Non-Toxic Gopher Control: How to Keep Gophers Out of Your Garden
Dealing with gophers in the garden can be incredibly frustrating. I know firsthand; they’re rampant in our area! Gophers are sneaky, persistent, dine on a wide variety of plant roots, and can cause serious damage – from unsightly mounds, ankle-twisting holes, and plant stress or death. However, there are a number of non-toxic ways to control gophers!
This article covers 7 ways to gopher-proof your garden to protect plants and keep gopher damage to a minimum, including deterrents, exclusion techniques, gopher resistant plants, and traps. We’ll also talk about 3 common gopher control methods that I do not recommend – like using poison. Most of the tips in this article apply to other burrowing rodents like voles and moles too!
If you’re looking for an answer to “how to get rid of gophers?” the reality is, you may not be able to – or at least not completely and permanently. On our property, we’ve simply accepted their presence and learned to coexist to a certain extent. Yet by using many of the non-toxic gopher control methods below, we’re able to successfully protect plants from gophers and still grow a very healthy, productive garden.
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About Pocket Gophers
Gophers, more formally known as pocket gophers, are burrowing rodents and part of the Geomydiae family. There are over 30 distinct gopher species native to North and Central America. They are known for their uncanny ability to destroy gardens, farms, and ornamental landscaping. In addition to wilting or disappearing plants, the telltale mounds they leave at the soil surface are a sign that gophers are present in your yard.
Gophers create extensive underground tunnel systems, which are about 3 inches in diameter and usually found 6 to 12 inches below the soil surface. Their larger food storage chambers and nests are deeper, up to 6 feet below ground. A single gopher’s tunnel system can span several hundred square feet, and up to 2000 square feet. It’s important to understand their tunnel system when setting traps!
Gophers are territorial and lead solitary lives. Therefore, the damage you observe in a modest garden space may be caused by just one or two gophers.
What do gophers eat?
Gophers are herbivores. They aren’t especially picky, and will dine on a wide variety of vegetation. They primarily eat subterranean plant roots, bulbs, and tubers, which causes stress or death to plants from below. They’re also known to peek above ground to graze on grass, clover, young stems, and other similar low-growing tender greenery around the perimeter of their mounds.
Gophers may also consume larger choice plants, starting by gnawing at the roots until they eventually pull the whole plant down into their tunnel. I know many gardeners who have seen entire mature tomato plants sucked below ground!
See a list of less attractive gopher-resistant plants below.
How NOT to get rid of gophers
When it comes to controlling gophers, I urge you to never use gopher poison. Using gopher poison is cruel in many ways. First, it results in a slow and agonizing death for the gophers. Even though they’re considered a garden pest, they don’t deserve that kind of treatment.
Furthermore, gopher poison puts all wildlife at risk – plus domestic animals too! Curious canines, cats, birds of prey, opossums, or other predators can easily eat poisoned gophers and become poisoned themselves. Even if you don’t mind the idea of poisoning a gopher, I doubt you feel the same about beloved Fluffy.
I also don’t recommend fussing with fumigation or smoke bombs. Gopher smoke bombs emit toxic fumes that can be dangerous to humans and pets if used incorrectly, and are not suitable for an edible garden area. In addition to suffocating gophers (if successful), the fumes will harm snakes or other beneficial critters that may be sharing the gopher tunnels. Plus, gophers often act quickly to close off their tunnel and hide until the fumes go away, thwarting your efforts.
Another commonly recommended gopher control method (that I don’t suggest) is to flood out their tunnels. Not only is flooding usually ineffective, but it can actually make the soil more gopher-friendly since it is easier for them to tunnel in damp soil. Overall, it’s a huge waste of water.
7 Ways to Keep Gophers Out of the Garden
1) Gopher Cages or Baskets
One easy and non-toxic way to control gophers is to plant fruit trees, shrubs, and other susceptible plants within gopher cages or baskets. Made of wire material, gopher baskets are designed to surround and protect the root ball, effectively preventing gophers from eating the plant’s roots. Simply add a basket around the root ball at the time of planting.
Gopher cages are ideal to protect a limited number of plants from gophers, such as a handful of shrubs or fruit trees. However, on a larger scale, it would be very tedious and costly to plant dozens to hundreds of annual garden crops in individual gopher baskets. (That is where raised garden beds save the day!) This gopher control method obviously won’t help for lawn areas either.
TIP: When installing gopher baskets, it is important to keep the top rim of the basket protruding at least a couple inches above the soil line. Otherwise, they can easily hop right in and begin feeding within the basket itself.
What type of wire is best for gopher baskets?
There are a number of pre-made gopher baskets available to purchase, usually made of chicken wire or other thin flexible wire. They can get the job done, though some gardeners complain that gophers can chew through them, or that they don’t stand up to the test of time. In my experience, these firm and sturdy gopher baskets are more effective (but more difficult to work with) than these mesh “speed baskets” (which I usually use for gopher-resistant plants only).
Another option is to make your own extra-sturdy gopher cages! We often make our own large gopher baskets for fruit trees using hardware cloth – which is the most durable, long-lasting and effective option. Unlike chicken wire, hardware cloth will not degrade with time. Also, gophers cannot squeeze through the small openings or gnaw through hardware cloth. Check out our tutorial on how to make DIY gopher baskets here. Because it won’t degrade, hardware cloth gopher baskets may slightly constrict plant roots and growth over time.
2) Grow in Containers or Raised Garden Beds (and add hardware cloth)
One of the most effective ways to keep gophers out of your garden and protect plants is to primarily use raised garden beds, pots, and/or containers. We love growing food in raised beds and wire barrel planters for a number of reasons, but the ability to easily block out pests and weeds is near the top of the list!
When we build a raised garden bed, we add hardware cloth to the bottom side of the wood bed before filling it with soil. Be sure to firmly attach the hardware cloth (e.g. secured with staples or wide-head cabinet screws), eliminating any gaps they can slip through and get inside. Again, do not use chicken wire since they can fit through the gaps or chew through it and it will degrade with time.
We also add commercial grade landscape fabric below our raised beds as another layer of protection, which the gophers only rarely chew through.
TIP: You can also use hardware cloth to line pathways (under mulch, landscape fabric, etc) in areas with exceptionally high gopher traffic, minimizing soil disturbance and mounds.
3) Gopher Traps
I understand that not everyone is keen on using lethal gopher traps. However, if your goal is to get rid of gophers (and not just deter them), then I think we can all agree that a quick death using a non-toxic trap is far preferable to a slow, cruel death caused by gopher poison or fumigation. (Not to mention the other risks and issues that those options pose).
The Gopher Hawk, The Black Hole, and The Black Box are among the most effective, highly-rated, and easy-to-use gopher traps available. Once caught, you can put the expired gophers out for birds of prey or scavengers like opossums or coyotes. Like all the other non-toxic gopher control methods we’ve explored today, trapping takes continued persistence and patience to get rid of gophers – since others are likely to move in and take their place.
TIP: It’s best to set gopher traps within the tunnels, not at the entrance of a fresh hole. To locate tunnels, use a sharp skinny object like a garden stake or screw driver to slowly probe the soil in a 1-foot radius around visible mounds. (The Gopher Hawk comes with a probe). You’ll feel the probe “give way” once you hit and enter a hollow tunnel area.
4) Grow Gopher Resistant Plants
Though gophers will eat just about anything if they’re hungry enough, a number of plants are considered “gopher resistant”. These plants typically have a strong scent, bitter flavor, toxic sap, or other noxious traits that make them less appealing for gophers to eat. Rosemary, lavender, salvia, eucalyptus, oleander, and gopher purge are all prime examples.
However, no plant is ever 100% safe from gophers (I still use speed cages on these less appetizing ones), though they certainly won’t be gophers first choice to dine on. Even better, many California native plants and drought-tolerant plants are also gopher resistant!
See a list of over 50 gopher resistant plants to grow in California and beyond here.
5) Non-Toxic Gopher Repellents
Another non-toxic gopher control trick is to put natural gopher repellents inside their tunnels. The goal is to make their environment uncomfortable or otherwise undesirable so they’ll move elsewhere. Depending on the repellent used, you can either put the material directly in the exposed holes, sprinkle or saturate the ground around visible mounds, or soak cotton balls and place them inside the tunnels (ideal for oils and liquids).
What smells do gophers hate? Quite a few! Basically, it boils down to the aromas of their predators, or other really pungent, bitter smells. Examples of natural, non-toxic gopher repellents include peppermint oil, castor oil, coyote urine, cat and dog poop, garlic, coffee grounds, and fish oil or fish carcasses. We’ve definitely been known to put cat poop down gopher holes a time or two – haha! I’ve also read they dislike scented dryer sheets. Finally, you can buy specialized non-toxic gopher deterrents to put in their holes OR sprinkle right on the soil surface over larger areas.
One drawback to this non-lethal gopher control method is that they typically won’t move very far away. So if you have a large property, they’ll still be around unless you treat all areas. Plus, your neighbors might not be too happy with their newfound tenants.
6) Ultrasonic Emitters
In addition to funky smells, small vibrations and high-pitch noises can also repel gophers. Devices like these solar-powered gopher spikes or these popular battery-powered sonic spikes emit ultrasonic waves that gophers find annoying. So much so, they often stay away.
While reviews suggest varying success rates, it’s worth a shot! Especially if you’re looking for non-lethal, non-toxic gopher control methods. Place several emitters in prime areas of gopher activity. The spikes can also be effective at deterring voles, moles, ground squirrels, and groundhogs.
7) Encourage Natural Predators
Creating and maintaining a diverse, wildlife-friendly yard is a fantastic form of non-toxic gopher control. Gophers have a number of natural predators. Owls, hawks and other birds of prey happily hunt gophers that venture out of their tunnels. Savvy barn cats will also be ready and waiting to pounce (though barn cats also pose a risk to other wildlife, like song birds). Coyotes, foxes, and badgers will dig gophers out of their burrows, while snakes and weasels can follow them into tunnels.
Nature has a way of finding balance, including keeping various wildlife populations in check. Learn how to turn any size garden into a wildlife habitat here! Key components of a wildlife-friendly yard include places for shelter and to raise young, and a variety of food and water sources. For instance, consider adding an owl box to your property (be sure to get the right size and type of box for owl species common to your area). It is also important to follow organic practices and avoid the use of pesticides, including gopher poison!
And that concludes this lesson on non-toxic gopher control.
In closing, I think we can all agree that gophers are pretty frustrating little creatures. If you’re struggling with gophers in your yard, I’m sorry! I feel your pain. But I hope the tips and techniques we covered in this article will help get them under control, and keep the damage to your precious plants to a minimum!
Do you have any other non-toxic gopher control tricks that we missed and work well for you? Please let us know in the comments below! If you found the information in this post to be valuable, please feel free to pin or share this article. Best of luck on your garden gopher-proofing adventures!
21 Comments
Kristen
How do you add hardware cloth to metal raised beds?
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Kristen, we just lay hardware cloth on the ground underneath the metal raised bed and use landscape staples to secure it to the earth. Be sure the hardware cloth overlaps the edge of the raised bed by 6-12 inches underneath so gophers can’t get in through the edges. Hope that helps and good luck!
Jeannie
What do you think about cayenne pepper? That’s what I’ve used. I buy huge jugs online. I sprinkle it on the holes and along the bumps of gopher highways and then shower with a bit of water (or I time the use for right before it rains). This has been quite successful. And I don’t think it harms them. This is a great article. Thank you so much.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Thanks for sharing Jeannie and so glad you enjoyed the article. I think we used cayenne pepper to deter some garden pest at some point but now I can’t remember which!
ANNIE
The hardware cloth in my area has product labels that warns that it contains lead. I’m guessing that is because it is galvenized. Won’t it leach lead into the soil and the plants absorb it? I’m concerned about fruits & veggies grown in this environment.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Annie, there is a chance that small amounts of lead may leach into your soil due to the hardware cloth baskets but I am not sure it would be to a level that is considered hazardous to your health. Increasing the organic matter in you soil is supposed to decrease the plants ability to uptake lead into its tissues. Here is a paper from the University of Connecticut which goes over lead in garden soil in general, it does state that even in native, undisturbed soil, lead ranges from 2 to 60 ppm. Hope that helps and good luck!
Jason
So, I made a bunch of diy gopher cages out of harware cloth for the sides & folded over chicken wire for the bottoms. For fruit & nut trees they were roughly 22-24″ in diameter & 24″ deep. For the fruiting bushes they were 18″ in diameter & 18″ deep. Last spring I put in 50 fruit trees & 100 fruiting bushes. This spring got another 30 fruit/nut trees & 40+ bushes. Think food forest in rows with bushes in between the trees. That’s 80 big baskets & nearly 150 little ones.They have definitely saved my orchard as you can see where gophers have circled the cages like miniature land sharks. As I was discussing some thoughts & strategies I had with an employee from one of the nurseries I ordered from, I mentioned my gopher cages & he strongly recomended that I dig them all out & replace them with ones made of chicken wire, as he assured me they will negatively impact the long term development of the trees.
My jaw hit the floor & my heart sank to my little toe. I’m a paraplegic & dug & planted most of these alone from my wheelchair. To say it was a Herculian task would certainly be an understatement! To remove the cages would be even more dificult than the original installation. This conversation was devastating. Have you seen any long term negative effects of using the hardware cloth baskets? And how long & what type of trees have you planted in the baskets? I’ve contacted a few arborists, but so far they’re out of my budget to have them come out & help me develop a plan, besides digging them all up. If you have any thoughts or ideas, I’m all ears. Thanks.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Jason, you did a ton of work, not only building all of those cages, but also planting all of those trees and fruiting bushes, that is a monumental task! While I understand your worry over the gopher baskets inhibiting your tree’s growth and root development, we do mention in the article that it can possibly cause “dwarfing” in a tree, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. People growing fruit trees in suburban yards or even a food forest such as the one you have created may be better off with an 8-10 foot tree instead of a 15 foot tree anyway. However, I am not sure there would be a significant enough negative impact on the tree for you to even notice due to using hardware cloth for the baskets. This is even especially true since you made the baskets as wide and deep as you did to begin with, giving the trees roots plenty of space to start out.
We show in the article our loquat tree just shy of 3 years growing after being planted with a hardware cloth gopher basket and you can see how much larger it is compared to when we planted it. We also planted a Hass avocado tree in the corner of our previous yard which was close to 10-12 feet by the time we left and we were just starting to harvest dozens of avocados off of it. We had also planted some fig trees and feijoa shrubs in the same cages and we never noticed any reduced vigor or growth during our time at the property. Unfortunately, we moved away from our previous property in the summer of 2021 so we don’t have access to the space to show the trees currently. Also, if you used zip ties to secure parts of the basket, chances are those may breakdown and bust off in time which would allow for more roots or the main root mass to bust out.
In all, it sounds like you have a very healthy gopher population so protecting your trees and bushes the way you did is likely a good thing, I don’t think you will even notice a reduction in tree vigor or health so I wouldn’t worry about it too much at all. I definitely wouldn’t dig everything up and redo it with different cages, your food forest should continue to prosper and become a wonderful place to enjoy and you will be reaping the fruits of your labor in no time. Please keep us updated on how your food forest progresses and have fun growing, reach out to us via email if you would like to share any pictures in the future as well.
LaDawn Haws
If I plant gopher unfriendly plants, how far does their “unfriendliness” radiate? For example, can I keep out gophers from my neighbor’s yard by planting a “fence” of salvias? If so, what spacing is needed?
Or will they just be mildly annoyed, and tunnel right past the fence and invade my yard?
Just curious : )
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi LaDawn, unfortunately gophers seems to go wherever they please and we haven’t noticed certain plants keeping them away from areas all together. We have at times had gophers chew on or kill plants that are supposed to be “gopher resistant” as well, we have found the best thing to do for plants or trees in particular is to protect their rootball with wire gopher cages. Unfortunately I am not sure how successful you will be in keeping gophers out of your yard in general though, no matter which plants you decide to plant. Hope that helps and good luck!
Michael Harrington
The sonic do-hickeys do not work. The moles tunneled all around them, must have been playing their favorite hits. My cat and dog, plus a cylinrical/tube trap works the best for keeping them at bay. However, they just destroyed my well established potato patch! More than upset about that.
Maria
A couple of our potatoes popped up out of their mounds and were clearly green. We left them to deal with another day. A few days ago we had a gopher ninja into our garden, a hole under the zucchini plant which was easy to miss. Yesterday, another hole appeared in our potato patch! We found a half eaten green potato near the hole. Fast forward to today, and I found the gopher out of his hole, dead. Crazy. At least that’s taken care of.
I didn’t realize how toxic those green potatoes are!!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Maria, interesting series of events, gophers can be a real pain around the garden or fruit trees.
Lisa McKinney
I have had ‘some’ luck with rat traps, baited with whatever they are eating in the garden, and/or some sunflower seeds or peanuts and parsley. Find a brand new mound and carefully open a hole into the tunnel (usually on the side opposite the larger part of the mound as I recall). Set the armed trap next to the hole and cover the mound and the trap with a 5-gal bucket or extra-large pot to keep it dark and cross your fingers. Check the set up daily–from my experience you either catch it the first night or they bury the trap and everything under the bucket. Two tips: wear new gloves (plastic staining gloves work well) so your scent isn’t on the trap and weight the bucket if you have pets so they knock it over and get hurt by the trap.
Or, just adopt a Yorkie–one of my big dogs caught one and was just trying to make it play (the ball that throws itself?), but my mom’s Yorkie ran up and grabbed it from her, killed it with one hard shake, then ran with it toward the dog door!!
Ps. Other scents they supposedly don’t like: Irish Spring soap, juicy fruit gum, and Fabuloso cleaner. I haven’t found any, including coyote urine, that work though.
Carlena Russom
Thank you so much for all the wonderful information. I have lived in the same home for over 30 years and just starting to build a garden now that I am retired. Where I currently have lawn, should I remove it? If so, how deep should I go? Also I have not seen any evidence of gophers, but wondering if I should use the hardware cloth just in case? I live in Bakersfield so I think we are in a similar zone.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Carlena, congratulations on your retirement and for jumping into gardening, it should be a great activity to keep you busy. Removing the lawn is really a personal choice, you will likely need to remove sections where you are going to grow plants, either in ground or in raised beds as the grass will grow into your new garden space rather quickly. Since you are located in California, it’s better to be safe than sorry as far as gophers go, they are likely in your vicinity and may be drawn to your garden space once the you start growing veggies and other plants. Check out our article on How to Kill or Remove Grass (& Grow Food Not Lawns!) for insight on how we accomplished the task at our previous house. We also had fairly invasive crabgrass so we wanted to be sure to fully remove it as it would spread by runners underneath the ground. Hope that helps and reach out if you have any other questions, good luck on building your garden space and have fun growing!
Cynthia Parent
Thank you for all the gopher deterrent tips! I will soon be installing metal (Vego Garden) raised beds over gravel. I plan to put gopher net under the raised beds, but obviously can’t staple it to the metal. What order would you recommend placing everything? I’m currently thinking gopher net, gravel, then raised beds on top. I’m planning to fill the beds using the Hugelkultur method, and prefer not to use landscape fabric directly under the raised beds (for optimal deep root growth), but will use landscape fabric as a weed barrier in the pathways. We have an entire network of gopher tunnels in our yard, and I want to keep them out of the garden! I appreciate any wisdom you have to offer. 🙂
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Cynthia, I would personally lay down the gravel before adding sections of hardware cloth on top of that and then setting the raised beds directly on top of the hardware cloth. From there you can always add a small layer of gravel around your beds to cover the overlapping hardware cloth. If you lay hardware cloth below the gravel with bare soil in between the landscape fabric and hardware cloth, that will give gophers space and area to work their way directly into the bottom of your raised beds as I wouldn’t count them out of digging through a few inches of gravel to get into your beds.
If your beds are somewhat close to your pathways, you can overlap your hardware cloth onto the pathways of landscape fabric and pin the two together with heavy duty quality landscape staples where you would essentially be creating an entire gopher proof surface with hardware cloth and landscape fabric all connected and touching end to end leaving no space for gophers to pop up. If you did this, you could essentially lay gravel on top of that, followed by your raised beds on top of the gravel. However, just a note that we have had gophers chew through thick landscape fabric so it definitely isn’t a surefire way to keep the gophers out. Although in your instance, they would essentially only be in a few inches of gravel above ground so I am not sure how well they would move in that type of material. Hopefully those two responses weren’t too convoluted and you found a few tips that may prove helpful to you or at least gave you something to think about. Good luck and reach out if you have any other questions.
Loretta Lewis
Great information here. I was wondering if using 1″ hardware wire will keep gophers out or will they get through it.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Loretta, I would use 3/4″ or less.
Shirley Henderson
I really enjoyed this article..great info. Wanted to share with you my best method of pushing back moles and gophers…I lay there trail open with a spade and insert dirty cat litter. They hate it and dissapate…we have five acres here in Michigan that used to be quite the wet lands, snake ally feeding grounds for moles, etc. I start putting the dirty kitty litter in their trails early spring and can push them way back from my gardening areas.