How to remove gophers from your garden or yard naturally

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You have three main options open to you when it comes to getting rid of gophers. You can look towards repellents or exclusion methods, which we personally advise. You also have the use of poisons, which we definitely do not advise. Then you have the use of traps, either lethal snap traps or live cage traps. There are huge factors to take into consideration with both types of trap, and you should definitely be aware that trying to get a gopher into the trap is remarkably hard work. These critters are small, nimble, and can rush around underground much faster than you could try to locate them.



Let’s look at trapping to start with. Many trapping experts suggest laying traps the very second you notice a gopher problem with the intention of stopping the creature BEFORE it gives birth. Then you’ll have a whole bunch of gophers to deal with, as if sorting one of them out wasn’t going to be difficult enough.

You will need to make sure you know what species of gopher you’re dealing with before you take any action too. In Washington, for example, the Western pocket gopher, also known as the Mazama pocket gopher, is state-threatened. It is unlawful to trap, cull, or endanger the lives of this species in any way, and you can be prosecuted for it.

Secondary to that, within the state of Washington once again, it is unlawful to trap a gopher on your land and then release it somewhere else. You would need a permit in order to do this, and this is the case across many states too. You will definitely need to get in touch with the local authorities to work out what you are and aren’t lawfully permitted to do. It’s a good idea to do this BEFORE you take action and then get yourself in trouble.

Again, we’ll stick with Washington as our example; it is unlawful to use any other trap than live cage traps to deal with a gopher problem. With live traps, you don't need a permit at all. The problem is, once you have a gopher in a live trap, you're not allowed to release it anywhere but the land on which you found it … That really doesn't solve your problem, does it? Do you know what will solve your problem? Calling in the professionals! We know it's the more expensive option in some cases, but not all cases, and it usually works out quicker and cheaper to hire the pro than to try and fail with a whole bunch of different approaches yourself first. All the time you're failing at it, the gopher population has the time to get bigger, giving you an even bigger problem to deal with.

Repellents for gophers, just like repellents for other wild animals, very rarely work. You can try pinwheels, ultrasonic devices, and even vibrating stakes if you wanted to, but the gopher is not an animal that will be easily chased away. It’ll just wait until you go back to sleep and start rebuilding the tunnel again. That's what they do. They're used to vibrations and noise. They live below the ground — underneath our feet. They can feel the vibrations from people walking around, cats howling at night and dogs barking. They tunnel under roads and feel the vibrations of the vehicles on that road. If the gophers were really that easily repelled using those devices, they wouldn't enter into heavily populated human areas in the first place.

Sometimes it pays to use your head, you know?
If you see a wonder product on the market that claims to get rid of gophers naturally and humanely, just by squirting or sprinkling some stuff around, make sure there’s a money back guarantee along with it. You’ll more than likely need it.

That brings us to the exclusion devices rally, because poison is NOT an option. It should NEVER be an option when it comes to nuisance wildlife. Poison might work for pest control, but nuisance wildlife control most definitely isn't the same thing. Each case needs a specific and individual plan of attack worked out. There is no one-size-fits all remedy for it.

What CAN work against gophers, are physical barriers. Depending on the kind of area you’re trying to protect, this can be a costly job, and also a rather time-consuming one too, but a decent fencing and barrier system will protect your land from not only gophers, but a wide range of other wild critters too. Half-Inch mesh hardware cloth can easily be used to protect a raised flower bed, for example, and you will also need to ensure you're protecting from below too. Remember that these little underground beasts will pop up from below.

Other items, such as bulbs, can be placed into baskets made with the same hardware cloth, allowing them to grow up without being affected by an animal munching out underneath them. These plants can always be removed from their wire restraints once you’ve solved your gopher problem, but all the time these food sources are still on offer, the animal won't be going anywhere fast. Why would it want to?

In severe cases, flooding might be necessary to get these creatures to leave, although, as you can probably imagine, there are many things that you will need to think about before you use that as an option. In order to get these critters to leave in a hurry and then stay gone, you'd need to flood the entire underground tunnel unit, and in a very short period of time too. A trickle of water is not going to fix this situation, and that might mean needing to leave the hose pipe behind. Think about it - pouring bottles or buckets of water into the gopher holes is going to be a lot quicker than waiting for the pathetic garden hose to do the job.

This job is one that you will want to do before the babies come along, for obvious reasons too. This means that early spring is a good time to do it, or even earlier than that — during the later part of the colder, winter months. Any later than that and there’s a good chance that you won't evict the tenants. The mother will try desperately to remove her young, and she’ll end up drowning along with them, without enough time to rescue her small family.

Read the Remove gophers in the garden or yard naturally page.
For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.