San Diego Gopher Control

How To Identify Gopher Problems on Your Property

Are mounds of dirt popping up in your yard? Are your exterior plants dying for inexplicable reasons? Or are your lawn irrigation lines leaking? Perhaps you’ve seen a small furry creature poking it’s head out of your manicured lawn. These are all indications of a gopher problem on your property.

What are Gophers?

Botta’s pocket gophers are nocturnal rodents native to California and abundant in San Diego County. They are light-brown and medium in size; ranging between 5-14 inches in length. They use their oversized front teeth to excavate dirt and leave heaps around your yard.

Their intricate tunnels can destroy your landscaping in a matter of weeks, causing thousands of dollars in damages.

What do Gophers Eat?

Gophers feed off vegetation including roots and flower bulbs, bamboo trees and man-made materials like wiring, cables and plastic pipes. They also eat grubs and insects like earthworms, beetles and ants.

Other Problems Caused by Gophers

Gophers can also carry parasites like ticks and fleas as well as carry rabies though they rarely bite humans. Ticks and fleas carry their own diseases that can affect household pets and humans alike.

How To Get Rid of Gophers

Depending on the size of your property and magnitude of your infestation, gopher control can be a time consuming and frustrating endeavor. There are lots of DIY gopher control solutions including traps, bait, natural repellent and smoke bombs.

Unfortunately, gopher problems can scale up very quickly as they reproduce and spread their colony. If you notice a gopher problem, it is best to address it immediately. If you require professional gopher control, here’s our process:

1. Gopher Inspection – Our certified gopher control experts will survey your entire property, noting all tunnels and mounds. We will then quote you for the treatment plan
2. Gopher treatment – After inspection, we will address and treat all openings and nesting areas
3. Gopher Removal – Once the affected area is fully treated, we will remove all gophers from your property
4. Gopher Repellent – We will apply natural granular repellent to ward off future gophers and deter them from recolonizing your property
5. Maintenance – Our scheduled maintenance program includes periodic inspections and additional treatment of repellent if necessary.

Other recommendations may include thinning dense foliage, adjusting watering schedules, mowing tall grass and fixing any damaged fencing

Gopher Prevention

Preventing gophers from entering your yard can be a challenge. Due to their nocturnal nature and seasonality (wet months – winter to spring), gophers can secretly dig their way on to your property without you knowing it. There are some prevention tactics you can take for gophers though:

• Digging trenches around the perimeter of any food sources like planters, flower beds, or any food crops like fruits and vegetables
• Clear up any plant debris, replace dead or thinning plants, weed regularly and keep your lawn mowed
• Reduce your watering schedule to make your dirt difficult to dig
• Fix any broken fencing and add gopher wire to create a deep barrier in common gopher entry points