How to Protect Against Gophers

Gophers have a positive impact on the environment, so it is better to avoid killing them.

Getting rid of gophers from the garden permanently is difficult. You can hire a pest control service licensed to use toxic materials not available to the ordinary homeowner, or you can use one of the popular methods of inserting poison into the tunnels, smoking them out with gas-producing bombs, or burying and setting traps underground. One of the most successful methods to keep your garden safe, however, is to protect your planting beds with wire mesh.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Gopher baskets
• 3⁄4-inch chicken wire or hardware cloth

1. Use a gopher basket to protect individual large plants, like young trees or shrubs. You can buy the basket or make it at home using 3/4-inch chicken wire or hardware cloth. Make sure the roots have enough space to grow.

2. Line raised beds with chicken wire when you build them to make sure that gophers cannot dig their tunnels into your vegetable beds and damage your crops. Make sure the edges of the chicken wire are sealed up against a solid wall, so the critters don't sneak around the edges.

3. Surround existing plantings that you want to protect with hardware mesh that extends 2 feet underground and at least 1 foot above the ground. This method is not ideal, because the gopher often dig tunnels under the wire.

References

• University of California: Pocket Gophers