Gopher holes are the surface openings of underground tunnel systems built by pocket gophers, small burrowing rodents found across much of North America. The telltale sign is a crescent or horseshoe-shaped mound of loose dirt with a plugged hole off to one side. A single gopher can create a tunnel network stretching up to 200 yards, and the mounds, collapsed tunnels, and chewed roots left behind can do serious damage to lawns, gardens, and underground utilities.
How to Identify Gopher Holes
Gopher mounds have a distinctive fan or crescent shape because gophers tunnel up to the surface at an angle, pushing soil out to one side. The hole itself is always plugged with soil. This is the easiest way to tell gopher activity apart from moles or voles. Mole hills are cone or volcano-shaped because moles dig straight up, and they leave raised ridges across the lawn from their shallow tunnels. Vole burrows are small, round, smooth-edged holes with no mound at all, often connected by surface runways partly hidden under vegetation.
Fresh mounds of loose, fine dirt indicate an active gopher. Older mounds darken and flatten as they settle. If you’re seeing new crescent-shaped mounds appearing every few days, at least one gopher is actively tunneling in the area.
What’s Happening Underground
A gopher burrow system is more extensive than most people expect. The main tunnel runs 4 to 18 inches below the surface, roughly parallel to the ground, with shorter lateral tunnels branching off in various directions. Some sections can reach 5 or 6 feet deep, particularly nesting chambers or food storage areas. The tunnels themselves are about 3 inches in diameter, varying with the size of the gopher.
The main runway typically sits 12 to 18 inches back from the plugged opening of a mound. You can locate it by pushing a quarter-inch metal rod into the ground near a fresh mound. When the rod suddenly drops about an inch, you’ve hit a tunnel. The main burrow is usually 6 to 12 inches deep at that point. This probing technique is essential if you plan to trap or otherwise deal with the gopher directly.
Damage Gopher Holes Cause
The most obvious problem is the mounds themselves. They smother grass, create uneven ground, and make mowing difficult. But the real damage happens underground. Gophers feed on plant roots, pulling entire small plants down into their tunnels and shearing the root systems of larger ones. Trees, garden vegetables, and ornamental shrubs can all suffer, sometimes dying without any visible above-ground explanation until you discover the tunnels below.
Gophers also chew through flexible irrigation tubing, which can redirect water into tunnels and erode soil in unexpected directions. Collapsed tunnels create soft spots in lawns that can twist an ankle or damage mowing equipment. In areas with slopes, gopher tunnels can channel rainwater underground, accelerating erosion.
How to Get Rid of Gophers
Trapping is the most reliable method for homeowners. Two common trap types are pincer traps and box traps, both designed to be placed inside the tunnel itself. To set them, probe near a fresh mound to find the main tunnel, dig down to expose it, and place two traps facing opposite directions so the gopher is caught regardless of which way it approaches. Cover the opening so no light enters the tunnel, since gophers will plug any opening they detect. Check traps frequently, reset as needed, and keep trapping until no new mounds appear.
Gopher traps don’t require food bait, which simplifies the process. The key is placing them in active burrows. If a mound looks old and weathered, skip it and focus on fresh dirt.
Chemical Options
Toxic baits containing zinc phosphide or strychnine are available for gopher control, but many of these products are restricted-use pesticides that require a special applicator’s license to purchase and apply. Below-ground application of zinc phosphide and 0.5% strychnine baits for pocket gophers is one exception to some of these restrictions, but regulations vary by state. These are acute toxicants that kill after a single feeding, often within hours. Because of the risks to pets, children, and non-target wildlife, trapping is generally the safer starting point for residential settings.
Protecting Gardens With Wire Barriers
For raised beds and high-value plantings, hardware cloth or galvanized gopher wire installed beneath the soil creates a physical barrier gophers can’t chew through. A mesh size of roughly 0.8 by 0.8 inches is small enough to block gophers while still allowing plant roots to grow through freely. For raised beds, the wire is laid flat across the bottom of the bed before adding soil. For individual trees or shrubs, wire baskets buried around the root zone accomplish the same thing. This approach won’t remove gophers from your yard, but it protects what matters most.
Repairing Your Lawn After Gophers
Wait until fresh mound activity stops before starting repairs. Filling active tunnels is a waste of effort because the gopher will simply re-excavate or dig around the fill.
Once you’re confident the gopher is gone, rake the loose mound soil across any low spots and gently firm collapsed sections. For deeper voids where a tunnel has caved in, add screened topsoil in thin layers, settling each layer before adding the next, rather than dumping a large amount at once. This prevents the fill from settling unevenly weeks later. Replace any surviving sod pieces over the repaired areas, or reseed thin patches with a grass variety suited to your climate. Keep repaired spots evenly moist while new grass establishes.
Before covering any damage, inspect sprinkler lines and drip tubing. Gophers frequently chew flexible irrigation components, and burying the damage without fixing it leads to hidden leaks. Mark any soft spots in the lawn and keep foot traffic, pets, and mowing equipment off them until the soil feels stable underfoot. After the first rain, recheck filled areas and top off with more soil if settling occurs. Continue monitoring for new mounds in the weeks that follow, since neighboring gophers sometimes move into abandoned tunnel systems.