Fort Collins Gopher Removal ~ 970-236-7112
Fort Collins gopher removal and control has become more common over the last several years in Estes Park CO, Loveland CO, Longmont CO, Lyons CO, Berthoud CO. The gopher can be a tenacious little devil. It can ruin your lawn and eat your garden, shrubs and other vegetation in short order. Many times gopher damage and mole damage look similar.
The key to telling the difference in damage is when you see your plants dying. Moles do not commonly eat vegetation. If you notice plants turning brown or yellow and there is tunneling around them, it most likely is a gopher doing the damage. Although these animals are similar, they are quite different in their choice of food sources. Moles prefer to eat earthworms and insects. Gophers on the other hand are root eaters and will chew off the roots of shrubs, bulbs and small trees.
Gopher Trapping in Fort Collins CO
Now that you have determined which animal you are dealing with, a control program can be developed. Gophers and moles are controlled in much the same way by trapping them. To trap a gopher, a slightly different trap than you would use for moles is needed. This trap goes inside the gopher tunnel instead of above the tunnel. Gophers do not travel near the surface as often as the mole does, so the trap must be placed inside the tunnel to be most effective.
A very good trap has been on the market for considerable time. This trap is called a Macabee and is the most reliable one on the market in our opinion. A minimum of two traps should be used.
Dig down until you reach the gopher tunnel and then set your traps. Place one trap in the tunnel with the trip pan away from you. Take the next trap and insert it in the opposite side of the tunnel with the trip pan away from you. What you are trying to achieve is to catch the gopher from either direction it would be traveling. Check the traps regularly and continue trapping until the damage ceases. Remember to remove the dirt mounds as they will kill your lawn. Just smooth them out and spread the dirt over the lawn.
Gopher Control in Fort Collins CO
Fort Collins gopher control and removal is one of the more common services we are called upon to provide.
Gophers create damage to lawns and landscape by tunneling through the soil seeking earthworms and grubs. This damage translates into mounds left on the surface and ridges protruding from the soil. These ridges create a sinking feeling when walking on the lawn and the mounds contact the lawn mower blades and make mowing the lawn a dust storm…not to mention bent lawn mower blades.
We can remedy your Gopher control problem by initiating a wildlife management program. Most Gopher management programs are provided either weekly, monthly or annually. Removing the Gophers that are currently in your lawn or landscape will not totally solve the problem. At some point, other Gophers will move in. This is why it is so important to have a management plan in place to control future issues.
Gophers in Fort Collins, Estes Park CO, Loveland CO, Longmont CO, Lyons CO, Berthoud CO can be controlled and you don’t have to resort to the wide assortment of home remedies that you will find on the Internet and “the neighbor expert” that will fail. Each year people spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to control Gophers and end up with equipment that they will never use again or end up throwing away.
Call the Fort Collins Gopher Removal specialists today ~ 970-236-7112