A plant's roots grow outward and through a wire-mesh basket's holes over time, but the plant's core root ball is preserved in the basket, ensuring its survival when the area is under attack by underground rodents. Gophers might also chew through plastic if its underground and in their way. Mice have a strong sense of smell, and you can use that to your advantage to get rid of them. Because gopher wire is hot-dipped galvanized after it is woven, it will easily last 6 - 10 years. The wire will be effective, however, only if 3 to 4 inches of soil is placed on top of the wire before the sod goes on. Does peanut butter attract moles? Gophers may adapt to a slow-kill bait for other rodents, so they're not a good bet. Best Answer. I have even seen them chew through small gauge bronze wire mesh. Rodents were living in the FG insulation under the house and while there chewing through the pex tubing. !jt8, "The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide." Do Raccoons Eat Potatoes From the Garden? Teaching workshops on managing gophers without using chemicals led to his wearing a third hat, that of part owner of Gophers Limited in Ben Lomond, which provides nontoxic gopher management services. Materials for an underground gopher fence. University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Pocket Gophers, University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Gophers, University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program: Vertebrates and Their Damage, 17 gardening gifts for the plant-lovers in your life. Bingo! Need more help? What Animal or Rodent Goes Under Your Grass. Too bad, i would have loaned you my dogma to get rid of your rodentia. Ive seen the beginnings of gopher action in our South Forty, and yet I keep planting. Guess we need to remind folks to wash their hands after peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before running pex (;-). Instead of plastic mesh, consider a very strong chicken wire, or better still, gopher wire. Gophers can wreak havoc in your garden and cause widespread damage in backyards across North and Central America. Gravel will not rust and disappear. I have a customer that built a house on piers. A gopher is a type of burrowing rodent native to North and Central America. The smell of their fur and urine alone may even be enough to make the gopher avoid your yard. I have noticed that they dont like where I have dumped my horse manure. Drop by drop, the damage can accumulate over weeks into a problem that can cost thousands of dollars to fix. Just as some dogs are recreational barkers. All are pesky. They can also expand then crack in very cold weather. Gophers eat plant roots and even pull entire plants underground to consume their foliage, warns Oklahoma State University Extension. Call (713) 697-2088 for help now! I guess I should thank the gophers for creating an underground watering system for my apple trees and grass. And the cajuns'd turn that inside out, like as not