Posted on April 17th, 2025

Gophers are the bane of a garden. They move in and create burrows and tunnels which can become hazards in walking areas. Imagine walking on a piece of earth that looks solid until your foot sinks six inches into a gopher tunnel. If you flood irrigate, even with a hose, those burrows and tunnels will divert the water underground and away from the plants you are trying to water. Then there are the gopher’s appetites! My husband noticed one of our Green Ash trees leaning over and went to investigate. When he tried to push it upright it came right up out of the ground. The gophers had eaten all the roots. 

Gophers are a major pest in my garden. I wouldn’t mind sharing food and space, but they do a lot of damage. I have had gophers pop out of their mounds at night and snip tomato branches off an inch from the ground. Not just one or two branches, but a dozen or more in one night. I have seen mature corn stalks shaking when there is no wind. There was a gopher eating the roots from underneath in broad daylight while I was working in the garden. I pulled up the stalk and it looked like a beaver had tried to fell it like a tree. 

Needless to say, gophers are not my friends. I grow my produce using natural, non-chemical methods. That means no poisons or fumigation in my garden. That leaves me with few options. The most effective is gopher traps. There are several types, according to the University of California. These include the Victor Black Box, Macabee, Gophinator, and Cinch. Research from the University of California Davis has shown that the Gophinator style of trap is the most effective, especially with larger gophers. Their web site has an informative slide presentation on controlling gophers. (1) Keep in mind that this was written with California laws in mind. Laws concerning use of traps and poisons vary from state to state. Be sure to research the laws in your state. Figure 1 - Clockwise from upper right: Victor Black Box, Macabee, Gophinator, and Cinch There are ways to protect plants. These are most effective for raised beds and single plantings, like trees and shrubs. I personally have found that burying wire mesh, such as one-inch chicken wire or 1/4-inch mesh, at the bottom of a raised bed is very effective in keeping out gophers. It does have to be installed correctly. 

Here is a picture of a raised bed I am working on inside of a small hoop house. It shows using ¼ inch hardware mesh to line the bottom of the bed. Note that I used recycled garage door panels as the sides of the bed. These have a handy lip at the bottom to attach the wire onto. This helps prevent the gophers from coming into the bed from the side. I also attached wire on either end of the raised bed to prevent gophers from coming in at the ends. I have raised beds over 5 years old that were done with 1 inch chicken wire. I did have some gophers in that bed last year because I had not secured the sides very well. I dug up one of the beds and the wire was in good shape. I resecured the edges and refilled the bed last fall. So, you should only have to do the work to line the beds once and they should remain effective for several years. 

For individual plants like trees and shrubs I use 1 inch chicken wire made into a basket like container with the edges about a foot above the ground. I dig the hole larger than the normal recommendation to give the roots room to grow inside the protected area. I cut the chicken wire into strips that were a foot taller than the depth of the hole. I made a tube of this and placed it in the hole so there was chicken wire protecting the entire hole edges. Then I made a bottom by folding the wire to double the thickness and pressed it into the bottom of the hole. The gophers may still eat the roots that grow outside the basket, but the primary roots will be protected. Again, this will only need to be done at planting time. Unless you notice gopher mounds inside your container you should not have to do much maintenance.

I have tried several other methods to discourage gopher activity. Some worked, some didn’t. The one that was somewhat successful was flooding the tunnel with a hose. Let it run until you see water pop out somewhere else. That floods the tunnel and may drown the gopher, or not. At the least it makes the warren less desirable. This was also mentioned in the research done by the University of California .(2) Noise makers and vibrating spikes don’t seem to be very helpful. This is supported by research done by the University of California. I use these methods and keep inspecting my gardens for new mounds. If you are not sure if a mound is new, level it out. If the gopher is using it there will be fresh dirt the next day (or even sooner if the little bugger notices it). It is an ongoing struggle. It seems as though I get rid of one gopher, I get a little respite, then another moves into the handy tunnels and sets up housekeeping. Be vigilant, you can protect your plants with these methods as I am doing. 

(1) Integrated Approach to Controlling Pocket Gophers, Roger A. Baldwin, UCCE Wildlife Specialist: https://my.ucanr.edu/sites/deltacrops/files/254440.pdf 

(2) Pocket Gophers, Integrated Pest Management for Home Gardeners and Landscape Professionals, Publication 7433, UC-IPM, University of California Integrated Pest Management: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/legacy_assets/PDF/PESTNOTES/pnpocketgophers.pdf