We have a very bad gopher problem, what can I do to prevent the gophers from eating my grass?
Question:I want to lay sod down and I am affraid of waking up and seeing mounds of dirt on my new grass...
Answers:
When fighting gophers, you have to realize that it will take some time. There are 2 different holes, and doing anything with the wrong hole will just double the time it takes to get rid of them. When you see a mound of dirt, this is the "out" hole...where they push all the soil that they are removing from the tunnels. It's absolutely useless to do anything with these mounds, except redistribute the soil.
You need to find the "in" holes, which will be ground level, no or very little mounding. These wholes usually have a layer of 1/2" to 1" of soil, but poking them with your finger normally makes this soil collapse inward. Once you have located the "in" holes, you are ready for the following methods.
Here are several ways that I use that WORK!
Remove dirt from "in" hole and place human or dog/cat hair and cover with a rock, brick or board to give the illusion that the dirt cover is still there. The hair will tell the gopher that there is a predator at or near the hole.
Remove dirt from the "in" hole and place a Macabee trap in the hole. Cover with a rock, brick or board to give the illusion that the dirt cover is still there.
Use a fertilizer spreader and spread cayenne pepper on your lawn, only doing small sections at a time, preferably starting where you don't have any activity. This will help prevent them from coming up and will make it easier to corner them so you can trap them.
I use a tailpipe adapter from Ace hardware. You just hook up a water hose to any hole and let it run 15-20 minutes. Also use grub killer to prevent return.
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