The Black Box Gopher Trap

This trap is by far better than most other traps at capturing gophers. It captures the gophers just in front of their rear legs hips. The trap does not kill the gophers instantly. The gophers may stay alive for several hours. Monitoring the traps frequently and dispatching the rodent is not pleasant but it is certainly better than allowing the rodent to unduly suffer. This trap needs a lethality improvement; then it gets 5 stars!

This is one of the best gopher trap available. It has already done its job. Once properly set in the gopher's most recent mound, you can expect a successful capture.

I've been trying all kinds of things to get these gophers. They were chewing the base of two of my trees and slowly killing them. Read the the reviews and purchased two traps. They work great, no more gophers at this time. Would highly recommend these traps.

I have tried every means to deal with gophers over the years and in my opinion this is the most effective way to get rid of these destructive menaces in areas where you can freely excavate. After a recent surge in activity I bought 6 more which have caught 29 gophers in the past 3 weeks. I'll note that part of the Home Depot description sounds incorrect to me: "Once the trap is in place near the gopher activity, simply press or step down on the set lever until you hear it click. The click indicates that the kill bar is now active. To offer peace of mind, when installed properly inside a gopher tunnel, all the traps moving parts are located safely below ground away from children and pets." There is no click and the spring mechanism pops up rather than occurring below ground. They must be referring to a different trap. Nevertheless, these are highly effective.

Tried plosion, flooding, and gopher bombs with no success. With this trap I catch the critter within 24 hours.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

These varmints undermined my foundation, stunk up the house by breeding underneath, and dug dozens of holes that rats used to get in & climb up walls to breed in the attic. They're also disease vectors that my county requires homeowners to kill. They've got to go. I tried Havahart 2-door traps (which only work if you set it with 1 door open), and The Squirrelenator ($50 purch. elsewhere). Those catch small & medium ground squirrels, but the Black Box is what finally got the big momma/big daddy breeders who won't go into those other traps. THANK YOU!! Above ground you need to weigh it down to keep it from moving. Bait with "squirrel mix" nut & seed mixture sold in bulk at pet or feed stores or sunflower seeds. Put a little outside & at trap entrance, then stuff a lot in the round hole in back. Set overnight, you'll prob. catch them at morning first light. Wear disp. gloves so you don't pick up their fleas. The Black Box is easy to arm, and there's no danger of finger injury like when you're setting rat traps. The one in the photo went all the way inside & was caught around its midsection. Usually they get it at the neck. Note: you won't catch tree squirrels, which aren't as much of a problem here anyway.

I tried everything, poison, the flares, poison grubs , the cone shaped poison. Etc.... The going quote for three of our local exterminators were two trips at $150 each visit. I went to Home Depot bought this placed it in the tunnel passageway. I didn’t even cover it with the sod I had removed. An hour later. BOOM. Caught that pesky critter! I definitely recommend !!!

Easy to set up and caught the gopher in the 1st 24 hours.

I have never done anything like this but finally decided to take care of the gopher in our yard. I looked up some videos, dug the hole where the newest mound was, and set a single trap in one of the entrances, making sure all side were sealed but where the lever could still raise. I also sealed the other side of the tunnel with dirt so I'd know if I guessed the wrong hole to the place the trap. In less than 2 hours, we had a catch. The gopher was still moving slowly, so we scrambled and decided to hammer its head to kill it as fast as possible (just to relieve it's suffering at that point)... so it is not an instant kill as advertised, and looking at the contraption, how could it be? That was an unfortunate downside. Otherwise, it was a quick fix following months of dreading where the next mound would show up.