The pride we all feel in our gardens, yards, and homesteads comes from the hard work it takes to set them up and maintain them.
It comes as a shock when creatures we don’t want around take up residence and destroy all our toil. Gophers come to mind for many people when they think of unwelcome critters.
Gophers can be incredibly destructive and difficult to get rid of once they are established. Whether you decide on eradication, prevention, or something in between, we can help with your gopher problem.
What Are Gophers?
To control gophers, it pays to know exactly what they are and how they behave, so let’s look at that first. Put simply, gophers are rodents that burrow long tunnels underground using their sharp claws and long teeth.
They are a part of the Geomyidae family. They burrow underground, and their extensive digging has been known to create burrows that encompass anywhere from 200 to 2000 square feet.
Gophers are herbivores who love eating plants, shrubs, trees, and vegetables. They will create a network of tunnels where they can store food to hoard, and they don’t even need to come to the surface to get to your plants. They will tunnel under them.
They particularly love things like carrots, radishes, or anything juicy that grows underground, although they have been known to eat a vast range of plants.
Gophers are more correctly called pocket gophers because they have little fur-lined pouches to carry food or nesting materials in the tunnels.
5 Common Gopher Species
There are many species of gophers found in the United States. Here are common ones:
Botta’s Pocket Gopher
This gopher (Thomomys bottae) is the most common in California and is found throughout the southwest, with populations stretching to southern Oregon and through Mexico, and as far east as central Colorado.
It’s a medium-sized gopher, up to 10 inches long, including the four-inch tail. There are dozens of subspecies and all vary in color quite a bit, so color isn’t a good way to tell them apart.
Mazama Pocket Gopher
Found only in the Pacific Northwest, Thomomys mazama can have fur that ranges from black to brown to white. They are generally anywhere between five and 13 inches long, and love meadows and grasslands.
Most populations are found in Oregon, with smaller populations in Washington and northern California. It’s listed as threatened in Washington.
Northern Pocket Gopher
Inhabiting the area from the Cascade Mountains to just east of the Rockies and up into central Canada as far east as Manitoba, the northern pocket gopher (Thomomys talpoides) can be identified by its yellowish fur and black spot behind each ear.
Plains Pocket Gopher
Geomys bursarius is the most abundant pocket gopher. It’s found throughout the Great Plains region, from Texas to Manitoba and the Rockies to eastern Indiana.
There are currently eight recognized subspecies, including bursarius, which lives in Canada and the northern Great Plains, and major, which lives throughout the southern Great Plains.
All are dark brown with some black hairs on top and tan underneath. One thing that sets them apart from other species is that they don’t use their teeth to help them dig their tunnels.
Southeastern Pocket Gopher
The fur of eastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) can be anywhere from brown to black. They grow up to 10 inches in length, including the tail.
As the name suggests, it is found in the southeastern part of North America, including Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. It is the only species to live in those states.
Gopher Lifecycle
The gopher lifecycle is handy to understand because it helps with planning your response to them, and explains why certain control techniques may not work.
Gophers are active at all times of the day and sleep at night. They don’t hibernate. Their activity slows in the winter, and they rarely visit the surface.
They mate in spring and can have up to three litters a year of anywhere up to five young, depending on the area and environment. The rest of the time, they live alone.
Although they are solitary creatures, gophers are sometimes seen in the company of their mother until they are about one year old. At this point, they reach sexual maturity and head off to find their own territory.
You can have one gopher per acre or as many as 60 gophers in an acre if the conditions favor them. One gopher can dig as many as 30 mounds in your ground every month and they will eat a tremendous amount of vegetation.
Signs of Gophers on Your Land
The most common sign of gophers is mounds of dirt on your lawns or gardens. These will be crescent-shaped and lead down into a tunnel. The soil in the mound will be fine and loose.
There will be a plug of dirt in the entrance to the tunnel, which the gopher has put there to close it and prevent other creatures from following them in.
You may also see damage to plants, trees, and shrubs. Plants could suddenly die off because the gopher eats the roots underground. The plants could even be pulled underground and disappear entirely.
Tomatoes and roses are loved by gophers, in particular, although they will target many plants.
You won’t see a gopher above ground except for the occasional head popping out of a tunnel for a few seconds. If they want to target your vegetables and can’t get under them, they may come out, but usually no further than the length of their body.
Non-Lethal Gopher Control
There are two ways you can control gophers. They are non-lethal and lethal. You have to decide which works for you.
Gophers are an important part of a healthy environment. They turn and aerate the soil and increase soil fertility. A single gopher can bring a ton of soil from underground to the surface each year. They’re also important food for predators.
Whenever possible, try not to kill these creatures. You might not want them in your garden, but that doesn’t mean you have to kill them.
Live Trapping
The gold standard to control gophers is live trapping. This is humane and safe, but before you do this, you must find out the rules in your area. Some local authorities have made trapping and moving wild animals to other locations illegal.
Use a trap designed for medium-sized animals and bait it with something the gopher loves, like lettuce, carrot, or even peanut butter. Remember, gophers don’t eat meat, so don’t bother with bugs or meat as bait.
You need one trap for every mound that you can see. Set the trap near every tall mound with dark soil. Flattened mounds with light soil are older and no longer in use.
Place the trap very close to the mound or tunnel entrance. Inspect it several times daily, as keeping an animal in a trap for too long is inhumane, especially one that lives underground.
Also, make sure you don’t trap any of your own animals like a nosy chicken.
Don’t give up or get impatient. This process is highly effective, but it takes time.
If you catch the gopher, cover the trap with a towel and release it in an approved area at least five miles away.
A con of this method is gophers are wounded easily, and moving it to a new location where other gophers are is likely to cause a territorial battle.
Scented Repellants
Many scented repellants are available. The big downside is that none of them have been proven effective. Still, it’s worth knowing about them in case you’d like to give them a try.
The most common one is castor oil-based.
Whatever you choose, spray it all around the tunnel entrance and mound, then use your hose to wet the entire area to get the repellent to soak into the ground. You will have to repeat this a few times.
You can also use a pellet or granular repellent, which lasts a bit longer.
This method may not work on areas with multiple gophers, but give it a go if you have just one foe that you’re dealing with.
Use Plants to Repel Gophers
Some plants are thought to repel gophers, so you can plant them as borders around the area you want to protect, and gardens interspersed with those plants helps as well.
Don’t rely on repellent plants alone. Many people find that gophers ignore the plants and continue digging and feeding wherever they want. There is no research confirming that repellent plants work, but it doesn’t hurt to try, especially if these are plants you already grow.
Try planting these to control gophers:
- Caper spurge (Euphorbia lathyris) – note that some areas consider this invasive, so check before planting.
- Mint (Mentha spp.)
- Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)
- Lavender (Lavandula spp.)
- Salvia (Salvia spp.)
- Marigold (Tagetes spp.)
- Oleander (Nerium oleander)
Use Exclusion Fencing or Gopher Pots
This can be expensive and labor-intensive, but it’s a highly effective option. You might combine this method with one or two others on this list.
You can buy exclusion fencing made from fine mesh designed to be buried about three feet under the ground to prevent the gopher from getting under your garden and plants. The fence should rise at least 12 inches above the surface as well.
Don’t use spare chicken wire you have lying around. This will rust quickly and be no barrier once it does. Use something like a galvanized half-inch mesh.
To protect a single plant, try using gopher baskets. They are made from various materials, including galvanized steel. Place the plant in this and bury both, and it stops the gopher from being able to dig underneath the ground to the root system.
You don’t have to protect all plants. Gophers won’t eat alliums like garlic, onions, or some flowers like daffodils.
Use Animals to Control Gophers
These are some easy animals to consider:
Barn owls love to eat gophers. You will need to have a lot of gophers to sustain a family of owls, but if you have a lot of mounds and damage, consider this method.
Set up owl nesting boxes to encourage them, and you may end up with a family that can get through a lot of gophers in one year. You can buy nesting boxes or make your own.
Cats and dogs make gophers uncomfortable. Some cats and dogs hunt gophers, or at least chase them off. Even their presence and the scent of their urine might be enough to scare gophers off.
Just make sure you don’t use gopher poison at the same time because it could poison your pet if they eat what they catch.
Flush Them Out
Sometimes, the simplest methods work best to control gophers. According to Montana State University, people can find success by flooding the tunnels. This works best in a small area. In a large area, the gopher will have plenty of room to escape.
Get out your hose and find the active tunnel. Stick the hose as deep as you can and turn it on. Allow it to flood the tunnel and flush out any gophers.
Don’t do this in an area that might cause damage if it collapses.
This method has its downsides. It wastes a lot of water, and the flooding makes the soil soft, which can cause sinkholes due to the tunneling.
Lethal Gopher Control
You may find the non-lethal methods don’t work for you to control gophers, or they take too long, especially with a large infestation of gophers. You might like to think about these methods as well.
Before you do, make sure you have tried non-lethal methods and have given them several months to work.
The following methods should only be a last resort or an emergency solution.
Traps
Unlike the non-lethal traps that catch and hold the gopher, some traps will kill the gopher.
There are many types of traps that complete the deed in different ways, so see what is available in your area and make sure you are comfortable with the method of your chosen trap.
Some stick the gopher in place, starving them to death. Others snap down on them like a mousetrap. There are also those that pinch or otherwise hold the animal. Remember, these are not only lethal but painful and sometimes cause a slow death.
They should be a last resort to control gophers.
Poison Bait
This is a common form of lethal control of gophers, but isn’t for everyone. You should always use a bait station that keeps other animals and children from accessing the bait. There are various types with different lethal ingredients.
You should be very cautious about using poison to control gophers. Predators and pets might find the body, eat it, and be poisoned themselves.
What Not To Do To Control Gophers
Some common practices should be avoided, either because they don’t work or they cause more harm than good:
Fumigating Gopher Tunnels
This is dangerous due to the chemicals involved, and you need specialist gear, including tanks and fumigation machinery. Plus, gophers can seal off their tunnel if they smell smoke.
People typically use gasoline, propate, or auto exhaust. Not only can the gopher escape this, but it is terrible for the environment and could cause serious damage or even death.
Don’t do it, there are lots of better ways to control gophers.
Using Pet Waste
There is a theory that spreading things like dog poop around the mounds will scare the gophers away. This generally doesn’t work because the gopher spends all of its time underground, and you have now spread lots of germs around your land.
Having dogs or cats around is enough of a deterrent — no need to spread their waste around.
Noise Makers
Although they are ready to leap back into their burrow at a moment’s notice, gophers aren’t particularly easy to scare. Noise-making repellents don’t work on them.
These rodents are used to hearing lawnmowers overhead, so a little extra noise isn’t going to drive them off. Don’t waste your money trying to control gophers with noise makers.