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You walk out to your garden, ready to check on your vegetables, and your heart sinks. There’s a fresh, horseshoe-shaped mound of dirt bulldozed right over your carrot row. Tunnels snake through your lawn, and plants are mysteriously wilting, their roots chewed off from below.
You’ve got a gopher. These solitary, underground engineers can cause a shocking amount of damage fast. But don’t despair. With persistence and the right tactics, you can encourage them to take their digging business elsewhere.
1. Find the Main Tunnel and Set a Trap
For a single, active gopher, a well-placed trap is the most direct and effective solution. It requires a bit of detective work.
- Locate the Main Runway: Use a sturdy metal probe or a long screwdriver to poke the ground about 8-12 inches away from the fresh mound. You’re looking for the solid feeling of soil, then a sudden “drop” as you find the tunnel.
- Set the Trap: Once you find the tunnel, dig down carefully with a small trowel to expose it. Place two spring-loaded gopher traps (like Macabee or Gophinator traps) in the hole, one facing each direction down the tunnel. Tie them to a stake so you can retrieve them. Cover the hole with a board or dark material to keep light out. Check the traps twice a day.
2. Make Their Environment Uncomfortable with Repellents
While you’re working on trapping, make your yard less inviting.
- Use Smells They Hate: Gophers have sensitive noses. Drop a few drops of castor oil or peppermint oil onto cotton balls and stuff them into active tunnels. You can also buy ready-to-use castor oil-based granular repellents to spread around burrows and garden borders. Reapply after watering or rain.
- Try a Buried Barrier: When planting new beds, consider lining the bottom and sides with hardware cloth (a sturdy wire mesh) with 1/4 inch openings. This protects the roots of prized plants and makes it much harder for gophers to access them.
3. Bring in the Underground Cavalry
These are microscopic worms that are a natural enemy to soil pests.
- How They Work: Purchase beneficial nematodes (Steinernema species) from a garden center or online. Mix them with water and drench the soil in and around gopher tunnels according to package directions. The nematodes will seek out and kill gopher larvae and other pests, reducing their food source.
4. Use Their Own Tunnels Against Them with Gas
For immediate action in areas where traps aren’t practical, you can use smoke or gas cartridges.
- A Important Warning: This method is for open areas like lawns or fields, never near buildings, due to fire risk and potential for gas to seep indoors.
- The Process: After locating an active main tunnel with your probe, light a gopher gas cartridge, place it deep into the tunnel as directed, and immediately seal the hole with soil. The smoke and gas fill the tunnel system, suffocating the pest.
5. Plant Things They (Usually) Avoid
While a hungry gopher will try almost anything, they tend to steer clear of certain plants.
- Create a Border: Plant a protective ring of gopher-resistant plants around your valuable garden. These include crown imperials (Fritillaria), daffodils, lavender, rosemary, salvia, and catmint. Their strong scents or unpalatable bulbs can act as a natural deterrent.
6. Persistence and Early Action Wins
One gopher can have a huge network of tunnels. You must be more persistent than they are.
Check your traps regularly. Reapply repellents consistently. The moment you see a new mound, act immediately. A single gopher is much easier to manage than a potential family. It may take a combination of methods—like trapping and planting deterrents—to finally succeed.
Getting rid of gophers is a battle fought underground. Start by finding that main tunnel and setting a trap, make the area smell bad to them with castor oil, and protect key plants with wire barriers.
Don’t give up after one try. Your garden—and your sanity—are worth the fight. Now, go grab that probe and start detective work; it’s time to reclaim your soil.
