How to Get Rid of Gophers in Your Garden: 4 Ways

Crescent-shaped mounds of loose soil are usually the first sign that gophers have moved into a yard. These burrowing rodents feed on plant roots, so the damage shows up quickly: wilting vegetables, toppled flowers, and dead patches in the lawn. The good news is that most gopher problems can be handled without calling in a professional, and the four methods covered here have a long track record. The first step is confirming the pest, and our guide to getting rid of gophers in your yard walks through the identification and control methods in detail.

Gophers vs. Moles: Know Which Pest You Have

Gophers and moles both leave mounds, but they are different animals with different habits. Gophers are rodents that eat roots; moles are insectivores that hunt grubs and earthworms. Treating for the wrong animal wastes time and money, so identification comes first.

Reading the Mounds

Gopher mounds are fan-shaped or crescent-shaped with the entrance hole plugged off-center, and the mounds sit close together, rarely more than six feet apart. Mole mounds are volcano-shaped with the plug in the center. Gopher mounds contain looser, drier soil than the fine-textured mounds moles push up.

Half-Moon Mounds vs. Volcano Mounds

Look at the shape from above. A gopher pushes soil out of a lateral tunnel, creating a half-moon or fan shape with the burrow entrance off-center. A mole pushes soil straight up from a vertical shaft, creating a round volcano with the hole in the middle. The same identification discipline applies to household pests: confusing carpenter ants with termites leads to the same wasted treatment, and our guide to identifying and treating carpenter ants explains that difference.

Feeding Signs and Tunnel Systems

Gophers eat roots, so plants above their tunnels wilt, yellow, or topple as the roots are severed or pulled underground. Fresh mounds appear in spring and fall, when gophers are most active. Mole damage, by contrast, shows up as raised ridges of turf over shallow surface tunnels, with the grass itself undisturbed.

When Gophers Are Most Active

Gophers work year-round in mild climates and are most active in the early morning and late afternoon. Activity peaks in spring and fall, which makes those seasons the best time to trap or bait.

Four Proven Ways to Get Rid of Gophers

The four methods below are the ones most commonly recommended by pest control professionals, and they match the strategies in this gopher removal primer from Bob Vila. All of them can be handled as DIY projects, though some require patience.

Method 1: Trapping

Trapping is the most reliable method for small to medium infestations. Two-trigger traps placed inside active tunnels kill quickly and leave no poison in the soil. The key is placement: traps go in fresh tunnels, not old ones.

Placing Two-Trigger Traps

1. Find a fresh mound with soft, recently pushed soil
2. Probe with a metal rod to locate the main tunnel 6 to 12 inches down
3. Dig down to the tunnel and clear the opening
4. Set two traps facing opposite directions so gophers are caught coming or going
5. Cover the hole with a board or soil to block light
6. Check the traps daily and reposition them after rain

Method 2: Baiting

Poison baits formulated for gophers, usually grain or pellet baits with strychnine or zinc phosphide, work when placed inside active tunnels. Baits carry real risks for pets, birds, and children, so follow the label exactly and use bait stations where possible. Some states restrict certain rodenticides, so check local rules before buying.

Method 3: Repellents and Deterrents

Castor oil-based repellents sprayed into the soil make the ground taste and smell bad, and they work best as a prevention tool. Ultrasonic stakes and vibrating devices have mixed results in field testing. Natural deterrents such as planting marigolds, daffodils, or gopher spurge around beds are popular, though their effectiveness is mostly anecdotal.

Method 4: Flooding and Fumigation

Flooding an active tunnel system with a garden hose can push gophers out in heavy clay soil, where water holds. In sandy soil the water drains away and the gophers simply move to dry tunnels. Fumigation with gas cartridges or exhaust machines is effective but usually requires a professional and is best reserved for large infestations.

Clear Out Habitat and Food Sources

Gophers favor yards with cover. Dense shrub lines, tall grass, weedy borders, and brush piles give them places to dig and hide from predators. Removing that cover makes a yard far less inviting.

Remove Dense Brush and Weeds

Cut back overgrown borders and clear weedy strips along fences. Invasive shrubs such as buckthorn create exactly the dense cover gophers prefer, and clearing it follows the smart removal strategies we outline for buckthorn, which focus on cutting, treating stumps, and replanting with less invasive species.

Limit Preferred Food Plants

Root vegetables, bulbs, and young trees are the highest-value targets. Plant root crops in raised beds with mesh-lined bottoms, and protect newly planted trees with root cages. Gophers are less likely to tunnel through open, short grass to reach a single plant.

Plants That Deter Gophers

• Daffodils and other narcissus bulbs, which gophers avoid
• Marigolds planted as a border around vegetable beds
• Gopher spurge (Euphorbia lathyris), used with caution because the sap is toxic
• Castor bean plants, attractive but highly toxic, so avoid them where children play

Keep the Lawn Mowed

A short, regularly mowed lawn removes the cover gophers need to move safely above ground. Edge the beds and keep the grass from growing tall along fences and foundations.

Prevent Gophers from Returning

Removal is only half the job. Without barriers and maintenance, new gophers move into the empty tunnel system within weeks.

Underground Barriers

Hardware cloth or galvanized wire mesh with openings of 1/2 inch or smaller stops gophers at the property line. Bury the mesh 18 to 24 inches deep with the bottom 6 inches bent outward in an L shape, so gophers digging down hit the bend instead of slipping under.

Installing a Barrier

1. Dig a trench 18 to 24 inches deep along the bed or property edge
2. Unroll the mesh and bend the bottom 6 inches outward at a right angle
3. Set the mesh in the trench with the bend facing away from the protected area
4. Backfill and tamp the soil, leaving 2 to 3 inches of mesh above grade
5. Secure the top edge to a fence or stake it to the ground

Ongoing Yard Maintenance

Check for fresh mounds weekly during the active seasons and fill old tunnels so you can spot new activity. The same vigilance that keeps fungus gnats out of houseplants applies at yard scale, and our guide to effective ways to get rid of plant gnats describes the inspection habits that stop infestations before they start.

Protect Vulnerable Plants

Some plants are worth defending individually, especially specimen trees, shrubs, and vegetable crops.

Raised Beds and Containers

Line the bottom of raised beds with hardware cloth before filling them with soil. Gophers digging up from below hit the mesh and move on. Containers are naturally protected, but keep pots off the ground or on a mesh shelf so gophers cannot tunnel underneath.

Wire Baskets for Bulbs and Roots

Plant bulbs inside wire baskets with the top edge folded over the soil after planting. Wrap the root ball of young trees and shrubs in mesh at planting time so the roots stay intact. Protecting high-value plants from gophers follows the same principle as getting rid of aphids and preventing infestation in your garden: intercept the pest before it reaches the plant.

Tree and Shrub Protection

For newly planted trees, use mesh around the root ball and stake the trunk. Gophers girdle roots near the surface, so the mesh must extend below the planting depth. Check the mesh each spring, because roots can push through and the mesh may need loosening.

Companion Planting

Border vegetable beds with plants gophers avoid, and interplant bulbs among the ornamentals. These tactics reduce damage around the margins even if they do not eliminate tunnels entirely.

A Maintenance Routine That Keeps Gophers Away

Gopher control is ongoing. A few minutes of inspection each week beats a weekend of damage repair.

Seasonal Checks

Walk the yard in early spring and again in fall, when activity peaks. Fill in old tunnels, repair barrier gaps, and note where new mounds appear so traps can go into fresh tunnels.

Work with Your Neighbors

Gophers do not respect property lines. If the neighbors have an active problem, coordinate trapping and barrier work on the shared boundary, or the cleared side of the fence gets recolonized quickly.

Know When to Call a Professional

Call in a licensed pest control operator when the infestation covers a large area, when trapping has not reduced activity after two weeks, or when fumigation is the only practical option. Professionals have the equipment and the permits for methods homeowners cannot use.

A healthy, well-maintained lawn is less inviting to burrowing rodents in the first place. The routine that keeps gophers out overlaps with the practices in our guide to removing clover from your lawn, because both start with regular mowing, proper watering, and dense, vigorous turf.