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Gophers or ground squirrels are common pests in North America, that can destroy the fruits of your hard labour. They create extensive underground tunnels and are mostly active at night. A typical gopher infested yard looks like this with mounds of mud and dirt piled up at the entrances to the tunnels.

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What would be a good way to get rid of the gophers in a non-lethal way? I know that there are professionals who do come out, lay traps and kill them or you could buy some rodent poison at the local Home Depot/any gardening store. I'd like to know if there are alternatives to these because a) the first option can be expensive and b) I don't want to end up with a bunch of dead animals in my yard when I have no clue how/where to dispose them.

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  • As well as lethal traps, there are live traps. I've used these effectively with juvenile opossums (the smallest were relocated, the largest we just put in a tree). It helps that I'm married to an ecology professor, but you should be able to get them from a field equipment supplier.
    – winwaed
    Commented Jun 22, 2011 at 13:35
  • Related: How can I get rid of rabbits in my yard, Is there any way to prevent vole lawn destruction during snow cover?
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 4:18
  • I had a friend who grew alfalfa in a field full of gophers. He used traps and a large collie dog to control (not totally eliminate) them. I don't know that you will totally get rid of gofers without a lot of work or doing something dangerous, at least if your neighbors have gophers, too. You can just bury the dead gophers.
    – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
    Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 3:51
  • There is not really a good non-lethal method. Even live trapping kills most of the animals because they don't fare well when transplanted. Badgers love them, but it's really not possible to bring in a badger. My dad's Jack-Russel will hunt and kill them, so maybe those or other terriers could help. I think the perch for hawks and owls may help... Owls killed all the squirrels in one of my friends neighborhoods (they wanted the squirrels though). My dad used to kill trap them (these are cheap and easy to use), and burn them. Don't let poisoned ones be eaten by birds (or anything).
    – Eric Deloak
    Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 19:23
  • Don't know if it works on gophers but on vibration deters moles very effectively here in the UK. School playing fields often get lots of hills formed during the holidays, once the children are back running around on the field they soon go away. Mowing regularly with a petrol mower also works.
    – George of all trades
    Commented Feb 22, 2017 at 22:54

5 Answers 5

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I originally posted this as an answer to this question on Home Improvement:

I have a friend who swears by Euphorbia Lathyrus (he calls it Mole Purge). It has naturalized itself in his back yard and in flowerbeds at the front of his house, and the only places I've seen molehills are at the extreme edges of the front of his lot.

I've also never seen any dead gophers or moles in his yard, so I believe it's acting as a repellent instead of poisoning them, and as I noted in the comments there, he hasn't had problems with his dogs chewing it.

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  • This is a great idea...animals aren't stupid. Euphorbia can be a nasty irritant. Niall...will this help with voles? How about during the winter? Trying to find ways to satisfy peoples...as well as these little mammals! Tough to do! Arghhhh...killing them with poison is horrible. Worse, pets, cats, dogs and other predators are killed when they eat either the poison or the dying critter. Not necessary!!!
    – stormy
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 21:42
  • I haven't had any benefit from this spurge (Euphorbia). Moles and gophers avoid it, but it doesn't keep gophers from eating other things (unless, I would guess, one has large quantities of it throughout your garden interspersed with your desired plants).
    – mgkrebbs
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 22:04
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In addition to the answers above, my local gardening center had the following suggestions which are really simple solutions

  1. Gophers aren't fond of strong smells. So dumping some coffee grounds in their tunnels should drive them away. Also, the dryer sheets (fabric softeners, I think) which are strongly scented should do the trick.
  2. This is useful for people with indoor cats as pets. The suggestion is to put used cat litter in their tunnels and fresh mounds. Gophers, being rodents are natural prey for cats and the scent of a cat in the litter is enough to scare them away.

Both of these should serve as good alternatives to using traps/poison, but as Randy points out, traps are pretty cheap (I had just assumed they might not be)

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I don't think that reason (a) has to be expensive. I picked up a pack of two gopher traps at the local hardware store for less than $10 and they are pretty simple to set and are more effective than poisons and bombs (since you absolutely know if you got one or not).

That being said (b) is a real concern, but if you have a larger plot of land like me, they can be disposed of far from your home and are usually taken care of by other critters within a day or two.

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Below are a couple more suggestions:

  1. Attract natural predators, especially birds of prey might be another option worth investigating a little more:

    • Attract hawks and owls into their area, by putting up a perch (roost) in the middle of the area. A simple cross beam "T" six or more feet off the ground will give those birds of prey a convenient platform to hunt from.

  2. To prevent gophers (and other burrowing, tunneling pests) entering an area, a "low" level fence that is sunk (buried) into the ground 2ft (600mm) makes a very effective barrier:

    • If using a metal mesh type fence, spacing between wires should be no bigger than ½inch (12.5mm).
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  • I've resorted to cordoning off my flower beds with chicken wire planted 8" deep at the bottom and coming up to 2"deep at the sides. The gopher menace got so bad that they chewed up 12/18 dahlia plants (they like the bulbs) and nearly killing my fig tree by chewing up its roots (apparently they love fig roots). The tree is back to health now.
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 6:05
  • @yoda, has burying to a depth of 8inches (200mm) worked ok! to keep them out? Above, I suggested 2ft (200mm) because as far as I'm aware that will keep out all known borrowing/tunneling "large" animals (pests) in North America.
    – Mike Perry
    Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 6:11
  • So far so good... Quite frankly, I did not know how deep to place them, so I just dug out 8" of soil and that's that. My reasoning was that I don't expect the plants I've planted in that bed to grow roots any deeper than that for the gophers to cause any harm. The chicken wire should also keep them out.. But I've now resorted to gopher poison. My organic methods have failed and they're doing more damage the longer I wait.
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 6:30
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    @yoda, I wonder if Juicy Fruit gum would work on gophers? Mort White from the TheMagicGarden.com (I listen to his weekly podcast show) swears it's an effective means of getting moles to move out of an area. But a search online shows a number of University Extension Offices claiming it to be ineffective method & "tecnically, using any unregistered material as a rodenticide (no matter how benign) is not legal".
    – Mike Perry
    Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 16:13
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    Yeah, I'm a little skeptical on that one. I very recently read that gophers don't like gardens that are tilled regularly. This actually makes a lot of sense because the previous residents hadn't planted anything at all in over 5 years. Not even a single tree in the backyard until we moved in. So it has become a safe haven for the gophers. I plan on tilling it very soon and hopefully, that'll drive most of them away.
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Commented Aug 26, 2011 at 17:15
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This is one of my biggest pet-peeves. Sigh...moles, gophers, shrews are wonderful slaves for a garden...AND a lawn! Problem is that they don't let you know in advance when they will be burrowing and present before your garden party...those hills of soil mean aeration! Just rake or blow them down into your lawn. And usually there is only one or two animals 'making this mess'...people paid me a lot of money to go dump piles of topsoil/gro-co on their lawns and to rake it in. They do it for free. Their main diet is grubs in the soil, not your plants. Once in a while they might chew on your bulbs (especially if the bulb is full of larvae, grubs) or plant roots when low on the insects they'd prefer.

Problems arise if the homeowner applies pesticide to their lawns/beds to kill grubs. Kills their pantry and they'll nibble on plant roots, bulbs instead. Voles especially can be a problem during the winter and early spring months. They love to hang out in thick mulch to keep warm and if there are trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs nearby well they will eat roots and girdle stems.

Stay with organic and minimal killing of animals and insects. There is a nice, stable environment that will accommodate your plants, vegetables and these tiny mammals. Killing rodents or these soil burrowing mammals does absolutely no good. There are always more to fill the niche.

Do the screen beneath the soil to 2'...keep your plants in a hoop house or greenhouse to prevent rabbits, deer from eating your garden. The more you try to control with chemicals the more you open your environment up to even more problems. Adopt a more relaxed attitude towards 'damage'...take this seriously. If you don't you'll keep making more problems and soon will be an ex-gardener. There is usually plenty for you and your homestead critters!

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