Last Tuesday, Gustine City Council authorized an agreement with a Roseville-based pest control company, Advanced IPM, to address recent burrowing rodent activities at Harry Schmidt Park following an approval.  

Within the past couple of years, multiple squirrel and gopher holes have persisted throughout the Harry Schmidt, including at two of the park’s baseball fields. This has caused uneven grounds and damages to its irrigation system and the turf of the baseball fields.

Public Works Director Gary Ingram said the city previously worked with another contractor to address the situation. However, the rodent population didn’t reduce with the company using a “bait approach” to lure them out of their habitats.

“I didn’t see the population reduction to the level that I wanted to see,” Ingram said. “We just discontinued the service about a year ago … now here we are trying to take another approach, and according to the references of the folks that we’re going to engage into a contract with, they seem to be effective,” Ingram said.

According to the staff report, Advanced IPM will use carbon monoxide towards tunnels and nesting areas. Additionally, the pest control company will flatten all visible gopher mounds to monitor activity. The agreement will be more than a year as the first eight weeks will focus on reducing the population and getting an idea on its progress. Afterwards, treatment will continue for the next 12 months to maintain the reduction. This includes checking for possible rodent activity, re-treating the tunnels and re-flattening the mounds.

Ingram added that he looked at three different contractors before deciding on Advanced IPM because none of them provided the use of carbon monoxide. Additionally, Ingram reached out to clients who worked at Advanced IPM to get an idea about their work. One of those former clients was a college in Coalinga, Calif., who had work done around its sports complex.

“We want to make it a safe place for not just the folks that are visiting the baseball field [and] watching their family members play, their kids play with tripping over a gopher hole or spraining an ankle around the snack bar or the seating area, but to reduce the population on the hill so we can regrow the area,” Ingram said.

Ingram added that Henry Miller Park has gopher holes, but it’s not as much as Harry Schmidt.

On Jan. 1, 2012, California Assembly Bill 634 went into effect. The bill allowed the use of carbon monoxide towards burrowing rodent pests.

Two years later, Senate Bill 1332 to enforce new regulations on using carbon monoxide devices. California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill 1959 on Sept. 6, 2022, which includes extending the law of use of carbon monoxide on rodents to Jan.1, 2026. The law was initially set to expire on Jan.1, 2023.

The city of Gustine will pay $16,500 through funding from the city’s park and facility fees.

While many residents may notice the advent of the squirrels and gopher near the park’s hill, it certainly has caught the attention of council member Mark Melville. Melville said he walks on the path near the hill and that “it’s unbelievable” to have seen hundreds of rodents.

Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.