Blackhole Trap - The Original Blackhole Mole, Rodent & Gopher Trap, Spring Loaded, Easy to Use, Reusable Dark Trap Hole for Eliminating Pests in All Yards

I live in urban San Diego , and our backyard runs down a small canyon. This summer I started noticing a TON of gopher holes - the bottom of our canyon looked like a small war zone where miniature explosions left craters and trenches. I tried several things: sonic devices and powdered blood as a repellant, live traps, large mousetraps marketed for gophers, and these. The sonic devices seemed to help but weren't 100% reliable. Once in a while I'd see a hole near where the sonic device was inserted. I bought 12 of them, put them closer together than instructed (20 ft) and kept them just because they seemed to help a little. I'd give them a B- The bloodmeal honestly didn't seem to do anything. I'd pour some in a hole, and a new hole would open just a foot or two away. It was expensive, time consuming, and troublesome. I'd give it a D The live trap didn't work. I tried baited and non baited. I just don't think gophers come out of their holes far enough to wander inside. It sat in the yard for a week before I packed it up and returned it. F The large mousetraps didn't work either, presumably for the same reason as above. I returned them. F This trap, however, worked well and best of all - worked quickly. I set one out and within 4 hours it was trapped. I bought two more, and continued catching gophers within hours of setting the traps. They worked like magic, but there is a technique that helps. First, go out in the yard and cover all the holes with dirt, and come back the next day. That will identify active holes. Next, using your hand or a small shovel, clear enough dirt away from the hole so you can fit this trap snugly up against the opening. On a hillside, I didn't have to clear much, but on a lawn you may have to dig a small hole. You want the trap to be in-line with the tunnel. I put a handful of dirt in the tube, and covered the part where the trap meets the tunnel with dirt. After each catch, I also clean the traps with soap and water. May or may not be necessary, I just figure better to make sure to remove any scent. I also planted shrubs and plants that gophers don't seem to like. Basically, anything herby and smelly (salvia, sage, rosemary) or anything with a white milky sap. They haven't gone near those, but I keep seeing holes elsewhere. Somewhere I read online that gophers are solitary and territorial, and usually you'd find one per acre... total lies. Our lot is a fraction of an acre, and I caught 4 within the last few days, with I'm sure more to go.

I've never had to deal with trapping anything other than tiny field mice but after seeing months of dirt piles in our small yard in Southern California, I had to do something. A few minutes research on YouTube pointed out how easy it is to identify your problem (gophers make a distinctive hole), how to locate the tunnels (probe near their holes with a stick or sharp object to find hollow spaces underground and follow to indicate direction of the tunnels), and how to place these traps (dig a hole large enough to set the trap down into the tunnel and try to "seal" one of the holes with the trap opening, then sprinkle dirt back around the trap to hide light and any small openings, then cover your large hole on the surface with anything that'll block out light - I used concrete stepping stones that were nearby). I was hesitant - not knowing what to expect from efficacy or duration of time needed to curtail the problem. This rounded trap which conforms to existing tunnel shape is an easy to set trap. It takes a bit of wrist strength to set it, but even 2 months after a mastectomy, I could manage it and only took about 5 minutes to install. I had read that gophers are solitary and territorial (they don't share their tunnels with any other gophers and that they will check on any tunnel disturbances to fix problems fairly quickly). So, on a whim, I checked the trap about 3 hours later. Yup. It works. S/He was dead, but there was no gore (sorry if that's TMI, but it's nice to know what to expect). Just a limp gopher. Easy to release into a trashbag and reset the trap ... just in case. I'll update if I catch any more! Very satisfied. I found their guarantee quite reassuring: "Our Guarantee: If your new BLACKHOLE TRAP fails to catch a gopher, simply return the trap along with proof of purchase within 30 days and your money will gladly be refunded. (shipping not included)"

Hey folks, it took a year of trial and error, but I have these traps working really well now. Like many reviewers, it seemed the gophers would simply bury them. For every 6 traps I set, I might catch one gopher as they buried the rest of the traps. Frustrated, I put these traps away and tried every trap on amazon, nothing seemed to work so I went back to these traps with a new plan. It did not take long to realize that trapping the main tunnels works really well when compared to just digging up one of the side mounds. Now I find the main tunnel and set two traps end to end. (see picture and video). I don't leave the hole open on the back of the trap anymore. I also add a small amount of rabbit food into the open gopher hole and back of the trap as bait along with a few nearby weeds/leaves. With this dual end to end approach I almost always catch a gopher. Super happy now with these traps now and as I said earlier I never set just one trap anymore. Hope this helps...

Based on the reviews in Amazon, I bought this product. Unfortunately this product does not work for my gopher problem in my backyard. I read the instruction coming with the product and watched quite a few youtube clips on how to use this product before I set it up in the backyard. I set up the Black Hole trap at newly dug mounds. Each time I followed the instruction, but each time the gopher pushed the dirt into the trap which set it off. After about a dozen of tries, I finally gave up. Here are two possibilities that the trap does not work: 1. If the gopher has been exposed to traps before, it might develop a sharper sense of danger. It might pushed dirt into the trap instead of going inside to check the source of light. I live in a large residential area with backyard fences. The gopher might have experienced something similar in my neighbor's backyard. 2. According to some online readings and other reviews, gophers in Northern California tend to be smaller and are harder to be caught by Black Hole Gopher Trap. Hope you find my disappointing gopher hunting helpful of your purchase decision.

I have a gopher issue in my neighborhood, when they started digging into my basement crawlspace I knew I had to deal with it. My dachsunds dig up their holes, even sometimes the runs, so I can put a pair of traps in exactly the right place. The only issue with this trap that I have had is that it has never had a successful kill. The gophers have dug around it and filled it with dirt; something about the shape seems to make them suspicious. I have another trap that is square shaped and it has killed 2 gophers and one squirrel. I feel sorry for the squirrel, he must have just been curious. The trap caught his foot with the upper arm, then when I let the dachsunds out they killed him. The dachsunds also killed one gopher on their own, Caught him right at an exit hole where he must have been caught unaware. So the trap itself is fine, seems to be in working order, I just have not had the success others have had with this style of trap.

I have tried both the gopher poison pellets and Gopher Gassers from Home Depot to try and rid my front and back yard of one gopher each, but was unsuccessful each time. After reading the stellar reviews of this trap on Amazon.com and seeing some results on YouTube, I decided to buy one Black Hole Gopher Trap. The first time I set it up, I found a hole in my front lawn and dug it out enough to fit about half of the trap inside it almost completely vertically, leaving enough room for the spring mechanism outside of the trap to operate correctly. 24 hours later I checked the trap, there was dirt near the back, but it was not sprung. I found a fresh hole and this time I carefully set the trap (wire inside of the lip) and pulled the trigger pin out a little so it barely held the trigger in place. I then dug out the hole enough to place the trap at about a 45 degree angle halfway inside and covered the sides of the trap with dirt and grass. I actually put a little bit of fresh dirt inside the trap before setting it in the hole per a recommendation seen on YouTube. The next morning, the trap was sprung and it contained one small, dead gopher. Great, it worked! I set the trap again in the backyard this time in the exact same manner as the last time. The next morning, I went to check the trap and I could see it was sprung but was moving a little bit. Upon closer examination, I could hear the grunting of a trapped gopher. I pulled the trap out of the hole and inside I found a very fat, live gopher, trying desperately to free itself. Hence the 4 stars instead of 5. I did not have the nerve to clobber it with a blunt object (or a sharp one either), so I took one of the Gopher Gasser sticks that I had left over, lit it, and stuck the smoking end inside the hole at the one end of the trap near the gopher's head. I would guess it was dead within a minute or two. So, the Gopher Gasser did work in that one instance, but not according to the instructions on the package. All in all, the Black Hole Gopher Trap caught 2 gophers in 2 days and I am very satisfied with the purchase. I would highly recommend this trap to anyone trying to get rid of gophers although, be prepared that you might find a live one in there.

This is the second time I have used this product. The first time I caught the gopher in one day. This time I set the trap as directed and it took me two tries. I dug up the ground around the active mound, found the hole, and set the opening of the trap firmly against it. I then shoved some soil around it and covered it with a rubber floor mat to make sure it was nice and dark. The first time the trap was snapped and filled with rocks and dirt. I assume the gopher set off the trap and then kicked rocks and dirt into it which was smart of him. I immediately reset the trap, placed a layer of potting soil inside the trap, and placed a carrot on top of the potting soil. The next morning the trap was snapped and the gopher was dead. It was very easy to set and produced excellent results. Highly recommend.

This gopher trap may work with some fiddling and some luck, but it has some design flaws and quality control is not good. Here are the design flaws as I see them. 1. Instructions are not correct. In step 3 it says :"With right hand, lay spring bar across spring and insert end in trigger hold. Gently release". What it should have said, (using their picture and parts identification). Lay the trigger wire over the spring bar and insert end of trigger wire into the trigger hold. It also says "Occasional bending of the spring bar (with pliers) may be necessary to maintain sensitivity." It should read "trigger wire" instead of "spring bar". 2. Poorly designed trigger mechanism. My trap was impossible to set as it came, and I had to bend the trigger wire to reach the trigger hold. After I did this the trigger wire would fit in the little hole, but the force to trigger the trap was much too great, (tested with a long screwdriver, not my fingers!). I had to carefully bend the wire multiple times to finally be able to get the trigger sensitive enough to work with the kind of force a gopher would push against it. Even then, each time I would reset the trap I had to fiddle with the trigger wire to ensure the trap would spring with a light force and I was never sure if it was correct. This is just a very poor design. The trigger device should set at the proper pressure the first time and every time, without this kind of fiddling and uncertainty. 3. The trap is large and requires a lot of vertical space to allow spring mechanism to fully activate. I measured it at 7 Inches. So this gopher trap will not fit IN a gopher hole, but can only be placed by excavating a fairly large hole in a fresh mound and covering with a piece of wood, or bucket, (if the gopher hole is not deep enough). It could also be set easily at the entrance of a hole, but I have not found this is a reliable way to catch gophers. At the same time I ordered this trap, I also ordered the "Gophinator" traps by Trapline Products and found this product far superior in every respect to the Black Hole Gopher trap. The Gophinator : 1, Can fit in a 3 inch hole and the side-winder spring will have enough space to trigger properly. Much less digging required. 2. Made of all metal stainless steel. Won't break. 3. Excellent quality control. Every trap exactly the same. 4. Excellent trigger mechanism sets very easily with the proper sensitivity each and every time. Takes just seconds to do without any guess work involved. 5. The Gophinator traps and kills gophers reliably and quickly. I have not found a live one in the Gophinator trap yet. The bottom line is that I cleared my half acre property of gophers with the Gophinator traps, but did not catch a single gopher with the Black Hole Gopher Trap, (found it back-filled twice though). I thought of giving the Black Hold trap just one star, but I can see where it might work IF you can get the sensitivity to set and hold properly every time and there is at least 7 inches of vertical clearance inside the hole, so I am giving it the benefit of the doubt and two stars instead of one.