How to Repel Rodents Naturally From Digging Holes in Your Yard

You’ve worked hard to make your lawn a beautiful expanse of healthy grasses and plants. One sunny morning you and the family run out to the yard for a game of touch football. You go long, only to nearly break your ankle as you step into a gopher hole. If you find one gopher hole, there may be more. How can you get rid of these little1/2 lb. burrowing bundles of fur, and prevent them from coming back? There are several ways you can do this without resorting to chemical annihilation. Read on to learn how to repel rodents naturally from digging holes in your yard.

Things You'll Need

• Dog hair
• Hose and water
• Gum
• A cat or cats
• Technical gadgetry

Instructions

1. Keep in mind that gophers hate dogs. Specifically, gophers hate dog hair. If you have a dog, brush his coat vigorously and collect the hair. Stuff it into all the holes you find in your yard. The smell and texture repels the gophers and they will leave their warren of underground tunnels. You may need to keep the holes stuffed for two to three weeks. If you don’t have a dog, or you don’t want to brush your dog bald, visit a nearby pet grooming facility. It’s likely they will gladly give you dog hair. Bring your own garbage bag and fill it up.

2. Know that another deterrent to rodents is excessive water in their tunnels. If you’ve caught the problem early, you can flood their tunnels with water. Simply put the end of the hose into the hole and turn on the water full blast. Every two or three hours, move the hose to another hole. This makes their tunnels so muddy as to make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to scurry through. The drawbacks to this method are it requires a lot of water and once the ground dries out, the gophers may return.

3. Remember that gophers don’t like gum. A few sticks of unused gum tossed into the holes every couple of days will send the invaders off to other territories. Whereas the dog hair method seems to deter gophers from returning for several months, this method may be effective for a couple of months at a time.

4. If gophers and other undesirable rodents (and what rodent isn’t undesirable) haven’t invaded your yard, and you want to keep it that way, adopt a cat that prefers to spend his time outdoors. Cats are natural predators, and are a natural enemy of rodents. The little diggers will very likely stay away once they know a cat is on duty.

5. Keeping gophers, moles and other burrowing creatures from coming into your yard may require some high tech gadgetry. There are high frequency sound emitters on the market that repel rodents, but the sound is too high for humans and most household pets to hear. Another option is sonic vibrations. Devices are available that cause continuous vibrations throughout your property. Humans and larger animals are unaffected; the vibrations are directed below the surface, making it inhospitable to burrowing rodents.

Tips & Warnings

• If you find a hole, don’t fill it in. Gophers will simply dig the fresh dirt out. Make the hole a deterrent with dog hair or unused gum. Fill in the holes when you’re sure the gophers have moved on.

• Avoid poisons and chemical applications. Remember, you don’t want to harm wildlife; you just don’t want it digging in your yard.