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Natural Remedy for Gophers??

sentrase
15 years ago

Hi! First let me say that I believe that every creature God put on this Earth has a right to live. We have no right to take a life from anyone or anything.

So, I'm looking for something that will drive gophers away. They've taken over my back hill & it's a huge hill. The hill is going to start coming down. I have to do something fast.

Does anyone know of a natural way to rid my hill of gophers? I don't want to hurt them, but I also don't want to have to trap them. Any ideas? Thank you!

Comments (9)

  • petzold6596
    15 years ago

    A terrier breed of dog.

  • jennyc_2008
    15 years ago

    You can purchase fox urine at your local nursery and place it around the periphery of the area which you need to keep free of problem animals. Just make sure that the fox is the predator of a gopher which I am almost certain that it is. You can just check the container and it will list all of the animals that it keeps away. It works as a natural deterrent. Good luck

  • petzold6596
    15 years ago

    Urine deterrents MUST be reapplied very frequently thus making it very expensive for long time use.

  • sentrase
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Normally, petzold6596, I would agree with you that a Terrier is always good for small rodent-hunting. However, I have a pit bull mixed with black lab & Rottweiler. (By the way, don't let the pit in her fool ya...she's got a heart of gold). I tell her "Lucy! Wanna go gopher-hunting?" (Because we hunt spiders a lot & she LOVES it!) But she has no interest in it. It could be my own fault though...I trained Lucy to not chase cats, & have been desperately trying to stop her from chasing squirrels. (It's possible, I promise. She's really smart & sometimes won't chase them! Well, whenever my back is turned!! Told you she's smart!)
    Anyway, thank you all for your helpful hints. I'm going to try every one of them one by one.
    Hmmm, I wonder if Lucy's feces and/or urine would work like the fox urine?...oh, I guess it if WOULD work, the gopher wouldn't be there in the first place because Lucy's "stuff" is all over the hill! Thanks!

  • weed_em_and_reap
    15 years ago

    I am going to try this: put pine needles and orange,lime,and lemon slices in the blender and pulverize it all up. Then I am going to add some cooking oil (maybe some castor oil?) to give the mixture a "sticking" ability. Then I am going to pour this mixture in and around the mole/vole mounds/runs and then water it all in well.
    I believe some people have seen positive results using Juicy Fruit gum - not because the varmits ate it but because the citrusy/fruity smell drove them away.
    I have caught a few of the tunnel turds in Victor traps but it's hard work for this old geriatric gardener. Building hardware cloth plant cages is getting too expensive and time consuming. I have too many vines (clematis), trees, and shrubs that would need to be re-planted and protected.
    Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes!

  • Kimmsr
    15 years ago

    At the suggestion of someone I hung a dryer sheet out in the shed to try and keep squirrels out and the has worked all summer. Even though this shed is quite well ventilated I can smell this sheet when I go in there and, because of Asthma, cannot spend much time in that shed with that dryer sheet there. Maybe aminal control is a new use for these things, since wife cannot use them in our dryer.

  • abryce
    15 years ago

    Pine needles and citrus fruit have none of the essential oils that it appears you are trying to extract. Good luck with your experiment.

  • ltlredwagon_earthlink_net
    12 years ago

    I have a 1/2 acre apple/pear/cherry orchard in the San Bernardino mountains near Big Bear. Lots of pocket gophers. I bought 8 pints of Gopherout. First I tried it in lots of holes at their recommended strength and in the way they recommend. No change. Then I tried it with some increased concentrations. New gopher holes showed up nearby. The pocket gophers here don't seem to mind the stuff. I noticed no change with Gopherout.

  • Kimmsr
    12 years ago

    An article in the August/September 2011 issue of Organic Gardening Magazine suggests that learnig to live with gophers results in many benefits.