DIY Pesticides

Gophers

Gophers are most known for the damage they do to plants. Many homeowners who have had a gopher move into their yard find it eating anything and everything it can find. Gophers need a lot of food to sustain themselves. They will eat a plant any which way they can. Feeding will occur under ground, at the base of the plant, or on its roots.

A natural liquid repellent which works well at keeping gophers out of your yard is Whole Control. This liquid tastes terrible and though gophers don't eat the soil they dig through, their burrowing and tunneling will cause them to taste enough of it to chase them off.

The key to successfully using this product lies in the depth at which the gophers are digging. Since you are spraying the Whole Control on the surface of the soil, it will only penetrate a foot or two.

If you know your gophers are digging more than two feet down, it will be hard to get the Whole Control to soak deep enough to have much impact.

However, the Whole Control is easy to spray over large areas and is sure to stop new gophers from entering your yard.

If you have an established population with deep tunnels, repellents alone won't solve your problem.

For large areas that have active gophers, you will need to bait. Use Gopher Bait.

To effectively treat, you need to dig a small hole and carefully place some bait every 5-10 feet along the tunnels.

The bait will usually be found quickly because most gophers travel the length of their tunnel system at least once each day.

You want to treat all of the tunnels that you can find. Gophers will seal any entrance or weak spot along their tunnels, so areas where bait has been applied are likely to receive some repair work by the gopher.

By making several placements you insure at least one will be found. Expect the bait to be consumed and gophers to start dying quickly.

Though most will die in their burrows, some may come out and expire. Any left over bait in the tunnel will still be active so any new gophers that find their way into vacant tunnels will find the bait and die too. Obviously, you'll need to keep children and pets away from the treated areas.

Pest Control 101 > Gophers

Gophers