Pocket Gopher

What it does

Pocket gophers are solitary, territorial burrowers that spend almost their whole lives underground, digging extensive tunnel systems with strong claws and teeth and pushing soil to the surface in fan-shaped mounds. They feed on roots from below and plug their tunnels, so they are seldom seen. Their digging and gnawing damage lawns, crops, and buried lines.

Where it lives

They live underground in lawns, gardens, pastures, orchards, croplands, and rangeland across the central, western, and southern US, favoring loose, workable soils. Each gopher maintains its own burrow system of feeding tunnels and deeper nest and food chambers, marked at the surface by crescent- or fan-shaped mounds.

How it breeds

Pocket gophers usually breed once or twice a year, mainly in spring, with litters of about three to five young in irrigated or productive areas. Young are raised in an underground nest and disperse to dig their own burrows within a few months. Most are solitary except when breeding or rearing young.

What it eats

Pocket gophers are herbivores that eat roots, tubers, bulbs, and fleshy underground plant parts, and they pull whole small plants down into their tunnels from below. They also feed on surface vegetation near burrow openings and can damage the roots of trees, shrubs, and crops.

Identification

Pocket gophers are stocky, 5-7 inches in the body, with small eyes and ears, large yellow-orange incisors, powerful clawed forefeet, and external, fur-lined cheek pouches for carrying food, which give them their name. Their fan-shaped soil mounds with a plugged, off-center hole distinguish their work from mole ridges.

Signs of an infestation

• Fan- or crescent-shaped soil mounds with a plugged hole
• Plants wilting or disappearing as roots are eaten from below
• Dead patches in lawns, gardens, or crop rows
• Chewed roots, bulbs, and damaged buried irrigation or utility lines
• Numerous mounds appearing over a season as tunnels expand

Prevention tips

• Use underground hardware-cloth barriers around raised beds and young trees
• Reduce attractive vegetation and control weeds in problem areas
• Flatten mounds and monitor for fresh digging to catch activity early
• Protect buried irrigation and utility lines where gophers are active
• Encourage natural predators and keep beds well maintained

Professional solutions

Pocket gophers are difficult to control because they stay underground and are territorial. Trapping in the main tunnels is the most reliable DIY method, but large properties, croplands, or repeated invasions are best handled by a professional who can trap effectively or apply EPA-registered baits per label. Damage to buried lines often prompts a call to a pro.