Home Remedies For Getting Rid Of Gophers

Home Remedies For Getting Rid Of Gophers – The gopher does most of its feeding and living in an extensive network of underground tunnels that serve as its home.

Sometimes called the pocket gopher because of the fur on its cheek pouches, this small mammal is unique to the Western Hemisphere. Its homeland extends from Central America to Alberta. This means that much of the United States serves as our backyard, from the coastal areas to the highlands. Unfortunately, their tunnels cause many problems for American farmers and landowners. In addition to being part of the food chain, gophers play an important role in the environment. Their burrows add organic matter to the soil and increase aeration. But if you think or know they’ve damaged your property, the first step is to understand gophers and how to recognize the signs of their activity.

Home Remedies For Getting Rid Of Gophers

Between 10 and 13 species of gophers live in the United States. Although they live in different regions, they all share similar characteristics:

Eight Home Remedies To Get Rid Of Gophers (infographic)

Gophers and badgers are easy to confuse with each other. Their daily lives and social habits are quite similar, but their physical differences can help you tell them apart:

Each bill is likely to have a resident. Their habits, however, change during the breeding season from late winter to spring.

After a gestation period of 18 to 50 days, females give birth to litters of two to five gophers. When the young reach half their adult size during the summer, they leave the den.

Gopher populations can vary greatly by species. Some groups may grow only six to eight gophers per acre, but others will grow to nearly 60 per acre. While this causes problems for landowners and farmers, the population is controlled by natural predators such as hawks, owls, badgers, coyotes, foxes, bobcats and weasels.

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Gophers not only grow quickly, they mature quickly. They reach sexual maturity in the spring after birth. This makes sense given its short lifespan. Geography plays an important role in the life cycle of this animal. Gophers in northern states can only breed once a year, and gophers in the south can breed twice.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recognize gophers as carriers of viruses or diseases. The rare exception is rabies, which gophers are not known to transmit. That said, any bite from a small animal to a human should be examined by a doctor. If you need medical help, be sure to tell the doctor or nurse that the bite was from a mammal.

Gophers, like other rodents, can carry harmful diseases such as hantavirus, leptospirosis and plague. However, they always live underground and usually do not come into contact with humans. A more common risk is their ability to transmit fleas and ticks to outdoor pets.

Your garden provides a food source. Gophers are herbivores, so plants and fruits are at the top of their menu. They feed underground by eating roots of plants such as alfalfa, carrots, dandelions, grasses, potatoes, radishes, tree bark and tulips. In fact, gopher populations can severely damage alfalfa fields by reducing yields by as much as 20-50%.

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Your soil is just its type. Moisture is essential for gophers, as is high soil concentration. Sandy soil can prevent them from entering the house due to the lack of insulation and the ability to enter from extreme temperatures. This means that when they are looking for a place to make a hole, they will look for the optimal amount of soil and water. In an effort to find moisture, gophers sometimes bite into irrigation pipes.

The weather is its sweet spot. Much of the United States is hospitable territory for gophers. If you live in the western two-thirds of the United States or some southeastern states (Alabama, Florida, and Georgia), one or more of 10 different gopher species dot the landscape.

Their almost constant chewing and plucking of underground plants and tools helps keep these incisors at a manageable size. There are three ways gophers can have a negative impact:

A gopher can cause significant damage to garden plants and fruit in a short period of time. If it’s more than one gopher, it can affect an even larger area.

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Gopher-laden soil can damage or break parts of farm machinery as it moves over mounds of soil. In fact, horseshoe-shaped mounds of dirt are a sign of nearby gopher activity.

Gophers can chew through utility wires, sprinkler systems, and plastic water lines to support their rapidly growing teeth or to drink from your water supply. This is a more difficult type of effect to assess because it is invisible.

There are no specific smells or sounds associated with this species, although they will hiss to indicate danger or threats to their mates. However, this is not an everyday practice for them. If you’re looking for signs of activity, look for holes, crop damage, and soil movement.

Although this small mammal spends most of its life underground, it leaves traces on the surface. The damage it can do to crops and plants is an indication. But also notice the changes at ground level. As a gopher builds its burrow, it digs into the dirt and leaves the newly displaced earth in a fan-shaped mound. To be specific, this mound will be 12″-18″ wide and 4″-6″ tall. A gopher can make one to three mounds a day in ideal weather and can deposit up to 2¼ tons of soil each year.

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If you think gophers are ruining your land or farm, consider purchasing a gopher probe (usually available for $30 or less). You will need to find a hump with a plug opening, then aim the probe about 8″-12″ from the plug. The hole will go between 6″-12″ underground and the probe will face a significant drop of two inches. You may have to drive through the mud several times to find the fence, but your skill will improve with practice.

Simply put, gophers are determined diggers. When you know the basic setup of a gopher hole, you will better understand how to inspect and use exclusion or control methods as needed.

A burrow will cover approximately 200 to 2,000 square feet underground and 2 ½” – 3 ½” in diameter, with nesting and food chambers that can reach a depth of six feet. The main tunnel starts about 12″-18″ above the ground from the ground plug and usually runs 6″-12″ (or slightly more) below the surface. It leads to tunnels that branch off from the main pipe. The tunnel system is complex and can lead to tunnels of up to 200 meters.

Gophers do not hibernate. Although their activity slows down when temperatures drop, and during the heat of summer, they continue to build mounds. Mound building activity tends to peak in spring and fall as temperatures are milder and gophers are more active. Farmers and gardeners should pay special attention to their land because mounds can break or disrupt mechanical equipment.

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As mentioned above, the months from late winter to spring will stimulate population growth thanks to the breeding season. The young leave the den during the summer when they are old enough to fend for themselves.

Otherwise, your gopher problem could persist for weeks or months, and you’ll be stuck facing even more damage and more money to spend. The following methods should also be used to completely prevent gopher infestations.

Although gophers are not great climbers, they can and will climb under a standard privacy fence to access food. A wire mesh or hardware cloth fence can keep gophers out as long as it extends at least a foot underground. You can also rotate the bottom of the fence so that it is parallel to the ground. Once the gophers reach this section, they will likely turn. This tactic will also keep out other burrowing animals such as badgers, moles and wolves.

Mulch the plants around the plants to prevent gophers from pulling them underground or eating the tops. Mulch makes it difficult for these animals to dig, and they are also known to dislike the smell and taste. Gravel creates a similar barrier when poured around the yard or even mixed with dirt within a perimeter.

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Baskets made of mesh material that fit into the floor allow bulbs or young plants to sit in the dirt without being exposed to gophers.

Raised plant beds give your plants the space they need to grow while making them less vulnerable to gopher attacks. Planters are available at many hardware and lawn care stores, or you can easily make them out of plywood. Overall, this is a fairly easy DIY project and can be a very inexpensive way to “test” your plants.

Unlike other wild animals, gophers are too small to be dangerous to cats and dogs. Your pet will most likely chase the gopher while holding or playing with it. Just the smell of their fur and urine can be enough to repel a gopher.

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