That looks like a vole. It will eat you out of house & home. I don’t think there’s any way to stop them short of killing them, and even that is difficult because they reproduce prolifically.
ElephantitisBalls
Was it small like a mouse?
6aZoner
Can you quick set a banana next to it for scale.
Mostly_Maui_Wowie
Vole. The Scourge.
Llothcat2022
Looks like a pocket gopher to me. Nothing. You can do nothing.
aw2669
Voles can kill mature shrubs from eating the roots at the very base, definitely NOT a friend
synodos
raised beds help; if you want to use fencing/cages, you have to BURY the barriers so that they extend at least a foot down into the soil.
the only other real option is to help repair the ecosystem that controls voles naturally– restore habitat for snakes by making wood piles, attract birds of prey by having trees and ideally a water source. (foxes and coyotes also eat voles, but I don’t know how to attract them. create stone dens, lol?)
I strongly recommend AGAINST using poisons in the garden… and honestly I find trapping to be more trouble than it’s worth. you can try using a chemical deterrent (like rabbit scram), but remember that voles travel underground, whereas a lot of those deterrents stay on the surface.
Lucky-Ad384
Do people ever think that maybe they are in the animals habitat? Wild animals really have nowhere to go…
To the people saying kill it: That is never a remotely practical solution.
I have a chicken wire fence set up around everything I don’t want nibbled. It’s a small enough area that it was an easy day’s work to drive stakes in the ground then zip tie the chicken wire on. It keeps out everything but squirrels, and for them I bring my cat to hang out in the garden so they learn to stay out.
Terrible-Jellyfish-9
Oh it’s so cuteee 🥹
AVLLaw
You know anyone with some hungry ferrets that you could borrow?
Fern-green7
There’s a feral cat in my neighborhood. I put a shelter up in the garden for him and leave him food. It’s winter here now, but I’m hoping he’ll stick around to discourage critters when it’s time for planting.
FlyRasta420
Punxsutawney Phil’s cousin
Assia_Penryn
Pocket gopher. You can cage all the roots in hardware cloth or you can humanely trap it. You aren’t going to discourage it from being where the snacks are. They are adorable, but they will eat the roots of small fruit trees and more.
Constant_Special_791
Pocket gopher. Maybe you could try spreading used coffee grounds around? Smell might deter them. Or small, cut pcs of Irish Spring bar soap, this is supposedly used as a deterrent, because of the smell. But ask a pro before trying
jessesbald
https://a.co/d/0jcyBDSQ
Try these things. They are kinda loud and you have to be kinda strategic with how place them but I’ve heard good things about these stakes
Barison-Lee-Simple
I once babysat a Jack Russell Terrier for a friend in the hospital. First time it was in my backyard it stuck its nose into the ground and came up with a shrew. I about fell over. Dunno if they can get voles but it wouldn’t surprise me.
EmploymentNo3590
I think there is a sound based deterrent. You can find it at home Depot.
dazzleunexpired
Make a home for snakes if you want it gone humanely. Or even allow a snake relocator to relocate (non venomous) snakes in your yard. IDEALLY a rat or gopher snake.
The ONLY way to remove a rodent from a food source is relocation or death.
You could TRY to trap and relocate it. I wouldn’t recommend it. This is the less humane option. Rodents have bad vision. It’s going to be prey if you relocate it, it won’t know where it is at, it will be away from its burrow and easy to harm.
ETA: ask at r/snakes if you cannot find a snake relocator and want to go this route. They will help you out
Astro_Van
My grandfather used to chew gum and stick it in the holes they’d dig up. He said that they’d try to eat the gum and choke on it.
Just a thought.
spondoodle
You can try castor oil-based repellent, but this is best left to the snakes and the hawks.
DaWeazl
These used to best up my cats. (The cats always won in the end, and no i dont have outdoor cats anymore they were technically my ex’s)
Good luck. The people saying snake are right but these can still kill a snake so idk man
Anunnaka
Looks like a gopher or vole. They sell solar powered spikes that you can stick in the ground and they vibrate. It prevents them from being able to sleep, I was told they’re not effective but I got rid of a skunk from underneath my shed and a groundhog from
The side of my house with about 6 of those spikes
c-u-in-da-ballpit
It’s a Gopher. I tried everything possible to remove one in a humane way after it terrorized my garden
The solution ended up being the neighbor getting an outdoor cat.
retiredcatchair
If this is a vole, I think I’ve seen them as corpses in my garden, but I haven’t noticed any damage they’ve done. I have a burgeoning garter snake population, and red-shouldered hawks in the neighborhood, as well as cats, so I may be well guarded.
_sheiko
Anything you do, please do not use poison as this would end up in the belly of predators such as snakes, birds, etc. thereby killing these animals too.
marcinklejka
He will bring oxygen to ur soil. They are only bad if u want a picture perfect lawn
Beneficial-Mix9484
Agree with those that say it’s a pocket gopher
I use castor oil repellent. It doesn’t kill them, it makes them move to another spot.
You have to deter them or they will eat everything. Keep at it every time you see a mound or home mix the castor oil with water pour it in the hole. you can buy it on Amazon’s. I won’t use poisons. If they’re really after a certain plant move it to another spot.
The key is to keep at it! Don’t let them inundate your yard. Make it unpleasant for them and maybe they’ll move to the neighbors that’s what I’m doing and it works!
Edited to add. – my cat killed baby gophers. But never an adult. But the cat will alert you to places to look for them. My cat cannot get out of my yard I have cat fencing.
Ozymandias1279bc
The ones in my part of rural South Central California are crazy aggressive. Even Large Plastic Planters aren’t safe. I lost a 3 year old, mature Rose Bush last Summer when said gopher enlarged a 1/2” drain hole to two inches, ate his way to the surface. One day the rose bush wad in full bloom with healthy leaves and stalks, two days later, it was dead. I picked it up and there was nothing below the soil line.
Datninja619
It’s a pocket gopher. They’ve tore up my grass lawn but I’ve had success using a device called Gopherhawk.
The most damage is done under ground by the tunnels
Minimum_Shock_9592
That furry friend playing chess and you playing checkers with all of us on reddit. Not your fault. We are playing checkers with you. Furry creature is laughing at all of us.
FoundationFar3053
Voles are the devil.
Hambone7652
I do have a dog that loves them. We have red dirt and has a yellow lab. Not cool. He’s one of four Labrador kids . He’s called Mud butt.
koldamaka
Get a dog. They don’t generally harm the critters but the gophers don’t like them. They often leave voluntarily. Of course nothing is guaranteed.
Chemical-Cup-9453
So that’s what a Gopher looks like. Thanks for showing us, I always wondered what they looked like, Now I know. Kind of cute looking little fella isn’t he? I’m from England and we don’t have them, only Moles.
42 Comments
That looks like a vole. It will eat you out of house & home. I don’t think there’s any way to stop them short of killing them, and even that is difficult because they reproduce prolifically.
Was it small like a mouse?
Can you quick set a banana next to it for scale.
Vole. The Scourge.
Looks like a pocket gopher to me. Nothing. You can do nothing.
Voles can kill mature shrubs from eating the roots at the very base, definitely NOT a friend
raised beds help; if you want to use fencing/cages, you have to BURY the barriers so that they extend at least a foot down into the soil.
the only other real option is to help repair the ecosystem that controls voles naturally– restore habitat for snakes by making wood piles, attract birds of prey by having trees and ideally a water source. (foxes and coyotes also eat voles, but I don’t know how to attract them. create stone dens, lol?)
I strongly recommend AGAINST using poisons in the garden… and honestly I find trapping to be more trouble than it’s worth. you can try using a chemical deterrent (like rabbit scram), but remember that voles travel underground, whereas a lot of those deterrents stay on the surface.
Do people ever think that maybe they are in the animals habitat? Wild animals really have nowhere to go…
You need a cat!
Try this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Jli3EQCII](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Jli3EQCII)
To the people saying kill it: That is never a remotely practical solution.
I have a chicken wire fence set up around everything I don’t want nibbled. It’s a small enough area that it was an easy day’s work to drive stakes in the ground then zip tie the chicken wire on. It keeps out everything but squirrels, and for them I bring my cat to hang out in the garden so they learn to stay out.
Oh it’s so cuteee 🥹
You know anyone with some hungry ferrets that you could borrow?
There’s a feral cat in my neighborhood. I put a shelter up in the garden for him and leave him food. It’s winter here now, but I’m hoping he’ll stick around to discourage critters when it’s time for planting.
Punxsutawney Phil’s cousin
Pocket gopher. You can cage all the roots in hardware cloth or you can humanely trap it. You aren’t going to discourage it from being where the snacks are. They are adorable, but they will eat the roots of small fruit trees and more.
Pocket gopher. Maybe you could try spreading used coffee grounds around? Smell might deter them. Or small, cut pcs of Irish Spring bar soap, this is supposedly used as a deterrent, because of the smell. But ask a pro before trying
https://a.co/d/0jcyBDSQ
Try these things. They are kinda loud and you have to be kinda strategic with how place them but I’ve heard good things about these stakes
I once babysat a Jack Russell Terrier for a friend in the hospital. First time it was in my backyard it stuck its nose into the ground and came up with a shrew. I about fell over. Dunno if they can get voles but it wouldn’t surprise me.
I think there is a sound based deterrent. You can find it at home Depot.
Make a home for snakes if you want it gone humanely. Or even allow a snake relocator to relocate (non venomous) snakes in your yard. IDEALLY a rat or gopher snake.
The ONLY way to remove a rodent from a food source is relocation or death.
You could TRY to trap and relocate it. I wouldn’t recommend it. This is the less humane option. Rodents have bad vision. It’s going to be prey if you relocate it, it won’t know where it is at, it will be away from its burrow and easy to harm.
ETA: ask at r/snakes if you cannot find a snake relocator and want to go this route. They will help you out
My grandfather used to chew gum and stick it in the holes they’d dig up. He said that they’d try to eat the gum and choke on it.
Just a thought.
You can try castor oil-based repellent, but this is best left to the snakes and the hawks.
These used to best up my cats. (The cats always won in the end, and no i dont have outdoor cats anymore they were technically my ex’s)
Good luck. The people saying snake are right but these can still kill a snake so idk man
Looks like a gopher or vole. They sell solar powered spikes that you can stick in the ground and they vibrate. It prevents them from being able to sleep, I was told they’re not effective but I got rid of a skunk from underneath my shed and a groundhog from
The side of my house with about 6 of those spikes
It’s a Gopher. I tried everything possible to remove one in a humane way after it terrorized my garden
The solution ended up being the neighbor getting an outdoor cat.
If this is a vole, I think I’ve seen them as corpses in my garden, but I haven’t noticed any damage they’ve done. I have a burgeoning garter snake population, and red-shouldered hawks in the neighborhood, as well as cats, so I may be well guarded.
Anything you do, please do not use poison as this would end up in the belly of predators such as snakes, birds, etc. thereby killing these animals too.
He will bring oxygen to ur soil. They are only bad if u want a picture perfect lawn
Agree with those that say it’s a pocket gopher
I use castor oil repellent. It doesn’t kill them, it makes them move to another spot.
You have to deter them or they will eat everything. Keep at it every time you see a mound or home mix the castor oil with water pour it in the hole. you can buy it on Amazon’s. I won’t use poisons. If they’re really after a certain plant move it to another spot.
The key is to keep at it! Don’t let them inundate your yard. Make it unpleasant for them and maybe they’ll move to the neighbors that’s what I’m doing and it works!
Edited to add. – my cat killed baby gophers. But never an adult. But the cat will alert you to places to look for them. My cat cannot get out of my yard I have cat fencing.
The ones in my part of rural South Central California are crazy aggressive. Even Large Plastic Planters aren’t safe. I lost a 3 year old, mature Rose Bush last Summer when said gopher enlarged a 1/2” drain hole to two inches, ate his way to the surface. One day the rose bush wad in full bloom with healthy leaves and stalks, two days later, it was dead. I picked it up and there was nothing below the soil line.
It’s a pocket gopher. They’ve tore up my grass lawn but I’ve had success using a device called Gopherhawk.
The most damage is done under ground by the tunnels
That furry friend playing chess and you playing checkers with all of us on reddit. Not your fault. We are playing checkers with you. Furry creature is laughing at all of us.
Voles are the devil.
I do have a dog that loves them. We have red dirt and has a yellow lab. Not cool. He’s one of four Labrador kids . He’s called Mud butt.
Get a dog. They don’t generally harm the critters but the gophers don’t like them. They often leave voluntarily. Of course nothing is guaranteed.
So that’s what a Gopher looks like. Thanks for showing us, I always wondered what they looked like, Now I know. Kind of cute looking little fella isn’t he? I’m from England and we don’t have them, only Moles.
Yer fooked.
I see a Zillow listing coming up.
New lawn pet!
https://makeagif.com/gif/man-blows-up-backyard-trying-to-kill-ants-dlCdf-#
Shovel… thud…