The Invisible Gardener's
UnderGround Pest Control Center
Click here to hear Andy talk about UnderGround Pest Control on his radio show
First Page from my Ebook UnderGround Natural Pest Controls
natural underground pest control
 |
click on image below to start the video....
Natural Gopher ControL
By andy lopez The Invisible Gardener
COPYRIGHT
INVISIBLE GARDENER
1972-2013
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Natural Gopher Control
Underground Pest Controls
Gopher, Gopher
How to Control Gophers, Moles and other underground creatures Organically
Gophers can do a great deal of damage The Process to the natural ecosystem. I do not recommend the use of traps as they are inhumane and very cruel. It is important that you What plants are being affected by the gophers? Properly feed and care for your plants as gophers are Are there any signs of them being around? Mounds?
Gophers are less likely to attack healthy plants. By top-dressing Is the lawn being damaged by them? When you have your lawn and property with year-old horse manure, spotted the telltale signs of gophers or moles (a small you will not only be feeding your soil, but also repel-mound of soil or dead plants), naturally as they do not like manure. You their tunnels. Step back and try to see any patterns will also be encouraging natural predators as compost at work behind the placement of the tunnels. Often promotes healthy environments which always attracts times this will be obvious. the variety of life needed for there to be a balance.
OBSERVATION AND LOCATION
See if you can determine a source. If you live in an environment where there are many gophers bugs, larvae, grubs, spiders, and centipedes, you should start thinking in terms of protecting your plants.
• Obtain the Underground Exterminator tool
How can you tell whether you have a gopher or a mole? Gopher mounds have dirt pushed off to one side of the mound while a mole mound will • Use their sense of smell against them to repel be volcano shaped with the center at the entrance them. to the tunnel (usually plugged up). Poisons do not work on moles!
“Use anything natural that has a foul odor. Cotton balls soaked in ammonia or garlic will work well. Dirty socks any one?”
The UnderGround Exterminator can be bought in any Ace hardware store or by clicking here>UnderGround Exterminator.
USING THE EXTERMINATOR
If you use the Underground Exterminator then you simply place one end of your garden hose into the tunnel and hook up the other end to your cars exhaust system and run the car for about 1/2 hr. The cars fumes (carbon monoxide) will settle into the tunnel and kill them. This is actually the easiest way to get rid of gophers without using chemicals.
USING SMELL
Hair today, gone tomorrow! A good ‘gasser’ is decomposing hair. A strong odor is given off as the hair decomposes. Placing human hair in the gopher tunnels will effectively keep them out of passages and should be placed in new tunnels as they appear. Hair works best on hot days and hot nights: the heat causes the hair to smell up the tunnels! Get your hair from “the good ole boys” barber shops instead of hair from a salon since most men spray less ‘stuff’ on their hair. If you can, use animal hairs such as dog or cat since this will repel the gophers even more effectively. Visit your local pet parlor!
USING GARLIC AND SESAME OIL
To 5 gallons of water add 1 oz crushed garlic and 1 oz of sesame oil. Mix well and then use a deep root feeder to inject the mixture all the way around the area you want them out of. Inject into the tunnels when ever possible. Do daily, and then weekly, as needed.
HOLY SMELLY COTTON BALLS BATMAN!
A cotton ball soaked in either citronella oil, garlic oil, or crushed onions and placed into the gopher tunnels will disgust them enough to make them leave the area! Wear gloves to disguise your ‘human’ scent.
Cover up the entrance and pat down the soil. Repeat at all the locations where gophers or mole ‘mounds’ are present. Return the next day and find the tunnels out of which the cotton balls have been tossed. That is an active tunnel. Throw the cotton balls back into the tunnels and cover the entrance with a large rock. This will last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. They will be back once the smell has disappeared.
Nothing personal but many women spray their hair with many things which don’t decompose too well. On the other hand this can prove to be a plus since some hair products stink and the fact that they don’t decompose could mean that they will last longer under adverse conditions! So just use any hair you can find!
EGG ‘EM:
A rotten eggs mixture can be made from (you guessed it) eggs! This is easy enough to do. Buy a carton of eggs. Take one egg out at a time and carefully place into a gopher tunnel,then cover up the entrance. The egg will rot (sooner then later) and when the gopher comes to investigate and breaks it open...oh boy!
Using Physical Barriers
The use of underground barriers is recommended in controlling gophers/moles around your home. Use aviary wire that is woven tightly enough to keep the gophers from going through and strong enough to resist their chewing (no larger then 1/4” mesh). Place the wire underground, around an area where you plan to plant a garden or flower beds. You can also use root guard baskets. These are pre-made gopher baskets made from wire mesh. There are many sizes available or you can make your own. Try Harmony Farm Supplies, Gardeners Supply, Peaceful Valley, or Arbico or Gardens Alive! to name a few.
Another homemade barrier consists of bottles placed into the ground. Tall wine bottles are great for this! Just dig a trench and place bottles standing up as a barrier around your garden, etc. The gopher or mole sees its reflection and runs away - plus, they can’t dig through the bottles. I have also used everything from wood to rocks to broken glass as barriers.
You can also use plants that gophers naturally abhor. Garlic and onion plants are avoided by gophers/moles and make excellent barriers.
Other plants gophers hate are herbs such as tansy, peppermint, spearmint and rosemary.
Here is a good long term solution:
A good physical barrier is one that you can plant is a bulb! Yes, you can plant narcissus around the border of your property. As they grow in every year they will make a living barrier that will keep gophers, moles and other underground creatures out of your property. Narcissus bulbs are toxic to them. Another bulb you can plant is called Society Garlic. This one will also help to keep underground animals out of your property.
Encouraging Predators
The use of animal predators is the one of best ways to naturally control gophers. If you have animals, the use of poisons is not recommended. Cats and dogs will chase gophers and sometimes eat them. Other predators that will eat your gophers for dinner are king snakes, gopher snakes, hawks, coyotes, and owls. Try buying a gopher snake or king snake from your local pet store and releasing it down the gopher
All underground creatures do not tunnel any deeper then 18 to 24 inches. Remember this when you are making a physical barrier. Black Hole Gopher Trap Victor Mole Trap Macabee Gopher Trap
U. S. VETERINARY STUDY: “Gasoline Engine exhaust induces unconsciousness, in rodents, and death occurs within 5 to 7 minutes without pain or discomfort.”
• Extremely effective because it goes to the rodent by using pressurized engine exhaust to fill burrow with odorless carbon monoxide. These shrewd rodents may not go into traps or eat poison but they must breathe.
• It eliminates more than one at a time.
• ONE solution for ALL underground rodents.
• No need to dispose of dead or wounded rodents.
Your cost is under $20 at your local hardware store and it can be used year after year.
A small price to solve a long term and damaging problem.·
• Empty tunnels will be used by migrating moles in the fall.
• Because moles seldom venture to the surface, they are seldom seen.
• The mole is built for digging underground, equipped with large, heavy claws.
• Moles are solitary creatures except during the brief spring mating.
• Stop using poisons that can harm your pets and hole! A king snake is also a natural enemy of the rattlesnake. Or try building a nesting home for owls and other birds.
Using Sound Waves
There are many ways to use sound to tell the gophers that you want them to leave. One way is to place a speaker on top of the ground on the area where you don’t want them and play something through it really loudly! Another thing that works is to buy or make your own clanker!
What is a clanker? It’s a wind driven device which can be made to look like anything. As the wind turns it, it makes a sound which is transmitted straight down through a pipe into the gopher tunnel. Eventually the gophers will get used to it.
Gopher It Battery
Gopher Getters are placed into the ground to protect vegetable gardens and small lawns. They give off ultrahigh sounds to drive gophers and moles away. They cover a 1,000-square foot area. This product offers a safe method of repelling rodents (gophers, moles, ground squirrels, and pocket mice) with no damage or danger to the ecological balance. Go’pher It does not kill but repels. They are available from many catalogs. Try Gardeners Supply, Sharper Image, etc. These are not meant for permanent use.
Using Traps
One of the most effective ways to get rid of gophers is to trap them (be aware - many of these traps actually kill them). One of the best traps around is called The Black Hole (a black circular trap with a hole at the end in which you place an apple attached to a cord). Ask for it by name. Here are a few of the other traps available on the market and a brief description of each:
Gopher Traps
• Cinch Gopher Trap has a metal plate with a cinch lasso which catches the gophers.
• Guardian Gopher Trap is a box type trap with a spring trap that kills them.
• Macabee Gopher Trap is a spring-type, all wire trap (see left) also kills.
• Cinch Mole Trap is the same as the cinch trap for gophers but smaller which kills too.
Out of Sight Mole Trap is a scissors jaw and spring type of trap that has been in use for a long time and kills em fast.
Only use these traps as a last resort. Try annoying them to move first. other wildlife.
Never Use Poisons
Please do not use poisons even as a last resort. See the Pest Control Chart for other alternatives. Poisons are never the answer to this problem.
Got a friend who smokes cigars?
I have used cigars, lit and placed into tunnels. Cigarettes work well, too. Avoid using any other kind of poisons! Gophers do not like tobacco smoke any more then we do. When inhaled, it can cause serious damage to both humans and gophers! When eaten by gophers, tobacco leaves can kill them. Tobacco is easy to handle as it comes in cigarettes, cigars, and pipe bags. Try to buy an organic variety or one that uses the least amount of chemicals. In most cases you can just buy a pack of cigarettes (non-filtered) and place one cigarette into each tunnel. The gophers will either eat these and die or go away and leave you alone. You can also light the cigarettes and then place them into tunnels.
Castor Oil Anyone?:
Castor oil is a very useful oil to use in controlling many different types of pests in your garden. It is especially useful in controlling gophers, moles, and voles in your lawn or garden.
Take a cup of castor oil to which you have added one gallon of hot water. Pour this mixture into the gopher hole. Make a second batch and pour it around the effected area. Alternatively, you can pour the castor oil into a sprayer that is attached to the garden hose. Get a sprayer that allows you to control the oil to water ratio. Adjust to the highest ratio possible.
There are many hose end sprayers that you can use that attaches to the hose. Put the castor oil into this container and spray the entire area that has the gophers. The best time to apply is in the early part of a good hot day. Apply again in a week and then apply every month until the problem disappears.
By top-dressing your lawn and property with year-old horse manure, you will not only be feeding your soil, but also repelling gophers naturally as they do not like manure.
andy lopez The Invisible Gardener
copyright
| 
