Gopher Go Away! How To Get Gophers To Leave Your Yard
If you have a nice lawn and a great garden, seeing gophers move to your property can have you get rather angry. Gophers can be very destructive to all kinds of vegetation and they leave holes all over your yard. If you have unfortunately had a gopher family move onto your property, you will need to start taking action to make them want to leave. Here are some tips you can use to get your yard back.
Use Scare Tactics
There are a few ways to scare gophers into leaving the premises. You can try to scare them with loud underground music by taking a small radio and sticking it in a plastic bag to protect it from moisture. Turn it on to a station that seems annoying and turn the volume up loud. It doesn't even have to be an actual channel; if there is feedback and static that will work equally as well. Shove it down into a gopher hole.
You can also scare gophers by placing glass items in the holes. Use glass that is colored, as this frightens them. Their reflection and the color of the glass will give a combination that may make them run for the hills.
Use Smells To Annoy
There are a few scents that gophers do not care for. One of these is peppermint oil. Dip some cotton balls inside the oil and throw them into the holes to try and get them to vacate. You can also use pieces of cut up garlic, as they hate this smell.
Trapping The Gophers
If home remedies just do not seem to work, then you may have to try trapping the gophers yourself. You can get little cages at a hunting supply store that are used to humanely capture gophers so that you can let them go after trapping. Place something inside the cage to use as bait, such as a dab of peanut butter. Place the cage in the top portion of a gopher hole with the opening facing the trail down.
When placing, wear gloves, as gophers will not go near anything that has a human scent. Routinely check your traps several times a day to see if anyone took the bait. The cage door will shut as soon as a gopher sets foot inside the cage. Take any captured gophers to an area far from your home so that they do not attempt to return. Talk to your local pest control service, such as Select Pest Control, for more information.
