A Varmint will Never Quit

Gophers are small burrowing pesky rodents. Everyone knows that. Like anything else, they’re also a beneficial part of the ecosystem. They serve as food for a variety of animals including owls, coyotes, weasels, and snakes. Gophers also increase the ground’s fertility by mixing plant material and fecal wastes into the soil. Their burrowing aerates the dirt, decreases its compaction and helps bring minerals to the surface. This helps increase the soil’s ability to soak up water. Because of these reasons, and despite their healthy populations, many people prefer to try methods of deterrence before relying on extermination. As a result, there are many so-called “non-harmful” gadgets on the market, such as battery-operated ground penetrating pulsating sonar stakes that emanate irritable sounds to dissuade gophers. Sadly, most of them don’t work.

If you've ever watched one of your prized garden plants disappear into a gopher's burrow or watched as dirt mounds appear in your lawn, you know these varmints can be more than mere pests. Between five and ten inches long, they have soft fur, powerful front paws, and highly sensitive whiskers to help them maneuver underground. Their fur-lined pouches are used for carrying food and nest-building materials and their lips close behind their front teeth so they don't swallow dirt when they're digging. Gophers are active all year, and at all hours of the day.

They’re not to be confused with ground squirrels, who are also small rodents but spend most of their time outside of their tunnels. Gophers spend almost all of their time underground and only come out occasionally to feed on plants. Gopher mounds are fan-shaped or flattened with a plugged hole on one side of the mound. Gophers are herbivores and eat only plants as opposed to moles who eat insects and worms.

A gopher burrow consists of a main tunnel, usually between 4 and 18 inches below the ground, with many lateral tunnels connected to it. Occasionally some parts of the main tunnel will be 5 or 6 feet deep. The tunnels are usually about 3 inches across. The lateral tunnels usually end in mounds at the surface of the soil. Gophers can build up to three mounds per day and usually live alone, so it's quite possible that the problems caused by gophers in your garden are caused by a single animal! But how can you remove and/or kill it without poisoning your yard?

There are effective pesticide-free techniques for dealing with gophers.

Prevention

Jefferson Landscape and Design places rabbit wire under the sod we install for clients who have a history with gophers tearing up their lawn. Excluding gophers with a thick gage, tight-holed material such as rabbit wire can be highly effective. In extreme cases we have also used it in planter areas and installed it pre-emptively into various holes dugout for plants and trees. It’s one way to prevent gopher problems if you have valuable plants that you want to protect. Such a barrier can be employed for either flower beds and individual plants alike. If you garden with raised beds and have gopher problems, you can stretch netting across the bottom of the beds when you make them.

Trapping

Trapping is another way to control gophers in smaller areas. There are several types of gopher traps. We recommend getting advice about what works best for the area you live in—usually by speaking with someone at your local hardware store. The most common ones are the Macabee trap, box traps, and the Cinch trap. Check traps often. If you don't catch your problem gopher within a couple of days, move the traps. Reset them as necessary. You don't have to bait a gopher trap, but some people use baits such as cabbage, apples, carrots, or alfalfa and claim to get better results. Take precautions to prevent children and pets from contact with traps.

Flooding

Remember Bill Murray in Caddyshack? If you flood a gopher burrow with your garden hose you can force the gopher to leave the tunnel, providing a good opportunity to kill the gopher. We suggest using a shovel for this task.

Gopher Blasters

In rural and/or out of the way areas you might consider using a gopher blaster. This device involves a metal wand that is inserted into the burrow where a spark ignites a propane/oxygen mixture. The resulting explosion damages the burrow system and blows up some soil. It may not be ideal for all situations, but the makers of gopher blasters say that the force of the explosion kills the gophers.

Jose the Gopher Guy

The gopher's burrow system can cover hundreds, even thousands of square feet. We have been recommending Jose as a reliable exterminator of gophers for several years now. His number is 650-630-2834

Methods That Don't Work

Repellent plants such as "gopher purge," castor beans, and garlic; frightening devices such as vibrating stakes, pinwheels and ultrasonic devices; and chewing gum and laxatives.