Ferti-Lome MoleGo Granules Reviews

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Doesn't Work on Gophers

By Gopher in Somewhere, Washington on 08/27/2017

This product was purchased to repel pocket gophers in our lawn. Since gophers are considered an endangered species in our area we could not kill them, but did want to repel them from our lawn into the…

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This product was purchased to repel pocket gophers in our lawn. Since gophers are considered an endangered species in our area we could not kill them, but did want to repel them from our lawn into the surrounding fields where they were prevalent. Though the product name is "MoleGo", Ferti-lome lists gophers as a targeted pest so I will review it in that regard and offer suggestions of what did work. MoleGo granules are easy to disburse with a broadcast spreader. It was applied as per the instructions, although at twice the listed rate, and watered in. Using a garden trowel with a 10 inch nose the existing gopher holes were carefully excavated so there was a clear path deeper into the tunnels and a few tablespoons of granules were dropped down the holes, which were then left uncovered. After treating nine holes the next morning five of the nine holes had new mounds. The granules were simply kicked out of the holes by the gophers, along with new soil from their digging. Ever the optimist I tried again and again for two weeks with zero reduction in gopher activity, but a much lighter wallet. So I gave up on the granules. A little research online indicated that dogs were a natural predator. We have a dog, and I had the idea of dropping dog poop down the holes. So, instead of granules, I started dropping dog poop down the holes. And it worked MUCH better than the granules, no hole that had dog poop scooped into the hole was ever active again. One problem with this method is that it did not dissuade the gophers from digging new holes, and the other problem was that there were more new holes than dog poop to fill them. My mother in law is a master gardener and she said that a long time ago they were taught to pour Pine-Sol down the holes and the pine oil would repel them. Unfortunately, in 2016 the Pine-Sol formula was changed and it no longer uses pine oil. A little research turned up an inexpensive product called Pinalen that has pine oil. I bought a NINE liter jug of Pinalen for close to the price of one bag of MoleGo granules. Winging it, I mixed one part Pinalen with three parts water in a gallon jug. I shook it up (it doesn't foam) and then poured one quart down each gopher hole. After a week I'd say the Pinalen works. NO holes treated with Pinalen have been re-used. And after "sweeping" the gophers toward the fields we haven't had a new hole started in four days. That's a vast improvement over the 4-8 new holes each day we had before. I have no illusions that the Pinalen is a permanent one-time solution, gophers like to reuse burrows and the Pinalen smell will abate and disappear, but it is an easy product to use to fight the good fight.