Fairgrounds declares war on ‘super breed’ gophers
'There’s times you look out there and it looks like the ground is moving'
A subplot to the 1980 classic movie “Caddyshack” involves Bill Murray’s obsession with exterminating a gopher.
Murray plays a golf course greenskeeper who employs more and more extreme measures to rid the immaculate golf course of nuisance gophers.
The W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds could use some Bill Murrays. It has an even bigger gopher problem.
“There’s times you look out there and it looks like the ground is moving,” Scott Wick told Minnehaha County commissioners.
The president and CEO of the Sioux Empire Fair’s remarks came as he delivered a report about this year's 10-day county festival. At the halfway point, the fair had been successful, Wick said, telling the commission that weather had cooperated with limited amounts of rain, and a steady stream of visitors were coming in for shows, food and a carnival that offered 38 rides this year. Spending appeared to be up, he said.
The fair also has a curfew this year. People 17 and younger must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian after 9 p.m. That new policy has been well received, he said.
“The young folks have been very well behaved,” Wick said. “We had a little skirmish the other night. Unfortunately, some girls wanted to start causing some problems, and their boyfriends jumped in. But law enforcement took care of it. It happens when you get that many people.”
What hasn’t been taken care of, however, are the gophers. Wick prefaced his description of the problem by saying W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds has a “major rodent” problem.
“We need to eradicate those, because it’s just a matter of time before somebody gets hurt,” he said.
It’s not as if they haven’t tried in the past. Wick said they’ve hired trappers. They also brought in a company to treat the gopher colonies. It took the company two days, and they discovered 1,800 gopher holes on the property.
“It didn’t do anything,” Wick said.
“They must be some super breed out there because we can’t get rid of them,” he added.
Gophers have historically been a problem in South Dakota – especially for farmers, ranchers and phone companies. The state used to include gophers in its bounty program. The South Dakota State Historical Society contains papers on various bounties paid in Minnehaha County from 1899-1926.
Some counties continue to use a bounty system, although gophers are not part of the state’s nest predator bounty program meant to preserve pheasant numbers. In Brookings County, trappers can get $2 per pair of front gopher feet.
“If they brought 10 gophers in, they got 20 bucks,” Brookings County Weed and Pest Supervisor Misty Moser told The Dakota Scout.
The county partners with interested townships and with Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative (ITC) and Sioux Valley Energy. Those companies – which have an interest in keeping gophers from chewing through underground lines – each pay 50 cents per tail, as do the county and participating townships.
“We should raise it,” Moser said of the bounty. “I just have to get ITC and Sioux Valley on board.”
Last year, bounties were paid on 724 gophers in Brookings County. Those numbers were down from past years, where bounties are typically paid out on between 900 and 1,000 critters.
Moser suspects the down number could reflect a lessening of interest in trapping among young people.
“They’re not wanting to do it,” she said. “There are just other things to do. I’m guessing it’s phones and computers and that kind of stuff.”
Where is Carl Spackler when you need him?
Is there any way to contain bull snakes to the desired area? I watched a bull snake stalking a young gopher one time. Awesome and effective process. Another time, I watched one carry a dead gopher down into its hole. So I was happy when a bull snake showed up in my yard last year, and am even happier to say: I have no gophers in my yard, much fewer mice this year!
I read that a bull snake will eat 1000 mice in a year. So maybe...300 gophers?