CORPUS CHRISTI, TX — "A lot of homeowners are concerned because their yards are being destroyed because they pop out."
It's the problem heard 'round the Island.
Gophers are taking over the yards of people who live on North Padre Island, and longtime resident Chul Kim Mcguire says this happens every year in the winter.
There are numerous ways that gophers can be handled, currently Mcguire says he prefers the gas bomb method.
"I want to be humane about it but I also want to protect my investment," he said.
Many other residents feel that it can be best to just kill them.
"We’ve tried all kinds of stuff short of hiring a professional, we’ve tried everything else, the only thing that we’ve found that seems to work was a trap that we got," said Frank De La Rosa.
De La Rosa uses a trap that the golf course uses. You search for the tunnel, then input a tube and a claw inside the tube traps the head of the gopher.
But, one local woman that has lived her entire life on the island said that people shouldn't resort to killing the rodents. Charley Pena reached out to social media to offer her help in trapping and relocating the gophers.
"My plan now, I've started a fundraiser campaign on Facebook to purchase the traps, and then the next step will be to go and catch them," she said.
She has even created a Facebook Page just for the protection of the Island gophers, Saving the Gophers of CC.
Pena has spoken with Texas Parks and Wildlife to see if there's a solution to relocating the gophers.
As of now, she plans to raise as many funds as possible. Pena said she will be selling vegan treats at the Aveda Insitute on Saturday to raise money for the traps.
For people with the gopher problem on the Island, Corpus Christi Animal Care Services says they can't help. But recommends a private pest control business to help with the pesky problem.
