The bane of many gardeners, especially rose-growing ones, is the gopher. While this voracious pest loves roses, they’re not fussy – in fact, there isn’t a lot they DON’T like!
The pocket gopher is named for the external, fur-lined check pouches the critters use to carry food to their storage area. The thick-bodied rodents range from six to twelve inches long and have small eyes and ears set back far on the head. With exposed chisel-like teeth grow continuously nine to fourteen inches a year, they use their powerful forelegs with long claws to dig out a network of tunnels that usually run six to eighteen inches below the soil surface.
Using their keen sense of smell to locate foods such as bulbs, tubers, roots, grasses, seeds, and occasionally, tree bark, they can consume entire plants by pulling them down into their burrows. Quickly plugging off openings in their tunnels, they keep out light, water, gopher snakes and poisonous gases of all types. These wily critters only come to the surface to push soil out of their burrows, forage, disperse to a new area or seek mates. With a lifespan of up to a dozen years, the generally solitary animals will protect their tunnels fiercely from other gophers.
The first sign of a gopher may be a plant that is mysteriously wilting or a fan-shaped mound of finely pulverized soil in the lawn or planting bed – the result of their excavating tunnels. The mound has a plug off to one side to close up the hole. If you do see a wilting plant – give it a tug. A damaged plant will often pull right out of the ground with all its roots gone.
The only foolproof way of managing them is prevention or trapping. When planting anything that may be vulnerable to gophers, wrap the plant’s roots (if small) or line the planting hole (if large) with 3/4-inch mesh poultry wire. Fold the wire up and around the entire root ball, then cover the wire completely with soil. For raised beds, lay wire at the bottom of the bed, securing it to the sides of the bed, then add soil. The wire should last for five to ten years.
Trapping has been the most successful way of managing gophers for us; pincer traps and box traps are common types that are widely available. Watch this short video on how to set a trap. Find a main horizontal runway that connects two gopher mounds and set traps in tunnels in pairs facing each other. Learn how to locate fresh mounds and gopher burrows in this video called “Finding Gopher Tunnel Systems.”
Leave the hole uncovered – the gopher will be drawn to the opening. Be persistent; a clever gopher may avoid your first attempts at trapping. If the trapping is successful, remove and dispose of the animal. Hopefully, you won’t have to repeat the process too often.
If you do find a wilted rose with many of its roots gone, you can rescue it! Prune back the plant significantly (to about half its size), dust the remaining root area with rooting hormone, and plant in a container with loose friable soil. Keep it well watered and out of the sun until you see signs of new growth, then slowly move to a sunnier location.
By Nanette Londeree, Master Rosarian