What To Do If Gophers Are Invading Your Yard
If you've noticed small mounds of dirt appearing throughout your yard, you may have a gopher problem. Although gophers are small in size, they can create big problems for your yard if left undisturbed. Gophers can damage electrical wiring, water pipes, and tree roots, not to mention leave your yard covered with holes and mounds.
If gophers have moved into your yard, this means that your yard provides food, water, shelter, and sandy soil, which is easy for gophers to tunnel through. To get rid of your gopher problem, take the following actions.
Remove their food sources
Gophers love to feast on the roots of plants more than anything else. So if your yard is full of plants and vegetables, it may become a haven for a gopher family. However, you don't have to remove all the plants and vegetables from your garden. Instead, install raised garden beds with hard bottoms that can stop gophers from attacking your plants from beneath the soil.
This is a good project to take on in late winter or early spring before gophers are most active.
Invest in a sturdy fence
To stop gophers from invading your yard from outside your property, install a new fence around your property. Gophers can't jump very high, and they are not good climbers, so even a short fence can keep gophers off your property. However, since gophers can burrow under a shallow fence, ensure that your fence extends at least a few inches below the surface of the soil.
Choose a strong material for your new fence, such as metal or wood, because gophers can chew through weaker materials like plastic and chicken wire.
Clear your yard of hiding places
Gophers, like other rodents, don't like to be exposed when they surface to eat or roam. This fact means that gophers like yards that have plenty of coverage. If your yard has long grass, brush, bushes, and other materials that gophers can use to conceal their movement, gophers will feel at home there.
Remove as much of the clutter from your yard as you can to ensure that gophers don't feel safe moving around.
Hire a pest control service
If you already have a gopher problem in your yard, refrain from using DIY methods, as DIY methods can damage your yard and even put your pets and children at risk. Hire a pest control service to eradicate your gopher problem quickly and safely. Pest controllers usually use traps to capture gophers. But they may also use gas and baits to deal with larger gopher infestations.
Are gophers a problem for you and your yard? Then be sure to follow the tips in this article. Ultimately, the easiest way to eradicate gophers is by hiring a pest control service.
Contact gopher control services to learn more.
