Best Gopher Baits

Updated for 2023

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BEST OVERALL
JT Eaton 166004 709-PN Bait Block Rodenticide Anticoagulant Bait, Peanut Butter Flavor, for Mice and…
$39.99
What We Like

We like the amount of bait in this bucket as well as the effectiveness. This is ideal for people who have an ongoing or chronic problem with gophers and/or other rodents.

BEST RUNNER-UP
BONIDE PRODUCTS INC 1 LB MOLETOX, Mole & Gopher KILLER
$18.23
What We Like

With an appealing lure and an excellent price, this comes in as our runner-up.

BEST WORM BAIT
Tomcat Mole Killer-Worm Bait: Ready-to-Use, Includes 10 Worms per Box, Not Availa
$14.04
What We Like

The added visual lure of a natural food source (earthworm) and high ratings make this a great worm bait.

How We Found the Best Gopher Baits

4 Reviewers

12 Products Considered

5 Hours of Research

3 Products Reviewed

3 Top Picks

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Best Gopher Baits

All pocket gophers, known often simply as gophers, make networks of tunnels that provide protection and a means of collecting their food. Gophers are larder hoarders, and use their cheek pouches are for transporting food back to their underground burrows.

Gopher tunnel entrances can often be identified by small piles of loose soil covering the opening in oblong shapes. Burrows are usually in areas where the dirt is softer and can be tunneled with ease. Gophers often raid vegetable gardens, lawns, or farms, and can cause expensive damaging to underground tubes or wires. This is why we’ve rounded up the top three gopher baits.

BEST OVERALL

JT Eaton 709-PN Bait Block Rodenticide

$39.99 Amazon Prime
Buy on Amazon

Last update on 2024-03-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Features & Specs
  • 144 bricks in each pail
  • 9-pound pail
  • Each brick 1-ounce rodenticide
  • Peanut butter flavored

When gophers are tearing up your lawn and garden, you want them dealt with quickly and permanently. If they’re inviting themselves to your yard, invite them to a picnic featuring JT Eaton Bait Blocks. With the active ingredient diphacinone, these specially formulated peanut butter flavored blocks attract gophers and eliminate them after they feast.

The blocks are ideal for placing throughout your lawn and garden, and inside gopher tunnels. Placing a multitude of blocks inside the tunnel and topping the entrance with a heavy board or brick should ensure the end of that nuisance.

The pail comes with 144 blocks and a tamper evident resealable lid. JT Eaton even offers a 1-year limited warranty to protect against defects. Wear gloves each and every time you place bait blocks or whenever disposing of dead rodents. Be sure to keep this bait out of reach from children and pets.

Rat poison works for groundhogs and it is legal depending on state law.

BEST RUNNER-UP

Bonide Moletox Mole and Gopher Killer

$14.04 Amazon Prime
Buy on Amazon

Last update on 2024-03-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Features & Specs
  • One pound of bait poison.
  • Uses cracked corn as a lure.
  • Apply one teaspoon into tunnels.
  • Exercise extreme caution regarding children and pets.
  • Around $12 for one pound.
  • Active ingredient is zinc phosphide.

Bonide Moletox Mole and Gopher Killer utilizes the active ingredient zinc phosphide (2.0 percent) and is designed to be poured into small holes you can poke in the roof of gopher tunnels. One teaspoon treats each active burrow. We love the low price of this product and found it successful if every active tunnel was treated.

This rodenticide uses cracked corn as a delicious bait. With a full pound of product, there is plenty to use in one-teaspoon doses in several tunnels and burrows. Be sure to wear gloves while distributing the poison and when disposing of dead rodents.

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BEST WORM BAIT

Tomcat Mole Killer Worm Bait

$18.23 Amazon Prime
Buy on Amazon

Last update on 2024-03-27 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Features & Specs
  • Ten “worms” per pack.
  • One worm per placement.
  • May take a few uses to eradicate the entire problem.
  • 5.6 ounces.
  • Active ingredient is bromethalin.

Tomcat Mole Killer Worm Bait is shaped just like an earthworm which is a mole’s natural food source, but this product also works excellently on gophers. To use these “worms” check for active tunnels (you don’t want to waste the bait with only 10 worms per box). While wearing gloves, place “worm” deep into an active tunnel where a pet or child cannot get to it.

Additionally, you can poke a small hole in the roof of a tunnel, place the bait worm inside, and then recover the hole with a piece of sod or a rock. Recheck the tunnel for activity a few days later. Be sure always to wear gloves when disposing of dead rodents and do so within health law guidelines.

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Not only can gophers damage your lawn, but they can also be a health risk.

Signs of Gophers

Both pocket gophers and moles both make mounds, but they are quite different looking. Pocket gophers and moles typically inhabit dissimilar kinds of habitats. Pocket gophers will most often inhabit drier sites than moles because gophers are herbivorous. Moles, however, typically occupy wetter areas than gophers because they feed on insects that rely on the availability of creatures such as earthworms grubs in the damp soil.

Moles will create runs or lifted lines in the ground. Gophers, however, do not create runs. So, if you’re seeing oblong, off-centered mounds and no runs in your yard, you likely have a gopher rather than a mole problem.

Gophers can cause excessive damage on your property, as a single gopher can build over 200 mounds in one year. These most often occur in early spring and early autumn. While burrowing underground, they can damage wiring, rubber piping, and root plants such as carrots and potatoes.

Not only can gophers damage your lawn, but they can also be a health risk. Gophers are capable of spreading hantavirus, leptospirosis, and even plague by way of fleas. They do have to potential to carry rabies, but gophers often steer clear of humans, so the risk of rabies is small. However, you should never attempt to hand-feed a gopher because of this.

Checking for Active Gopher Tunnels

Before setting out bait with poisons, determine which gopher tunnels are active by either pressing down a small section of the tunnel or by removing about a one-inch section of the tunnel’s roof. Mark these sections and check them again within 24-hours.

The tunnel is active if the flattened pathway has been raised up or if the roof is repaired. Only treat active tunnels to avoid pouring unnecessary poison in the ground where children or pets might get to it. You can mark active tunnels with small flags to keep track of areas to be treated, or that already have bait in them.

Keep a Lookout After Gophers are Gone

Once you eradicate gophers, continue to monitor the area on a regular basis and look for signs of reinfestation. Level all existing gopher mounds after they are gone. Keeping a garden or yard free of weeds or overgrown shrubs to see new mounds easily is crucial.

It is of extreme importance to check regularly for any gopher reinfestation because pocket gophers can easily move in from other areas, and these large rodents can create a lot of damage in a short time. If your lawn borders wildlands, vacant lots, or other spots that are a prime area for gophers, you can practically expect gophers to at least try to move back in regularly.

Be prepared to take immediate action when they do. It is far easier, cheaper, and much less time consuming to take control of one or two gophers than waiting until the population builds. At which point, these animals can cause excessive damage.

Trying to get rid of gophers for good?

Get a FREE Quote & BEST PRICE from a local exterminator

(866) 470-1609

Available Next Day

No Obligation Assessment

Guarantee Results