You’ve spent years cultivating your backyard paradise. It’s finally just the way you’ve always envisioned it. You can’t wait to spend time enjoying the lovely space that you’ve put so much hard work into. But what if it all gets ruined by cute, furry, and quite destructive gophers? The following are three reasons gophers get into San Francisco yards and what you can do about it.
1. To Eat Your Plants
Gophers are herbivores. If you’ve spent time planting and growing a beautiful garden – whether flower, vegetable, fruit, or a combination of all three – gophers will be interested in visiting your yard for a snack. Don’t expect to see them come up from their holes to feast on the leaves and flowers. Though they can do this, they’re more than happy to stay in their safe, secluded hideaways while munching away at the roots, bulbs, and tubers of anything you’ve spent hours planting.
2. Because The Soil Is Perfect
Gophers can live in a wide variety of soil types, which is part of the reason they thrive all over the United States. However, they prefer soil that is light enough to easily dig through and that provides a decent amount of moisture. If you have any sort of irrigation system set up, you may end up with leaks to repair if gophers bite through a pipe looking for a drink.
3. Because They Were Born There
Gophers can breed one to three times per year, depending on a number of factors, including climate. Each litter can result in a range of two to six pups. After about a month, the pups leave their mother to build their own burrows. If pups are born in a burrow their mother has dug under your lawn, it’s possible that they will remain nearby when they venture off on their own. Your small problem of dealing with one gopher can easily turn into a larger problem involving several gophers.
What To Do When Gophers Get Into Your San Francisco Bay Area Yard
No matter the reason gophers choose to enter your yard, there’s a good chance there isn’t much you can do about it. If they’re after your garden, you could potentially build raised beds, but that is a lot of work and would require digging up the garden you’ve already spent so much time on. If your soil is ideal, there’s really nothing you can do to change that. For gophers that were born in your yard, then you know that you already have a well-established gopher problem.
To take care of the gophers in your yard, it’s best to call the Bay Area gopher control professionals at Smith’s Pest Management. We specialize in this specific area of pest removal, making us leading experts. Our pest control technicians understand gopher habits. We know how to efficiently and safely remove them in order to prevent future problems.
Give us a call to learn more about our services.
