Villagers facing a pocket gopher invasion are placing blame on an abandoned home in the neighborhood.
The residents of the Village of Summerhill appeared Friday before the Community Development District 3 Board of Supervisors at Savannah Center.
Mary Harper, who lives on Candlebrook Street, said she and her neighbors are at a loss about how to combat the pocket gopher, a burrowing rodent which is native to Florida.
“We need help. We have been trying to trap him. We have been trying to put out poison. We are running out of options,” Harper said.
She said one neighbor spent about $1,000 with a pest control company, but had no success.
Residents said the number of gopher holes is increasing.
“Now he’s coming at our yard,” said Beverly Albro, who also lives on Candlebrook Street.
She said her husband put castor oil on cotton balls and put them down the critter’s holes. The pocket gopher casually cast aside the castor oil-covered cotton balls.
Neighbors said the invasion began at a nearby abandoned home.
Last year at about this same time, a Villager said he had documented a pocket gopher invasion at an executive golf course.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, pocket gophers are 10-12 inches long from nose to tip of tail but they are capable of digging tunnel systems that may extend for 500 feet or more, although 145 feet is the norm. As they dig, they push piles of loose dirt to the surface, a characteristic that has earned them the name “sandy mounders” or “salamanders.” Shallow tunnels generally run parallel to the surface and provide access to their diet of roots and tubers, while nest and food storage tunnels are deeper. Pocket gophers plug tunnel openings to prevent snakes and other predators from entering. Pocket gophers are solitary animals and, except for females nursing young, do not share a tunnel system.