GopherHawk® Trapping Set, Includes Wedge and Probe Tool

I have tried those repellents that make noise, some do work but the lawn still gets damaged. I finally tried these traps, I bought 2, watched couple of video's, ensured I set the traps in the tunnel. I caught one gopher in the front yard and one in the backyard on the first day. Money well spent comparing to all the efforts I used to put in every day plugging the holes back, not to mention the money I spent on the repellents and the different types of poison that never worked.

After years of trapping moles + pocket gophers ( and now needing to trap ground squirrels, which is a whole other subject ) ... and after taking a free lesson from a nursery to do so using the CINCH traps... FINALLY now a nearly PERFECT TRAP for the tunnelers...no lessons needed and more success!1) It's NOT TERRIFYING to set + I can't see any possible way you could crush, break, bruise, cut or otherwise hurt your fingers with this trap! (CINCH was always a tad scary for me + more strength is needed)2) It's unbelievably EASY and FAST to set (once you have estimated the active tunnel location)3) It's unbelievably EASY to know when it's been activated + to remove the vermin4) If you watch some Youtube videos or read about being careful w the straps, you'll be better informed about how to handle it. And the straps are replaceable.5) You don't need much strength to set this.The secret to success (after learning how to NOT damage the straps) is to position it properly in an active tunnel. I believe if you are NOT catching these guys, you are not positioning the trap properly or in the right location. Practice makes perfect. You kinda have to mentally process the positioning...Our vermin seem to have the IQ of a rocket scientist. A pocket gopher actually detoured a new tunnel AROUND the straps. Oops... new hole nearby + unsprung trap! That was okay... I put my gloved fingers into the new hole ( as far as I could, since my vermin now twist + turn their active tunnels... it can be a real challenge, I insert a thin rod sometimes to follow the curve ) And within minutes, we had the bugger.Being in the high desert, we have areas that are sandy, + areas that have great soil. In areas where the ground is very soft and inconsistent, it's more difficult to find the right place + sometimes to keep the trap upright. In sandy soil, when I reach the bottom of the tunnel, I raise the trap ever so slightly to keep the straps free, + sometimes I use a couple of large rocks to hold it upright + to keep it from sinking too much into the ground of the tunnel (I don't want the straps to get "stuck" in the sand, but I don't know if that's even possible,)Additionally, we have the following challenges: vermin invading our bumpy berm that is covered w Wooley Thyme + other delicacies that make it hard to detect runs PLUS vermin that now make turns in their active tunnels, sometimes within a foot or less, and sometimes several times, making it difficult to know where to position the trap.In spite of this challenges, I AM catching them, AND6) This trap causes MUCH LESS DAMAGE TO LANDSCAPING!!! Thanks for such a nearly perfect trap !!!And thank you to AMAZON for your patience regarding a trap that I returned because I lacked the strength to set it, or being too nervous to handle another one safely, or a trap that the ground squirrels avoided like the plague. THANK YOU AMAZONPreviously, we had only been using CINCH very successfully for the last few years, but even those are a little bit scary to set. However now our vermin seem to know how to avoid them. After having caught many, I literally couldn't catch a single one anymore with CINCH, which has also been a great trap for us until it wasn't!

15 years I've been waging war against moles and gophers. Hundreds of dollars spent on traps and gimmicks. My combat is fought mostly against moles. Until det cord is made legal to buy at my local farm store, this is the only trap worth buying. It work every time. Key is to set it right, which is why the bayonet and plastic stake is included. Take the time to set it up right. Now with this weapon on my side, the war has shifted in my favor. Unfortunately there isn't a good product that prevents moles from starting to destroy my lawn, but at least I can rid them with this product within days.

This trap is amazing. 1000 stars. I would strongly suggest : TCBWFY Auger Drill Bit for Planting 1.6x16.5inch Extended Length Garden Auger Spiral Drill Bit for Planting Bulbs Flowers,Post Hole Digger for 3/8”Hex Drill. Available on Amazon, It works so much better that the tool they sell with it, particularly for folks with hard soil. You just locate the tunnel with a probe and drill the hole. You'll feel the tool bottom out on the tunnel floor with a bit of practice. You drop the trap in the hole and set it, put a little dirt around the trap to block out the light and bye bye gopher.

I've used scissor traps for trapping moles for about 20 years with a lot of success, especially lately with the Wire Tek 1001 EasySet Mole Eliminator. The only problem over all those years of mole hunting is that scissor traps are only effective, in my experience, when there are near-surface tunnels on which to set them. For years I had no solution for the mole hills, which would end up being more destructive than the near-surface tunnels. Then, I read about this ingenious trap, and now I finally have an answer to the mole hills.There are a ton of videos out there showing how to set the trap and some making it look like shooting fish in a barrel. My experience with it was not as easy, but I believe that is mostly due to the tough clay soil I have. In fact, I struggled a bit before finally trapping a mole. For instance, the wedge included in the kit was not long enough, i.e. not enough leverage, to make a real dent in my clay. I tried a garden auger, which just about burned up my drill. I tried pounding the wedge into the ground with a rubber mallet, but ended up "fusing" the probe tool into the wedge (don't do this).But I really believed in this trap, so I bought another kit to get a new probe and an additional trap to use. I also bought a heavy digging bar with point on one end and a wedge on the other. This was what changed everything. Now I can probe for the tunnel, get the hole started with the GopherHawk wedge, then use the digging bar and all its leverage to dig the hole quickly and effectively. This is the way in clay.If you have two mole hills it is pretty easy to find where to probe and start the hole between them, but I'm still working on the artform of finding the right depth. That said, I finally bagged my first mole with the trap.One more clay caveat: The videos you see will show the trapper effortlessly pulling the tripped trap out of the hole with the deceased mole on the other end. This definitely was not the case for me and I think it was, again, the clay. Despite digging around the trap I could not get the mole out. I could see and confirm that he was trapped but could not get it through the dried clay. So, I ended up having to cut the straps with tin snips and leave him there. Still trying to determine what I could have done differently, but I just ordered a couple sets of replacement straps. Thankfully the replacement straps are pretty inexpensive and a fair trade for a dead mole.Highly recommended traps for moles even for hard clay if you supplement the kit.