How To Use Poisons
- Thoroughly read the instructions that come with any store-bought gopher or rodent poison bait.
- Prepare to handle the poison by wearing rubber or cloth gloves.
- Following the instructions, place a proper amount at the entrance to a gopher burrow.
- Most poisons are made of zinc phosphide or strychnine. Both will cause physiological and neurological reactions in gophers and other wildlife before they die, which is why they arent considered a humane option.
- Poisons are combined with a bait ingredient so that gophers are encouraged to eat them and die.
- Prevent your children or pets to come near the areas with poison while theyre in use.
- Monitor your yard to see if signs of gophers cease to occur. If not, reapply the poisons as necessary, according to the instructions.
- Since the gophers will die while theyre underground, you wont have to deal with the carcass. However, once you are sure that the gophers are dead, you should follow through with sealing up their burrows.
Raised Gardening Bed: Gopher Wire
Fortunately, there are things that you can do to prevent gophers from attacking your vegetables if you are considering a raised bed similar to this one. All you have to do is install a roll of metal wire at the bottom, before you fill the bed with soil and/or manure.
Chicken wire is the recommended wire for this application but I would suggest you install something a little bit stronger or, at worst, two layers of the chicken wire.
Chicken wire is relatively inexpensive and installing it without the dirt is easy, removing all of the dirt and putting it in is not. Dont shortchange this step, do it right the first time and it will last for a long time.
Gophers can chew through the hardest soils but they are not fans of metal so installing a roll of metal wire will keep them away from your raised bed.
Our barn owl, in its home about twenty feet off of the ground, in the pine tree
Copyright David Palmer, personal collection
Eliminate The Food Source For Moles
Moles feed on soil-dwelling insects, especially grubs. You can eliminate this food source by using beneficial nematodes and milky spore to kill the grubs in your soil. The application of milky spore may take several seasons to become effective.
You can also use a more aggressive grub killer, such as an insecticide. Without food, moles will move on. However, this method is only partially effective. The moles eat earthworms along with other types of worms and insects. They may choose to feast on these instead of leaving your yard. Carefully follow the directions on any products you use.
Gophers eat vegetation, so grub killers will not get rid of them.
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What Do They Eat
These pests stick around when you have moist, cool, healthy dirt. The better your lawn looks, the better chance of housing moles or gophers. They feed off of insects and plant roots. In a short time they can destroy the ecosystem below your lawn and turn your grass brown.
Specifically, moles prefer locations such as gardens where they can excavate and forage. While they are often found in well-kept lawns, they have also been known to crop up in very unfavorable conditions. Just because your lawn isnt winning neighborhood prizes, doesnt mean you cant have moles. They prefer to hunt for food in moist shady areas and most commonly dig in fertilized areas . Moles have also been known to eat millipedes, insect larvae, snails, and even frogs or young mice.
Gophers, on the other hand, are strict herbivores. A gophers diet shifts seasonally according to the availability of food. Its a common expression that gophers are all mouth and no heart, because they will eat just about any plant.
Will Mothballs Get Rid Of Gophers
Another option is using mothballs to deter Gophers from an area. Mothballs contain the toxic chemical napthalene and disturb the Gophers with their odor. Mothballs can be put inside a cloth and placed inside the tunnels. Once they sniff the naphthalene inside the mothballs, they will quickly leave. via
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How Do I Know If I Have Gophers
It is relatively easy to find out if your property has gophers living below the surface gophers leave undeniable evidence of their presence. When a gopher is creating their tunnel highway the dirt gets relocated to the surface, creating a mound of soil. If you see any of these mounds, you have gophers.
In our yard, I have known that we have gophers for many years now but I havent been too concerned with them, primarily because they never gave me any reason to have to deal with them, until now. My wife recently experienced the displeasure any gardener has when something growing in their garden has been munched on by a garden pest.
She went out in the morning to feed the animals and noticed something had eaten a path through our almost ready to harvest cilantro. Presumably, the same attacker had uprooted a larger than a baseball-sized onion, I guess the little varmint had a craving for salsa? Thank goodness our tomatoes arent ready yet.
What a gopher hole will most likely look like.
Copyright David Palmer, personal collection
Getting Rid Of Moles & Gophers
Some people try using traps to get rid of moles and gophers, but these are largely ineffective. Moles are too small to get caught in these types of traps and primarily stay underground. While you may be lucky to lure a gopher into one, youll run into trouble trying to relocate it. Regardless of which pest you are experiencing, nothing beats professional control from the pros at Innovative Pest Control. Give us a call and we can discuss options for you in getting rid of both moles and/or gophers from your property. Life is just better without lawn destroying pests on your property.
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How To Kill Gophers
There are three usual methods of lethal gopher removal, gas, poison, and traps. Poison is probably the least recommended method because the poison can be accidentally consumed by a curious dog and a legitimate prey animal, like an owl, can eat the poisoned animal and become sick, sometimes fatally.
Unfortunately, this has become such a common occurrence it even has a label now, it is called second-hand poisoning.
Outside Cats Might Take Care Of Your Gopher Problem
I have also heard from many different sources that cats can help keep a gopher population in check, especially feral cats. Feral cats are used to being outside and hunting for their own food sources.
This is another reason why we are OK with feeding the three little feral cats that have adopted us, besides the obvious reason that they are hungry.
For us the cost of a bag of cat food once a month is a fee that we are comfortable paying. Having the cats typically hanging around the property helps keep any mice issues at bay as well. I have personally seen one of the cats taking care of a mouse it found. I was leaving for work one early morning and I saw her in the middle of the front lawn, a location that I hadnt seen her in before.
I walked up to her to see what she was doing when I noticed she had a furry little creature in her grasps. What really stuck with me was the look in her eyes. Here was a normally sweet and mild-mannered kitty who had transformed into a calculated hunter and she certainly had the look on her face to match this intensity.
On more than one occasion one of the cats has left us offerings of their hunts. I know it is something that my wife is not a fan of cleaning up but I have no problem doing it because I know that is one less creature that can cause mischief on our property.
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How To Get Rid Of Gophers Humanely
So what does help to get rid of gophers? Trapping is one method. Bait a large humane trap such as Havahart with fruit or vegetables. Set it up near the entrance to the gopher tunnel and wait. Within a few days, you should have your captive. Gophers are mostly solitary, so catching one may solve your problem. Simply take it several miles away from your property and release it in the wild, being careful to wear protective clothing and quickly stepping back and out of the way when releasing the trap.
Another way to get rid of gophers is to spread a repellent. Most gopher repellents contain castor oil and some have predator urine as well. Repellents typically work on both gophers and moles . Spread the repellent according to package directions. If you have a large yard, you may be instructed to treat one portion of the yard at a time, then wait a few days before following up on an untreated area. Smaller yards can be done all at once. Remember, though, spreading repellent may just chase the gopher into your neighbors yard.
There are poisons available, but some municipalities prohibit the killing of gophers. And there is also concern about accidentally poisoning children, pets or even scavenger animals that eat the poisoned gopher. To protect valuable plants or garden beds, you can install a barrier of hardware cloth, making sure it is buried at least 12 inches below ground to prevent tunneling.
How To Repair Veining Damage
Moles activity often looks like large raised veins spreading across your yard. These vein-like patterns are actually surface tunnels or feeding runways and moles can construct them at a rate of 10 feet per hour. Luckily, damage as a result of veining is relatively easy to fix:
- Flatten all raised veins – you can use your foot or a dirt compactor
- Scratch exposed dirt with a rake
- Apply grass seed at the recommended overseed rate
- Lightly compact the seeded area
- Cover with peat moss
- Water areas throughout the day – at least 3x a day
In the Pacific Northwest, grass can take 7 to 14 days to germinate when temperatures are over 60 degrees. Allow the grass to grow at least 3 inches high before mowing the newly germinated grass.
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How To Tell If Lawn Pests Have Made Their Way Onto Your Phoenix Az Property
If gophers or moles have come into your yard, you’re likely to know it. These lawn pests can cause patches of dead grass, create raised tunnels, and large mounds of dirt, all of which can make your lawn an unsightly mess. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can tell which of these two pests you have, what is important to know about them, and what other lawn pests can make you think you have a gopher or a mole.
How Can I Get Rid Of Them
What can you do to turn back the clock on the rodents that have taken over your yard? LandCare Mole and Gopher will work hard to keep your property safe. We use custom underground traps to remove rodents quickly and humanely, so that you can go back to enjoying your summer.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Zyg Zee
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Why Are Gophers On My Property
Your soil is just their type. Moisture is crucial to gophers, as is a high concentration of clay. Sandy soil may deter them from excavating a home due to the potential for a cave-in and a lack of insulation from extreme temperatures. This means that they will likely seek out the preferred amount of clay and water when looking for a place to build a burrow. In an attempt to find moisture, gophers sometimes bite into irrigation pipes.
The climate is their sweet spot. Much of the United States is hospitable territory to gophers. If you live in the western two-thirds of America or certain states in the Southeast , one or more of 10 different gopher species are part of the landscape.
utilities and pipes
Crops and Gardens
A single gopher can inflict major damage on the plants and fruits in a garden within a brief time. If youre dealing with more than one gopher, an even larger area could be affected.
Potential Damage to Agricultural Equipment
The soil tilled up by gophers can damage or break parts of farming machinery as it passes over mounds of churned-up earth. In fact, horseshoe-shaped mounds of dirt are indicators of gopher activity nearby.
Underground Utilities and Pipes
Gophers may gnaw into utility cables, sprinkler systems, and plastic water lines to maintain their rapidly-growing teeth or to get a drink from your water supply. This is a more difficult kind of impact to assess because it is hidden from view.
Mole* & Gopher Bait Controls
Pelleted bait products, such as Amdro Mole* & Gopher Bait, work when the targeted animal eats the bait and dies. Baits should be manually inserted into below-ground tunnels via the pest’s entry hole or through an excavated opening into tunnels or feeding ridges.
How to use Amdro Mole* & Gopher Bait:
- Locate the entry holes to gopher mounds and molehills, and locate underground tunnels or raised feeding runs.
- Remove the side plug from the crescent-shaped gopher mound or the center plug from the conical mole hill. For tunnels and runways, carefully create an opening, taking care not to drop soil into the run.
- Use a long-handled spoon, dedicated to this use, to place 1 teaspoon of Amdro Mole* & Gopher Bait in each entry hole or runway opening.
- Close the opening with a rock or sod, being careful not to cover the bait with soil. Repeat only if activity recurs.
When animal pests strike, put a quick end to the madness and save your lawn from damage. Identify the pest behind your lawn problems, act quickly and partner with effective solutions from the Amdro line of animal control products. Repair bare spots and reclaim your lawn with the help of Pennington One Step Complete combination mulch, seed and fertilizer, and your lawn will soon be looking great again.
*Not for use on moles in CA, IN or NC
Amdro is a registered trademark of Central Garden & Pet Company. Pennington One Step Complete is a registered trademark of Pennington Seed, Inc.
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How To Plug Groundhog Holes:
Groundhogs might seem like cute and cuddly creatures, but they can wreak havoc on a yard. In fact, it is the burrowers that are the most problematic of any species. And, as far as burrowers go, it is more than safe to say that groundhogs are by far the worst. Simply put, get a groundhog in your yard digging holes, and you are looking at serious problems.
Holes In Lawn: Causes + How To Fill The Small Overnight Holes
Holes in your lawn could be a sign you have a pest that needs to be controlled especially when youre sure it is not your dog digging them up. Small holes that appear overnight in your lawn can be can make your yard look ugly and damaged.
Holes in the lawn can be caused by rodents such as moles, gophers, voles, and rats, or pest insects like ground wasps and birds that feed on these insects. To fill up holes in your yard, first identify and control the cause and then close up the holes with a blend of topsoil and compost or sand.
This will, however, depend on whats digging up the holes in your yard. The burrows can be of different sizes, usually small for insects and big holes for big rodents. To address the problem, it is important to identify the specific cause first and apply the appropriate fix as recommended below.
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Planting And Using Barriers To Deter Moles Or Gophers
Certain kinds of plants in your yard can help deter moles. Moles dislike the smells from plants like daffodils, marigolds and anything from the allium family. This kind of plant barrier is typically safe for children and pets, plus it makes a lovely colorful addition to your yard.
To deter gophers, plant in raised beds. You can also make gopher baskets from netted material and put bulbs or young plants in them. This will allow the bulbs and plants to grow while keeping the gophers out.
Ready-made gopher and mole barriers are also available in the form of baskets that can be placed around plants to protect them from being eaten.
Where Should I Look For Signs Of Gophers
If you believe gophers are marring your land or farm, consider buying a gopher probe . Youll need to locate a mound with a plugged opening, then aim your probe about 8-12 from the plug. The burrow will run 6-12 underground, and the probe will encounter a noticeable two-inch drop. You may need to drive multiple times into the soil to find the main burrow, but your skill will improve with practice.
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How To Fix Gopher Holes In Lawn
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Consider A Castor Oil Mixture
Groundhogs are not a new creature to the animal kingdom. They have been around for decades, and theyve caused just as many problems back in the day as they are causing you right now.
This is kind of a good thing for you because it means people have already been through this.
They know what works and what doesnt work. Many homeowners in the past have turned to castor oil as a natural repellent. Many gardeners and farmers swear by the stuff and its even currently on Minnesotas Department of Natural Resources list as one of the most effective ways for groundhog control.
What youll want to do is create a supple mixture of ½ coup of castor oil and 2 cups of water. Place the mixture in a garden hose sprayer attachment and spray it in the holes or the areas where you want to deter groundhogs.
Applying the spray at least two or three times after a light rain will likely yield the best and most effective results possible.
If you want a more potent blend, you can mix 1 cup of castor oil with 2 cups of oil soap and 1 ¼ cup of hot sauce. Once you are sure that youve deterred the critter, you can begin filling in the holes with gravel and/or soil.
Groundhogs are no doubt an important part of nature. There is also no denying that they seem like cute and cuddly creatures, but get one burrowing in your garden or yard and youll change your mind right away. Lucky, this is a problem that you can handle on your own with the information above.
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