How to Get Rid of Gophers

Catch and release might work.

Release should work when catch did.

Seen some stuff on Youtube.

What did you try already?

There are several proven ways to rid your lawn of those nasty things.

1) Castor oil poured down the hole is the one I like best. This is the best method I have found. They hate the smell.

2) Put some peppermint oil on some old clean rags and place them on the hole opening. They also hate the smell of peppermint.

3) Flood them out. Cover most of their holes with something(s) that they can't lift off. Put a garden hose a few feet into a uncovered hole and turn the water on. Best to put a trap at the hole so you can catch them and relocate them. A .22cal pistol or rifle can also be used if legal in your area.

4) My favorite is a commercial product named 'DEER OFF'. It is a Deer & Rabbit Repellent normally used for those pests. The wife uses it on her young trees, shrubs and flowers. It's main component is "Putrescent White Egg Solids" and it really stinks. Spray it onto the holes of the gophers and let it do its thing. A good friend rid his large lawn and garden of gophers this way. I didn't believe it until he showed me the results and used it. Now I am a believer in the method.

Putrescent White Egg Solids can also be made by blending a couple eggs, hard boiled are best, in a blender and drying out the mixture in the sun. They are simply extremely rotten eggs. Make a water solution with between a pint up to a gallon of water depending how strong you want it to be. It is best to wear gloves while working with this stuff or use a strong industrial hand cleaners when finished making it.

Good Luck, Old SAalt

Yeah,

But I found a wall doesn't work, they just dig underneath it

According to the title of this thread, I thought you were using a "Hog to Get Rid of Gophers."

Traps work like the other member suggested.

You can over feed them until the're so fat they get stuck in their hole....

....or you can teach them to dance and entertain the neighbors....

Could make one of these catapults...

That is pretty awesome. I wonder if they come back to catapult themselves after the first time.

I don't know, but it would be a fun project...would have to scale it up a bit, and maybe add a time delay....

They do not like moth balls or similar product. I got rid of squirrel in attic with just a hand full. We also used them in cars in storage to eliminate damage by mice, rats and squirrels.

The only non-lethal method I've found successful is to plant nearly everything in cylinders of 1/2" hardware cloth. I used to make baskets, but I've found that as long as the cylinder is a good foot deep, the bottom isn't required. That may be because the gophers don't go that deep, or it may just be that the clay content of my soil is too high at that depth.

For most plants, I use a cylinder around a foot and a half in diameter.

A Faraday cage,

Did not think of that!

Actually, there are some discussions on the Internet , that involve people from around the country who have the same problems. We personally use the wire mesh cages, and there are even stainless steel wire mesh cages that are very pliable that work well. These allow you to actually wrap the whole root ball before inserting into the planting hole, then back filling. Using them for new nectarine and peaches.

There is video of people using propane to flood the tunnels and waiting for a certain amount of time and igniting. They are funny as hell. One was done on a military installation in the desert that was jeopardizing the structural integrity of a large slab. They blew up the tunnels surrounding it. I mean a huge area. Some major earth displacement!

One of the bloggers actually said that he ran across the thread by accident, but didn't have any gophers , but continued to log in to read some of the crazy methods that people have used to try to rid themselves of gophers. They would make him laugh until he cried. It's true!

My neighbor used a hose from his exhaust pipe from an old pre catalytic converter days, Rambler , and CO'ed them to death! Worked,....for a while..

" Worked,....for a while.." That's why I gave up trying to kill them at my home, and just protect sensitive plants.

I have an old friend who makes and sell PERCs (Pressurized Exhaust Rodent Control). These units are for large areas (Agriculture, Schools, Golf Courses, etc.). He claims a 95% kill rate when used by trained personnel, but it's way too expensive for home use.

https://handmgophercontrol.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/1-perc

Pack everything up and move to the city. Perhaps have the TSA inspect everything prior to moving. Gophers are larger than many of the IED's so they shouldn't be hard to find.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Try entering the words “humane gopher traps” into an internet search engine, and see what happens. Then just go for it (pun intended).

Have heard that using "blood and bone" fertilizer works as a deterrent for rabbits and other rodents. We in Aus are fortunate and don't have gophers or squirrels.

That's "organic" and probably better for you and the plants when compared to Napthalene.

Problem with blood and bone is that it tends to lure in the foxes.

Well... that may only work if it does lure foxes.

Cover all holes except one.

Secure a micro fiber cloth to the bottom of a bucket.

Apply a few ounces of gasoline to the cloth;damp,not dripping.

Invert this over the gopher hole.

Gasoline vapor is heavier than air and will sink into the tunnels.

Put a weight ( A cinder block works well) on top of the bucket and leave it overnight.

Do not smoke or light a cigarette in the area.

Gopher problem solved(temporarily).

Alternatively,put a metal pipe from your mower exhaust into the hole.

It does not have to be an air-tight fit to work.

Run a full tank of gas through the mower.

Plug hole after treatment.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Again,

Words from the wise.

This past summer we flooded all the holes but (3) three, and smoked the rest, with buckets and brick over them. I worked until last month, bay area weather great for digging to Albuquerque

Will give it a try,

Cheers

I periodically flood the tunnels with a 2" line hooked to a pump pulling from the irrigation ditch...about 50gal/min at 60 psi, after a couple minutes they head to the surface where I meet them with a 9" shovel for a game of "whack-a mole", takes about 30min to clear a 1/4 acre....

Smoke bombs and sparklers down the hole. Stomp shut.

Look for smoke from other holes.

Apply same tteatreat.

Bottle rockets, spinners, and snakes can be added for serious rodent problems.

M80's also work very well.

Good Luck, Old Salt

For sure...

They're just so hard to come by since ...the 80's..!?

Several late-teens, early 20's guys that I know are frequently asking if I want them to get some M80s, Ash Cans or other "pyrotechnics" for me. Sometimes even give them to me gratis.

At my age even sparklers are to dangerous for me!

Good Luck, Old Salt

But in the end that still did not work.

I'm all right

I couldn't resist.

I came late to the party and I was surprised someone else hadn't already done a similar post.

I've used these sonic repellers, solar powered so you don't have to worry about batteries. Just make sure they're in the sunshine and angled toward the sun.

We planted some daffodil bulbs and I don't want moles or any other underground critters eating them. I don't know if they repel moles, but I hear them periodically make a sound, and the daffodils have come in the recent warm spell.

https://www.amazon.com/Acidea-Repellent-Waterproof-Ultrasonic-Deterrent/dp/B07LF2DR28/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1550002618&sr=8-7&keywords=solar+mole+and+gopher+repeller

I have daffodils that were planted un-protected 30 to 45 years ago, and still bloom regularly, despite a very significant gopher problem. The places where they do best aren't necessarily where I'd prefer to have them, because the trees I planted at about the same time now provide too much shade. I'm definitely NOT going to cut down trees to grow better daffodils.

A close relative, the Jonquil, is much more shade tolerant and/or less bothered by the gophers. In fact the only thing I can tell that the gophers do is move them around, so we have them blooming in lots of places where I did not plant them. In our climate, they have been blooming since early January, so they are now past their prime, and they were pretty much squashed to the ground when we had 5.5 inches of snow about a week ago, but they are still blooming. Here are the flowers on a single stem, photo taken this afternoon. I have so many of them that I have moved a couple hundred bulbs onto a clear area of a neighboring property,

Moles are essentially carnivores. The only damage they do to plants is due to breaking roots or underground stems while digging their burrows.

I can attest that sonic spikes work...bought a package of two and literally "chased" a persistent gopher from middle of yard over to the next door neighbor's yard. Mine run on 3 x D cells and operate about a year on the batteries.

P.S. -- Loved that "launch & forget" fence catapult!

Same here. I was using those to get rid of mice and squirrels at first. Later I bought some for similar gopher and mole issue for my dad's backyard. All I can say, they do work, but I think that bigger critter means more powerful repellent. Just leave it for a few days and go somewhere...

Interesting link, although you have to scroll to the bottom to find the pertinent section.

The mouse repellent devices are ultrasonic, while the gopher repellent devices are definitely audible (at least the ones I've seen), so they are presumably NOT interchangeable.

There are many good tips

I find there are some pretty good tips on this site for content related issues