The Best Way to Rid a Yard of Gophers & Moles

Overview

If your garden or yard is afflicted with both gophers and moles, then it certainly has been through the ringer. Fortunately, now that you have decided to get rid of these pests, you will find that they are repelled by many of the same natural repellents. By combining several different methods of tackling a gopher and mole problem, you should be able to eliminate these pesky presences in your garden.

Step 1

Fence the problem area. If you are trying to protect a portion of the yard or a special area like a garden, then burying chicken wire 2 feet into the ground will get rid of these pesky animals because they will no longer be able to tunnel in. Once they can no longer access the area that attracted them, moles and gophers will leave.

Step 2

Treat the entire yard with Castor oil granules. This grainy substance will not hurt moles or gophers, but it will drive them away. Start out by covering one-third of the yard and watering the Castor oil in using the garden hose. The next day, cover the old third and another third. Water it in again, and on the third day, cover the entire yard. You will have effectively driven the moles and gophers in the direction you wanted them to go.

Step 3

Insert vibrating repellents into the soil. (You can get the same effect with a battery-powered radio in a plastic bag.) The vibrations make the environment of your yard unpleasant for the moles and gophers and will make them leave.

Step 4

Flood the moles and gophers out. If your infestation is not in a garden, then you can insert the end of a garden hose into the runways' entrances and fill the entire underground network with water. However, this type of treatment can ruin a garden and leave your yard susceptible to fungal infections. Furthermore, the gophers and moles may just return and rebuild.