Saturday, April 13

Dear Dot,
How can I remove gophers from my yard? We are trying a live trap but they go past and are eating roots off all plants and even my huge collection of aloe vera. Please advise ... no poisons obviously. 

—MaryAnn Marquez

Dear MaryAnn,

Though I have no reason to doubt your gopher-spotting abilities, I must ask you the same question that I was asked when I reached out to a couple of experts on dealing with urban wildlife: Are you sure it’s a gopher?

Gophers and groundhogs, I’m told, are often mixed up. What’s more, while groundhogs, common in North America, prefer somewhat populated wooded areas (humans = food), gophers, a sort of groundhog-adjacent rodent, are partial to more grassy or sandy terrain in North and Central America. 

Both belong to the Rodentia order. But groundhogs (also known as woodchucks, and I apologize because you and I both will have that tongue twisty poem locked in our brains for the rest of the day) are part of the Sciuridae family — think squirrels, prairie dogs, chipmunks. The gopher, on the other hand, is a member of the Geomyidae family, which includes various species of mice and rats. This also gives a hint as to size. Adult groundhogs are typically the size of a large housecat, about twice the size of gophers, and though groundhogs like to dig, they don’t burrow tunnels with the same glee as gophers. 

If you’re still scratching your head about which interloper you’re dealing with, start by taking a look at the tail: gophers’ tails are hairless and thin, like a rat’s; groundhogs’ tails are thick and bushy. (Fun fact about those tails, MaryAnn: Gophers often walk backwards, and so their smallish tails act as something of a white cane, feeling the ground behind them.) Groundhogs have the distinction of whiter, less visible teeth, while gophers look like they could stand a trip to both a dentist and an orthodontist. Oh, and gophers have little cheek pouches, where they store food. Groundhogs do not.

One point I would like to make before we dig into what the actual experts say: While there have been numerous groundhog sightings in Dot’s neighborhood, these animals have been rare in my yard. One brave (or perhaps dumb) soul visited my yard not long ago, and I was smitten — they are adorable. My two large dogs, however, saw this groundhog’s arrival as a declaration of war. Though I didn’t allow the dogs outside to defend their territory, I suspect evidence of their presence in our yard is a major deterrent. So … my non-expert, anecdote-based solution #1: Get thee a dog. Or two.

What does an actual expert have to say? Read on