Professional pocket gopher control is necessary if you think you have these pests in your yard. They’re difficult to get rid of, especially if you try to DIY a solution – so you should call in a professional Salt Lake City pest control company like Pest Pro Pest Control to deal with the gophers on your behalf.
In this handy guide, you’ll learn what gophers are, the damage they can cause, five practical tips to prevent them from showing up in your yard, and the absolute best way to get rid of gophers around you Salt Lake City home.
What Are Gophers?
There are about 40 species of pocket gophers, commonly referred to as gophers. They’re burrowing rodents with a constant need to gnaw on something to keep their incisors from overgrowing. If they didn’t chew incessantly, their teeth could grow 9 to 14 inches in a year. These lawn pests are six to eight inches long, have one to two-inch long tails, and weigh roughly half a pound. They’re usually a similar shade of brown as the dirt they tunnel in.
They get the name pocket gophers from the large pouches in their cheeks that extend back to their shoulders. These pouches are fur-lined and can be turned inside-out when gophers bring food into their burrows. Gophers are vegetarians, eating plant roots, bushes, and root vegetables like carrots, radishes, and turnips.
Outside of mating, gophers are solitary creatures living in their own burrows, which can be up to a mile long, covering 2,000 square yards. As they tunnel under your yard, gophers expel horseshoe-shaped mounds of dirt, then block in the hole. If you see these piles of soil, you need professional gopher control from Pest Pro Pest Control.
What Kind Of Damage Can Gophers Cause?
Gophers in Salt Lake City can cause all kinds of damage, including:
- Decimating your garden, eating the root vegetables and roots of other plants you’re trying to cultivate.
- Creating tripping hazards with their piles of dirt and holes that open into their burrows.
- Damaging your lawn mower if you try to mow over the dirt piles.
- Gnawed-through cables and pipes when they come across them as they burrow.
If you see signs of these pests in your yard, you need Salt Lake City wildlife control from Pest Pro Pest Control.
Five Practical Gopher Prevention Tips
The best way to get rid of gophers is with Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a method that includes habitat manipulation and traditional methods, to create a holistic approach to pest management.
There are several gopher prevention tips, including:
- Before you plant your garden, dig down a few feet and lay ¼ or ½ inch hardware cloth. Then line the sides of your garden bed with the same cloth, up to a height of two feet. This will keep gophers from getting to your garden, which may deter them from staying in your yard.
- Build your gardens in raised boxes to prevent gophers from digging in and feasting on your plants.
- Plant a strip of annual grains. The roots of these plants do not provide gophers with enough food, and using a buffer may protect other crops.
- Another way to use buffers is to maintain six inches of course gravel to keep gophers out.
- Partner with a pest control company for gopher control in Salt Lake City
At Pest Pro Pest Control, we’ve been fighting gophers for more than 12 years and can help with all phases of IPM.
The Best Way To Get Rid Of Gophers
For the best gopher control methods, you need to work with the best of all the gopher pest control companies – and that’s us. We have a solid 5-star rating on Google with hundreds of reviews and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. We’ve also got a long list of satisfied customers, and we can’t wait to add your name to the list. Contact us now for your no-obligation consultation and to learn more about our residential and commercial pest control services in Salt Lake City.