How do I get rid of Gophers under my cement walkway

Years ago, we had a gopher (or similar pest) next that showed up next to our pool equipment. This area is next to the house and is surrounded by concrete. The area itself is covered with gravel. After trying MANY different things (flooding, gassing, etc. ), my husband declared it gone. We had no new holes. WELL... it is back.

Typically our soil is very clay-like. BUT on this side of the house, the gopher is pushing up a ton of sand and roots. First I dug out the small hole to find the tunnel. That is how I determined that it was tunneling UNDER the cement. I then covered the hold with a piece of 12" by 12" tile. Then next morning, the Hole was filled in.

Next, I dug it out again and put a gopher trap in the hole. unfortunately, the sandy soil just caved in and stopped any spring action from the trap. I cleared the area and re-covered the hole. The next morning, the hole was filled in again and the trap was never sprung.

I have noticed another new hole. I have dropped gopher bait in it, then covered it with gravel. Plus, I opened up the original hole, then put bait in there...I let it dug up, but covered it with the tile again. ... THIS morning the small hole was slightly sunken (nothing pushed up) and the large/older hole was filled in again.

Is this a gopher? What do I do to get rid of it?

 

Get some live traps and fill with vegetables, they cant resist. and take them miles away!

 

We live on 5 acres in north Louisiana. We have sandy soil. When we bought this place 2 years ago, moles were rampant.
While some people say they work, others say they dont, we used these:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sontax-B...5630/301918923
They worked for us. For about a year, the moles were virtually gone except for maybe a couple. Now they are beginning to come back but, we'll try again.
At least you could buy enough for your property & see if it works for you. It does take time.
Hopefully PAbugman will come along and give you some professional advise.

 

My efforts yesterday were unsuccessful.... The darn pest covered up the trap and pushed a bunch more dirt out.

Thank you Dixie2012. I will check out the sonic repellent.
Marq1, I love the concept of putting a live trap in, because I think the gopher will climb right up and try to fill the tunnel in to close off the light. However, WHAT do I do with a LIVE gopher? We live in a suburban area..I would not want someone else to have the troubles that we have had... That's why we got traps...

Please keep the thoughts and ideas coming...

 

I don't know what's burrowing underneath. We don't have gophers here in northeast but we do have ground hogs but they make a more rounded hole and larger.

I don't have any faith in the sonic devices for animals or insects. If they worked reliably then the pest control industry would be installing, maintaining and using them. Based on what I just read, their diet is such that poisoning them probably won't work. I've seen and tried the zinc phosphide pellets for rodents, moles, etc but never had anything eat them. That's pretty much what my fellow pest control people experience too. The mole bait "earthworms" won't work as gophers don't eat worms apparently.

Trapping would seem to be the only option left. Hiring a pro is always a good idea, but we can save that idea as a last ditch effort for now. If you could catch it in a live trap, does anyone you know have a quality air pellet gun? Shooting it in the trap would work. I'll keep thinking on this one.

 

PAbugman - I am up for anything. I have tried with TWO different traps. I even baited one of the traps with fresh Cucumber slices. He appears to not get close to the traps, just pushes dirt/sand into the area so that it will not spring and closes up the hole... one good thing, I keep re-opening this one hole so he is too busy re-filling this one and has not had much chance to create any more new holes. I am afraid that he will just push dirt into the live trap so that it does not close. Not sure what "bait" to use in the live trap to entice him. Honestly, I am not even sure that it is a Gopher. Just guessing. I have seen no squirrels in this area. Our property is closed off by Chicken wire around the fence, so the rabbits are not getting in. I am reluctant to flood the hole because it is under a slab of cement and I am not sure if that will affect the stability. Plus, this Cement slab butts up to our house, so I am not sure if some of the tunneling is under our home slab as well.

Anyone have BAIT suggestions,,, the poison pellets have NOT worked.

 

Am in MI, and, as PAbugman said, we don't have gophers in this neck of the woods, but do have chipmunks, and while not the same they do share some characteristics. This spring we had one or more of them determined to tunnel under an apron by the garage, much like your gophers are doing, and I wasn't sure, but grabbed a can of spray foam insulation, and problem solved.

 

This guy is enduring a lot of harassment and still hanging in there. In some sense, I admire him!

I agree with not flooding the burrows when it's that close to the house. Anyway, it might not work as the ground hogs that we have will burrow down deep and then burrow back up a bit so that rainwater that comes in tends to get diverted down and away from the elevated burrow parts.

Without knowing what animal it is for sure means we don't know if it is vegetarian or meat eater so choosing a rodenticide is a bit of guessing. If you want to try a rodenticide, I'd try the rodent bait blocks as opposed to pellets, meal, etc. The blocks are a compressed bait. No guarantee at all that it will be the least bit interested but if you try it, I'd put at least 4 or 5 blocks in the burrow. Keep dogs away and out of the yard and don't let visitors bring dogs either. Dogs like the blocks.

 

The moles & gophers that we have down here eat grubs & roots off the grass, weeds etc. So they are vegetarians. I have studied, researched, asked neighbors, friends, relatives & anyone else with an ear, for two years. Everyone one has a different suggestion, but no one really has an answer. The only answer that I seem to get consistently is.... there's no real good way to get rid of them. Nothing seems to work as a general rule. What works for one, doesn't work for another. So, its a battle.
I had one guy tell me he used chewing gum. He says they like it & it will stop them up, cause digestive issues & they die. He swears by it. Just plain Juicy Fruit, Spearmint or Doublement etc.... Just unwrap it & stick it down the hole.
I'll admit, I haven't tried it. My point is, I've heard every kind of remedy you can imagine. Everybody has something different & nobody has anything definite.

 

Just another person with a something to try.
Push some mothballs down the hole.
Worked with bats for me.
Never tried it with gophers.

 

Thank you, all, for your comments and suggestions... Last night I tried shoving 6 of the bait blocks into his hole as well as a bunch of carrot pieces. I also reset the trap. This morning, I found that he had pushed all the carrot pieces back out, back-filled the main tunnel/hole and filled the trap with sand again. I think he liked the bait blocks... SO... today, I had this Onion/garlic skin water that I use in my garden to repel insects. This batch was past it's prime (nasty stuff). I needed to get rid of it so, I decided to pour it into the Gopher's domain before adding 6 more blocks and resetting the trap with a bait block for enticement. We shall see what tomorrow brings.....

 

I'm in SE Pennsylvania, so, here's what I've found works to dissuade groundhogs and skunks.

1) roll a couple of mothballs down the hole

2) mix up a slurry of used kitty litter and fireplace ash in a 5 gallon bucket, then pour down the hole.

3) Sprinkle some lime in a 6" band around the house/preferred burrowing area.
Follow up with a similar band of granular pool chlorine, then rake a into the ground, about 2" deep. (do NOT do this if you have grass or shrubs in the area).

4) Have a nice steak dinner, BBQ and beer. Wait until all the neighbors are asleep and nobody will notice, then have your husband, err, well, "mark the territory" around the perimeter.

 

Hopefully it ate the bait blocks, but we don't know for sure yet. I wouldn't have put the onion water into the hole if I thought the bait blocks may be accepted. Focus on the baiting since it seems to be the most hopeful so far. We want the bait blocks to be attractive, yet the onion water is a repellent and they both are now in the same burrow. IF it is eating the bait, then don't do anything that may discourage that. Keep trapping as we may get lucky; you never know.