Do you need to get rid of gophers? Ther are 34 different species of gophers living in the western hemisphere, and 13 of them can be found in America. These animals can be a huge pest, eating 60% of their own body weight every day. They can really ruin your landscaping since they particularly love to trees, grasses, flowering plants, and roots. If you need to get rid of gophers before they completely destroy your lawn, read on.
Try Some Home Remedies
- Some people swear by pouring candy or gum into the gopher’s holes. If they eat it, it can kill them. However, some people claim all it does is give the gophers a taste for sweet things.
- If you have an occasional problem, not a serious infestation, sometimes loud noises can frighten gophers and keep them away from the area.
- Collect your dog or cat’s feces and stuff it into gopher tunnels and mounds. This is reported to sometimes drive the colony away.
- There is a plant, readily available in most nurseries, known as euphorbia lathyris or Gopher Spurge. The root systems of these plants are believed to discourage all kinds of underground burrowing pests, However, there is no firm proof that this remedy works.
Step up Your Game of Gopher Elimination
Home remedies only have so much cache when you need to get rid of gophers. For a serious infestation, they may not work at all. In that case, the next step in gopher removal before calling a gopher exterminator is to try poison. Strychnine is often mixed with grain and put into the gopher tunnels or added to the ground at intervals through a mechanical bait applicator. This can be bought or made. If you make it yourself, make a bait for them of carrots, sweet potatoes, or parsnips. Mix strychnine with saccharine and add it to the vegetables.
Calling the Professionals
Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t see success with the home remedies. While strychnine is effective, there are a lot of reasons you might not want to use it, such as the need to protect pets, children, or animals of some other kind. Or you might prefer to have someone professional apply the poison or bait. Perhaps you don’t like the idea of killing these animals and prefer a more humane way of driving them off. The easiest way to be sure to get rid of gophers is to call a gopher removal service. They can trap and net gophers and remove gophers for you with a minimum of stress and difficulty for you.
Gophers can be a huge pest that destroys your lawn and gardens and even your trees. There are a lot of ways to get rid of them, but if you want to save your plants you have to get rid of gophers. Try some home remedies if it appeals to you, but if they’re not moving on, call professionals in your area who can help you get rid of gophers pests.