Pocket Gophers and How to Identify Them
January 26, 2023
What are Pocket Gophers?
Pocket gophers (often just called “gophers”) are burrowing rodents that are native to most of North and Central America. They live completely underground and feed on plants and their root systems. They tend to live alone as they are very territorial animals but they do cohabitate during their breeding season (late winter to early spring). Gophers are active throughout the entire year and do not hibernate but they will typically return to the more lush open space during the wetter months.
Pocket Gopher Mounds:
Gophers will leave crescent shaped mounds as they dig their extensive underground tunnel system. These mounds will typically be plugged with additional dirt in the center to prevent predators from entering their tunnels. The dirt will typically be finer in texture due to how the gophers dig. It is common to see these mounds in lawns, gardens, and other vegetated areas.
How to Get Rid of Pocket Gophers:
There are multiple methods of gopher control but we utilize traps for our service. These traps are lethal and completely underground so they do not pose a risk to anyone on the surface (children, pets, etc).
We check our traps about once a week (always within 10 business days of the previous visit) and will continue doing so until we no longer see evidence of any new activity on your property. We don’t set a specific time limit as each property is unique and we want to ensure that the activity has cleared up before removing our traps.
