Gophers are at first very cute and fluffy animals. But that should not deceive you; an infestation of these rodents on your lawn will leave it ruined and looking terrible. You, therefore, need to do something the moment you notice one of them on the green lawns. You need first to confirm you have indeed spotted a gopher. Look at the tunnels and mound formed on the lawn to be certain, since each rodent produces a specific mound form. Once you identify an infestation, preferably in its early stages, you then need to find the best method for getting rid of them. Imagine the damage they would cause on a golf course if nothing is done. They are known to leave an entire course unfit for play.
There are several ways through which you can get rid of gophers. You can, for example, go for the fast-acting solution in the use of chemicals. You may also apply some humanity in the process, and use a less harmful approach. Here are some of those options.
You can use noise. Gophers are sensitive to any fluctuations in their environment. You can, therefore, easily scare them away when you use noise on the lawns. A good solution is, therefore, to place moving and noisy objects on the laws, near the holes you identified, or simply spread them all over the yard. There are different types of such devices sold in specialized stores that work well. The only downside is the cost of investing in them, seeing as you need to full an entire golf course.
You can also take a more natural approach. You can keep the predators that especially hunt them, such as barn owls. If you keep several in a box on the lawns, they will kill them off for you in no time. You, however, are left to tend to the owls once they run out of prey. Know how to trap a gopher now!
You can turn their sensitivity to odors to your advantage. Gophers are sensitive to certain smells, which, when introduced to the lawns, will chase them away. Cat litter produces one such smell, and placing it around the holes you identified will make the environment unsuitable for gophers. Pepper powder is also an irritant that once you spray in the holes, the gophers will be forced to move. Castor oil granules work in the same way as well. Depending on the stage of the infestation, and the prevailing weather conditions, you will achieve varying levels of success with these options. If, for example, it is the rainy season, they will not be as effective when they have washed away.
Gopher traps work well for your needs. When you consider all the other approaches and compare them to what gopher traps can do, you will see sense in investing in the traps. There are safe traps that enable you only to capture the gophers, not kill them as well. You can then proceed to release the gophers into the wild where they belong. You will find some great traps that work in this manner on this site. Check out how to trap a gopher here!
