All critters look cute, and many people feel sorry for them and don’t do anything about preventing them from taking over their garden until it is too late. Gophers belong in their natural environment and should not be encouraged into your garden. They can do untold damage to a nice lawn, vegetable garden and ornamental gardens as well. They can also do a lot of structural damage as they are incredible borrowers.
SIGNS YOU HAVE A GOPHER
There are signs that you have a gopher in your garden when you see mounds of sand on a lawn or in the beds themselves. Gophers create an incredible tunneling system underground where you can’t see until the telltale signs show their presence. By that time, they have probably created a whole lot of rooms for the different members of their families, a ‘kitchen’ a ‘waste disposal room’ and living room all underground with tunnels between each space. They will even have an escape route planned. It’s all quite intricate, and interesting but not in your garden.
IN THE WILD GOPHERS ARE INVALUABLE
In the wild gophers are useful, as they are good at aerating the soil, they keep the insect population down, mix the layers of the surface soils. However, in a home or farm environment, they are considered to be a nuisance. In a farm environment, they have a bad impact on the economics of the farm, the amount of destruction they cause can run in the thousands if not more in dollars. They tunnel through hay bundles, destroy fruit crops, vegetables, in fact, they eat most roots and bulbs. With their exceptionally strong teeth then can gnaw through an amazing amount of vegetation.
A large proportion of the gopher’s life is building extensive tunnels. Underground usually between 4-12 inches and can contain as much as 500 tunnels. The shape of the gopher mound is unique and extends laterally across a garden or landscape in a shape of a fan, the fans can range from 12” to 24” in diameter and 4” in height.
GETTING RID OF GOPHERS
It’s not as easy to get rid of gophers once they have settled and built their tunneling system, and when you notice the mounds you will find that they have already established a full tunnel system underground. The best thing you can do is call a professional exterminator company like American Rat Control, in Los Angeles and Ventura. We are experts in dealing with gopher control and have all the necessary equipment to remove gophers. Our technicians are skilled at gopher removal. We have studied the habitats of gophers, as well as the different methods of removing them from a home, business, agricultural holdings, intercity and urban areas where buildings that are unoccupied and cover the whole of the Los Angeles, CA area. If you reside in Los Angeles or Ventura we are here to help, give American Rat Control a call at 866-728-2878 or email us for a free estimate on gopher control and gopher removal.
