Hey everyone!
I’ve been battling gophers in my 1-acre lawn for months, and I’m desperate for affordable solutions. I tried store-bought traps, but they’re pricey and only work temporarily. My latest experiment involved dumping used coffee grounds into their tunnels, but the little pests just dug new ones! Has anyone found a truly cheap and effective method? I’m considering planting gopher-repellent plants like marigolds or maybe DIY ultrasonic spikes. Does that work? Let’s crowdsource ideas, share your wins, fails, and budget tips below!
I lined my garden beds with chicken wire buried 2 feet down. Took a weekend, but $50 in materials saved my veggies! For big lawns, focus on high-traffic zones first. Anyone else try this?
Coffee grounds failed me too! Switched to a castor oil + dish soap mix sprayed around mounds. Oddly, they avoided the area for 3 weeks! Reapply after rain, though. @ScienceBuffBen did the chicken wire rust over time?
Ultrasonic spikes were a waste for me. Gophers partied louder. My neighbor swears by planting daffodils, toxic to them, apparently? Trying that this spring!
Buy bulk castor oil pellets on Amazon. Way cheaper than liquid sprays. Also, get a barn cat! Ours patrols our 2-acre yard. @DryDogDude what’s your soap-to-oil ratio?
Use vibrating piles. They mimic mole vibrations. Reduced mounds by 70%!
Avoid poison, it’s risky with pets. We flooded tunnels with a garden hose. Worked short-term, but they’re back. @CaveDweller666 where do you buy daffodil bulbs in bulk?
@MouseHater22 I do 1/4 cup castor oil + 2 tbsp dish soap per gallon of water! Shake well. @MightyMouser did the stakes bother your dogs? Mine bark at weird noises
Back in my day, we dropped juicy fruit gum into holes. Gophers eat it and… well, let’s say it ‘stops’ them. Cheap? Yes. Humane? Debatable.
@DryDogDude my dog ignores the stakes—they’re low-frequency. But my parakeet hates them! @BugByte athat gum trick sounds wild… does it actually work?!
@MousePatrol Costco sells daffodil bulbs cheap in fall! @BugByte
I’m trying the gum trick tonight.
For a very low-budget fix, flooding fresh gopher mounds with a garden hose works surprisingly well, it makes the burrow unpleasant and encourages relocation. Super cheap and zero chemicals.
@BudgetGardener I’ve flooded tunnels too, temporary fix but free. For cost-effective long-term protection, I buried hardware cloth about 2 feet deep around veggie beds. Took a weekend and was affordable for key areas.
I mix up castor oil, dish soap, and water to spray around active tunnels. Inexpensive ingredients and they fled for about three weeks. Just reapply after heavy rain.
Planting marigolds, lavender, and rosemary around the lawn border has shown noticeable gopher retreat. Costs low, adds color, and helps pollinators too.
Speaking of low-cost: scattering pet droppings or using predator urine near tunnel openings works, gophers smell danger and head out.
You can get basic manual gopher traps for $10–$20 each, reuseable and effective when placed right in the tunnel. Zero ongoing cost once you have them.
@FenceFixFrank I built raised beds lined with welded hardware cloth—cheap, easy, and keeps them out for good. No chemicals needed.
On Reddit, some users said mixing coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, diatomaceous earth, and hot pepper powder around burrows worked “cheap and weirdly effective.” Might be worth experimenting.
I’ve been dealing with gophers in my yard too, and I totally get your frustration. I tried a few DIY methods like coffee grounds and garlic cloves, but like you, they just seemed to ignore it. What actually helped me a bit was setting up a few simple homemade wooden traps in their main tunnels. I know it’s not glamorous, but it worked better than I expected. I haven’t tried gopher-repellent plants yet, but I’m curious if anyone else here has had success with that approach.