Don’t fall for their cuteness, as they can be a nightmare for property owners. They are destructive diggers. With the help of their sharp claws and teeth, they can excavate underground tunnels and burrows, which can quickly lead to extreme lawn damage.
They have a short neck, round body with soft fur and a flat head. They are also known as ‘pocket gophers’, as they have fur-lined cheek pouches or ‘pockets’ on either side of the mouth. When foraging, they gather food in their cheek pouches and preserve it in their chambers for later consumption. They have long visible incisors, thick whiskers, small ears and a short tail. Their small eyes, small ears, and highly-sensitive whiskers help them move in the dark.
Gophers are vegetarians. They live and do most of their foraging underground, feeding chiefly on roots and tubers. Gophers are known for building complex underground tunnel systems. They like to be alone and so, only one gopher will be found in a tunnel system. Their burrowed underground homes are equipped with travel runs, drainage tunnels and chambers for living, eating and excreting waste.
Gophers have an unusual ability to close their lips behind the four large incisors to keep dirt out of their mouth. They can easily ruin lawns, kill trees, and destroy gardens. However, they also play an important role in the ecosystem. They help in increasing soil fertility by mixing plant material and fecal wastes into the soil. Their burrowing aerates or tills the soil. By bringing minerals to the surface, which serve as food for a variety of animals including coyotes, weasels, snakes and owls, they can help speed up the formation of new soil.
Gophers burrowing doesn’t always prove beneficial as the damage they cause is typically a result of their burrowing and feeding habits. While digging tunnels, they accidentally chomp on electrical lines or water lines which are used for irrigation and sprinkler systems. Plus, their burrowing causes root damage of plants and trees.
Damage caused by gophers is often confused with that of moles. However, the difference is indicated by their soil mounds and tunnel visibility. Gopher mounds are crescent-shaped, whereas mole hills are more symmetrical and cone-shaped.
Trained technicians at Pest in the City know how to deal with gophers. They have created various gopher controlling methods that can help you keep them off your lawn, garden or backyard. At first, our professional technicians will try to identify the number of tunnels the gophers make use of to enter your property. Then, they will block all the tunnels and try to catch them.
Our trained technicians use various methods:
They have a short neck, round body with soft fur and a flat head. They are also known as ‘pocket gophers’, as they have fur-lined cheek pouches or ‘pockets’ on either side of the mouth. When foraging, they gather food in their cheek pouches and preserve it in their chambers for later consumption. They have long visible incisors, thick whiskers, small ears and a short tail. Their small eyes, small ears, and highly-sensitive whiskers help them move in the dark.
Gophers are vegetarians. They live and do most of their foraging underground, feeding chiefly on roots and tubers. Gophers are known for building complex underground tunnel systems. They like to be alone and so, only one gopher will be found in a tunnel system. Their burrowed underground homes are equipped with travel runs, drainage tunnels and chambers for living, eating and excreting waste.
Gophers have an unusual ability to close their lips behind the four large incisors to keep dirt out of their mouth. They can easily ruin lawns, kill trees, and destroy gardens. However, they also play an important role in the ecosystem. They help in increasing soil fertility by mixing plant material and fecal wastes into the soil. Their burrowing aerates or tills the soil. By bringing minerals to the surface, which serve as food for a variety of animals including coyotes, weasels, snakes and owls, they can help speed up the formation of new soil.
Gophers burrowing doesn’t always prove beneficial as the damage they cause is typically a result of their burrowing and feeding habits. While digging tunnels, they accidentally chomp on electrical lines or water lines which are used for irrigation and sprinkler systems. Plus, their burrowing causes root damage of plants and trees.
Damage caused by gophers is often confused with that of moles. However, the difference is indicated by their soil mounds and tunnel visibility. Gopher mounds are crescent-shaped, whereas mole hills are more symmetrical and cone-shaped.
Pest in the City Gopher Control Methods Include:
Trained technicians at Pest in the City know how to deal with gophers. They have created various gopher controlling methods that can help you keep them off your lawn, garden or backyard. At first, our professional technicians will try to identify the number of tunnels the gophers make use of to enter your property. Then, they will block all the tunnels and try to catch them.
Our trained technicians use various methods:
- To protect your garden by installing screen fencing or underground netting
- To prevent gophers from digging into the garden by building gardens in raised plant boxes
- To catch gophers by setting up traps inside or around various entry points
- To keep gophers away without killing them, by using spray, sonic or granular gopher control repellents