably the hardest part of the process. Then, you clear out a space from the tunnel, set the trap, and butt it up against the tunnel opening. Make sure to cover the hole with some plywood or something opaque to block any light from entering the tunnel. I caught a gopher within hours and I just reset the trap. Highly recommended.

This trap works the best, built very well and solid. Just make sure you set the trap at the last or most recent gopher mound. Once set, the gopher is usually trapped within the next 12 - 48 hours. If it doesn't, then you probably didn't get the right gopher mound or the trap was not in the proper direction. The trap with the little hole at the end, needs to be like an exit, as if the gopher was trying to push the dirt out to close the hole. Once the gopher goes into the "Black Box" and tries to push dirt up into the little hole... "SNAP!" the trap grabs the gopher and holds it in the trap. Good luck!

I live in Washington state where there are quite a bit of gophers roaming around. My father's been having troubles with them in his yard for years. So I've been trying to find the best trap for him to use. I came on Amazon to find some and just bought a bunch. One of them my father said worked relatively well was this one. It has a good design and an alright killing speed. Though he said the absolute best was Black Hole Rodent Trap. He says it's definitely worth the extra dollars. He absolutely loves it.

I finally got the big fat gopher that has been ruining my garden. We dug down where I saw the activity and found the hole. We set the trap with no bait, covered it up and within a 1/2 hour he was caught. This trap works.

Victor 0625 The BlackBox Gopher Trap