How to Get Rid of Gophers in Your Yard: 5 Humane Methods for Homeowners
Get rid of gophers in your yard with five cruelty-free methods
Got gophers? From mounds of dirt to large holes in your yard—and even the occasional root veggie missing from your garden—the telltale signs are hard to miss. But how do you get rid of gophers in your yard when they’ve become a problem?
Fortunately, there are plenty of humane ways to deal with them, several of which may only cost you a few dollars. Learn how to get rid of a gopher in your yard in this DIY guide.
1. Use Live Traps
Catch-and-release traps start around $25 per trap at outdoor and home improvement stores. To use these traps, you simply have to set the platform in the middle (per instructions) with vegetables.
The trap will shut on both sides when the gopher enters, then you can drive it to a neutral location and set it free. Just make sure it’s somewhere away from homes where the gophers can find food, water, and shelter—otherwise, they will move back into neighborhoods.
2. Install Raised Garden Beds
To get rid of gophers and keep them away, it's essential you make it difficult for them to access easy food. One way to do that is to move growing vegetables into raised garden beds, which can be built DIY for as little as $50.
If you install garden beds, make sure the bottom is enclosed and uses a strong material (wood preferably) so gophers can't circumvent your new over-the-top protected system by going underneath. Remember, they're usually after the roots of plants more so than the flowers. Also, avoid leaving large patches of soft dirt unused in your yard, as this could scream "opportunity" for any gophers passing by.
3. Install a Garden Fence
Again, making your garden or flower beds less accessible goes a long way. Taking steps like this could help encourage gophers to graze elsewhere. A simple fence, even a few feet high, made from wood, vinyl, or even chicken wire can deter this type of rodent.
While gophers can climb, they aren't able to jump high at all. A local fence company can give you a quote for your garden.
4. Place Strong Smells Around Your Yard
Gophers are often deterred by strong smells. Both essential oils and strongly scented items you likely have in your kitchen can be really helpful for a gopher problem.
Here are some scents gophers don't like:
Essential oils such as peppermint oil, rosemary oil, and castor oil
Used coffee grounds
Tabasco sauce
Vinegar
Leave the oils or food products near gopher holes or along the fence of your garden. The smell alone might be enough to deter them or steer them toward catch-and-release traps in your yard.
5. Use Ultrasonic Pest Noises
A newer pest control product that works quite well for getting rid of gophers is an ultrasonic device you place on stakes in your yard. It’s solar-powered, so it doesn't need batteries or to be charged. You can get a pack of four stakes for around $30.
Signs of a Gopher Problem
Gophers are mid-sized rodents between 5 and 14 inches in length. They range in colors from black to pale gray to almost all white and have strong claws and short limbs that enable them to dig tunnels in which they live.
If you haven't spotted the critters yourself, here are some signs you may have gophers in your yard:
Gopher holes in yard: Holes big enough to fit these critters may be all over your yard; gophers live alone, so each hole likely represents one gopher.
Mounds of dirt: Gophers often leave a pile of dirt near their holes.
Recently filled holes: Gophers backfill tunnels they're no longer using with dirt.
Destroyed crops: Gophers like to rifle through gardens and snack on an array of vegetables like peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins.
Bare patches: Gophers also love to munch on dandelion, ragweed, clover, and other recently flowered plants.
You can actually differentiate a gopher from a mole problem by the type of digging "aftermath" they leave. Gophers leave crescent-shaped (half moon) piles of dirt behind, while moles leave more spread-out, circular piles.
And if reading this makes you realize that you may actually be dealing with the latter, find out how to get rid of moles, including the cost of mole removal.
What Attracts Gophers to Your Yard?
The main thing that attracts gophers to a yard is a steady food source, which for them is vegetation. Some of their favorite foods are tender, succulent roots and tubers from grasses, shrubs, and trees. They also enjoy flower bulbs, like daffodils and lilies, and underground vegetables, such as carrots, beets, radishes, and potatoes. While gophers prefer to eat food while hiding under the soil, they will also emerge to eat the stems of some plants, especially soft grasses and clovers.
While food is the main factor in attracting a gopher to an area, they also look for other features. They prefer yards with loose, moist, sandy soil because it is the easiest to dig in, helping them create large tunnel systems with nesting burrows. Gophers find large amounts of vegetation highly desirable because these areas can help protect them from predators while offering abundant food sources.
How Much Does It Cost to Get Rid of Gophers?
For professional help, it costs between $300 and $500 to get rid of gophers, with the national average being around $400. The price you pay will range depending on how large the infestation is. For smaller projects, a pest control company in your area or local wildlife control company might charge anywhere from $20 to $130 per gopher.
Keep in mind, you may have to pay a little extra to have a professional exterminator use humane methods, such as catch-and-release traps, to extract the gophers.
DIY vs. Hiring a Pro
Hiring an animal removal company near you for humane removal makes sense when the gopher problem becomes excessive—or if you're not comfortable removing the critters yourself and relocating them.
Gophers live by themselves and don't really socialize. Their litters rarely exceed five gopher pups, so if you find you have more than five gophers in your yard, hiring help is probably a good idea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Gophers do not hibernate, meaning you could, at least theoretically, have a gopher problem in your yard any time of year. During the colder parts of the year when soil isn't as easy to work with, gophers may not dig as many holes or be as active and instead will burrow deeper into the earth to go below the frost line to stay warm.
You can expect to see more gopher activity during the spring and fall when warmer temperatures make digging easy, and there is an abundance of new (or recently harvested) plant life available for them to graze on. They come out during the day and sleep at night.
Like many animals, gophers are bothered by strong scents. Peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and coffee grounds can be used as deterrents against these pests. Similarly, you can try planting lavender, rosemary, sage, geraniums, or pine trees, as these plants all have strong smells that can ward away gophers. While it may be less pleasant to work with, coyote urine scares gophers by tricking the pests into thinking your yard is a predator hot spot.
Gophers are ubiquitous in certain areas, and the only way to completely get rid of them is to put down gopher wire two feet below the surface of your soil and vertically along the edges of your yard. Unfortunately, this may not be a practical solution unless you’re completely redoing your yard or installing an aboveground garden. Alternatively, you may consider putting underground rock barriers around the edge of your yard to discourage gopher visits. However, you’ll still likely get some pests because they can dig as deep as 6 feet below the surface.