What Do Gophers Eat? A Complete Diet Guide
Understanding gopher diet helps explain why they target your lawn and garden.
Pocket gophers are herbivores that feed primarily on plant roots, bulbs, and tubers they encounter while tunneling underground. This feeding behavior is what makes them so destructive — they eat plants from below, causing them to wilt and die without any visible above-ground pest activity until the damage is done.
FAVORITE FOODS
WHY IRRIGATED PROPERTIES ATTRACT GOPHERS
Southern California's dry climate means irrigated properties stand out as oases of plant growth. Lawns, gardens, and landscaped areas with regular watering support lush root systems that gophers seek. Properties near open space or hillsides are especially vulnerable as gophers move from natural habitat into maintained yards.
SIGNS OF GOPHER FEEDING DAMAGE
Because gophers feed underground, signs of damage are often indirect. Look for plants that wilt or die suddenly, fan-shaped soil mounds near affected plants, and soft or sunken areas in the lawn where tunnel systems have collapsed. Drip irrigation lines that stop working may have been chewed through underground.
STOPPING GOPHER DAMAGE
The most effective way to stop gopher feeding damage is professional trapping. Rodent Guys uses chemical-free methods to remove active gophers with a 60-day guarantee — if activity returns, we come back at no charge.
Call 909-599-4711 to schedule gopher control in Southern California.FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FAQ: What is the main diet of gophers in residential yards?
Gophers are primarily herbivores that feed on plant roots, bulbs, tubers, and underground portions of vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and onions. They also consume grasses, clover, and ornamental plants, which is why they cause such extensive damage to lawns and gardens. Understanding their food preferences can help you identify gopher activity and protect your most vulnerable plants.
FAQ: Can gophers be deterred by removing their food sources?
While reducing attractive plants can help discourage gophers, it's rarely an effective long-term solution since they eat so many common landscape plants and grasses. The most reliable approach is professional removal and exclusion, which is why Rodent Guys uses pet-safe methods to eliminate gophers and prevent them from returning to your property. If you're dealing with an active gopher problem, call us at 909-599-4711 for a thorough inspection and our 60-day guarantee.
FAQ: Do gophers eat insects or meat, or are they completely vegetarian?
Gophers are almost entirely herbivorous and do not hunt insects or meat as part of their diet. Occasionally they may consume insects accidentally while burrowing through soil to find plant roots, but this is not intentional feeding behavior. Their specialized diet makes them predictable pests to manage once you understand their food-seeking patterns.
Complete List of SoCal Plants Gophers Target Most
Not all plants are equally attractive to pocket gophers. Across thousands of Southern California service visits, the plants consistently most damaged by gophers in residential landscapes are:
Bermuda grass lawns: The horizontal runners (stolons) and rhizomes of Bermuda grass provide a continuous, moist, nutrient-rich food layer just below the surface. Gophers tunnel along the root zone, severing stolons and creating dead patches that don't respond to watering. Bermuda lawns on sandy loam soils are especially vulnerable because the soft soil allows rapid tunnel excavation through the root zone. Ice plant rhizomes: Ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) has fleshy rhizomes that function as water-storage organs. Gophers target these aggressively during dry periods because they provide both food and moisture simultaneously. Hillside ice plant installations, common across SoCal slope landscaping, are frequently undermined by gopher tunneling. Bougainvillea roots: Despite bougainvillea's thorny above-ground appearance, its root system is soft, moisture-rich, and nutrient-dense. Young bougainvillea plantings are especially vulnerable — gophers can sever the root ball of a new bougainvillea in days, causing sudden vine collapse. Citrus tree feeder roots: Lemon, orange, lime, and grapefruit trees have extensive feeder root networks near the surface. Young citrus under 3 years old is highly vulnerable because the trunk bark hasn't developed enough to deter gopher gnawing at the root collar. Girdling damage at the root collar can kill young citrus trees within a single season. Bird of Paradise corms: Strelitzia reginae has underground corms that serve as energy storage organs. Gophers target these as high-value food sources, especially during late summer and fall when corm energy reserves are highest. Agapanthus bulbs: Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus) is ubiquitous in SoCal landscaping and its bulbs are preferred gopher food. Established agapanthus beds often lose plants in a linear pattern that matches underground tunnel direction. Rose rootstocks: Rose root systems combine fleshy feeder roots with soft graft unions that gophers prefer. Loss of a prized rose bush from gopher root damage is among the most common gopher complaints in SoCal residential landscaping. Vegetable garden root crops: Carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, potatoes, radishes, and turnips are prime gopher targets. A gopher in a vegetable garden can destroy an entire bed of root crops within days. Raised beds with hardware-cloth bottoms are the only reliable protection.How Gopher Feeding Behavior Changes With Soil Moisture
Pocket gopher feeding intensity tracks soil moisture closely. Understanding the pattern helps predict where damage will appear next:
After irrigation or rain: Feeding activity increases dramatically within 24-72 hours. Moist soil allows easier tunneling, and soft roots are easier to sever and consume. Expect new mound activity and visible plant damage 2-5 days after a significant rain event or deep irrigation. During dry periods: Activity concentrates under the remaining moist areas — usually irrigated zones, the base of established trees with deep roots, and the moisture-retaining areas around rocks, concrete edges, and irrigation emitters. Dry-period gopher damage becomes highly localized. Post-storm pulses: After heavy rain events, gophers sometimes relocate tunnel systems to drier ground. Properties can experience sudden new mound activity in areas that had been clear for months because migrating gophers have moved in from flooded areas nearby.Food Caching and Territory Size
Pocket gophers construct underground storage chambers and cache cut root pieces for later consumption. This behavior affects territory size and damage patterns in important ways:
Cache chambers extend territory value: A gopher that has successfully cached food in a productive area will defend that territory more aggressively and for longer periods than one relying on immediate consumption. This is why some properties get "stuck" with the same gopher colony for years even after attempts to clear it. Typical territory size: A single pocket gopher occupies approximately 200-2,000 square feet of tunnel system, depending on soil quality and food availability. High-quality residential landscape territories can be much smaller (200-500 sq ft) because food is concentrated; lower-quality open-space territories tend to be larger (1,000-2,000 sq ft). One gopher per territory: Gophers are strictly territorial and solitary. If you see multiple fan-shaped mounds across a property, you most likely have multiple separate gopher territories — not a single colony.Economic Damage Per Gopher — Annual Estimate
Quantifying per-gopher damage in residential landscapes is approximate, but published estimates combined with service data suggest:
Lawn damage: $200-600/year per active gopher on irrigated lawn. Repair costs include spot re-sodding, irrigation line damage, and time/labor for mound leveling. Ornamental plant losses: $100-500/year for typical landscapes with mixed ornamentals. Higher for properties with mature rose gardens, vegetable beds, or young ornamental trees. Citrus/avocado tree damage: $300-1,500 for killed young trees; $500-2,000+ in replacement and re-establishment costs for mature trees damaged at the root collar. Irrigation system damage: $50-400/year for typical residential systems. Moles and gophers both damage drip and low-pressure irrigation by chewing through tubing.Aggregate per-gopher cost on an average SoCal property: $400-1,500/year if left uncontrolled over a full calendar year. This is the baseline against which professional control pricing compares favorably — $325 for initial service plus optional ongoing maintenance typically costs less than a single year of accumulated damage.
Can Plant Selection Reduce Gopher Pressure?
Plant selection can influence gopher pressure but cannot eliminate it. Realistic expectations:
Plants gophers actively avoid: Oleander (toxic), rosemary (strong aromatics), lavender (strong aromatics), narcissus/daffodils (toxic bulbs), gopher spurge (Euphorbia lathyris — claimed but limited evidence). Planting these alone does not protect other plants nearby — gophers will tunnel around avoided plants to reach preferred ones. Plants that work as barriers: None reliably. The "gopher plant" marketing is overstated. Physical barriers (hardware-cloth baskets at planting time, gopher wire installed under lawns) are the only reliable plant-level protection. Realistic landscape strategy: Use avoided plants where you want low gopher pressure (property perimeters, foundation beds) and combine with hardware-cloth root baskets for high-value plants. Professional trapping remains the only reliable solution for active colonies.