Gopher Pest Control in San Diego, CA​

Gophers are interesting rodents that tend to spend almost all their time underground, which makes them difficult to detect. Because of their size and penchant for destruction, it’s important to request gopher control in San Diego immediately after you notice signs of their presence. Also known as pocket gophers, these rodents dig tunnels below yards and garden beds in search of food. When they find what they’re looking for, they’ll come up and create another hole in your yard that must be filled.

These little critters will also damage your plants by eating their roots. If you notice that your plants are dying even though you water them, gophers may be the cause. When searching for gopher mounds around your yard, look for semi-circles of loose dirt. There’s a good chance that part of the hole will have been plugged by the gopher in an attempt to conceal it.

Like squirrels, pocket gophers have fur-lined cheek pockets that they use to carry food. Their large-clawed paws are perfect for digging and tunneling in yards. They can move through these tunnels even when there isn’t much light around because of how sensitive their whiskers are. Gophers use their tails to sense when a person or animal moves nearby, which is why they’re able to run quickly into their holes when you get close to them. These creatures use their large teeth to move through rocks, soil, and roots with ease.

The burrow systems that are made by pocket gophers can extend along an area that ranges from 200-2,000 square feet. While feeding burrows are kept around six to 12 inches below the ground, the food and nest chambers can be up to six feet below. Openings throughout this system are sealed with loose earth. Keep in mind that gophers are active throughout the year, which makes them particularly troublesome. Once they get into your yard, they won’t leave until they run out of good sources for food.

While squirrels are often tolerated, gophers pose a much larger problem. Because these rodents create tunnels in search of food, they’ll likely cause considerable damage whenever they surface in your yard. Gophers feed on vines, trees, ornamental plants, shrubs, and most garden crops. It’s possible for a single gopher to drag whole plants into tunnels and damage an entire garden.

What’s more, gophers can damage crucial components of your home’s plumbing system that have been installed underground. They won’t hesitate to gnaw into irrigation systems and plastic water lines. If these lines are punctured, the irrigation water will flow through the tunnels and likely cause soil erosion.

Once a gopher makes mounds in your lawn, you’ll need to maneuver around them while mowing. Gophers are a hassle that’s best left to the professionals. Schedule our safe and environmentally friendly gopher pest control services if you find them on your property.

Comprehensive Gopher Inspection

If you request gopher removal in San Diego, our team at Corky’s will first perform a comprehensive inspection to look for any signs of an infestation. With the many years of experience that the members of our team have, we know how to determine if gophers are living on your property. For example, we’ll look for gopher mounds, which can be kidney-shaped or fan-shaped. Mounds can be up to 12 inches tall, which makes them easier to detect.

Before implementing any treatments, we use the Gopher X machine to verify the presence of tunnels and mounds. This machine is designed to push carbon monoxide and heated smoke through a gopher mound and into the surrounding tunnel system.

The smoke is non-toxic and uses a vegetable mineral oil blend that allows us to see where the gas travels. We can use this machine to locate any other gopher mounds around your yard. Even if the smoke comes into contact with the root systems of your plants and trees, it won’t harm them. Once we effectively map the tunnel system during the inspection, we’ll be able to compact the dirt and close off the tunnel.

Our gopher pest control services are customizable to suit your needs. Every treatment we administer is unique to the property that we’re working on. Depending on unique factors to your yard, we can use baits, traps, and repellents to remove the gophers and make sure they don’t return. Regardless of the treatment we provide, we aim to control gophers humanely.

We’ll get rid of their food sources, spread repellent granules around the lawn, and spray liquid repellents. We can create barriers that make it more difficult for gophers to dig tunnels. Our topical repellent product combines an awful taste with a smell that gophers instinctively move away from.

Gopher removal isn’t meant to be a one-time thing. While tunnel systems can be plugged and stamped down after the gopher is removed, other gophers can still make their way to your property. Gophers may also infest areas around your property, which can give them new entry points into your yard. You can avoid this problem with our scheduled maintenance program.