Skip to main content

Are Ground Squirrels & Gophers the Same Thing?


Question: 
Are  Ground Squirrels and a Gophers the same burrowing rodent?

Answer:
It depends upon who you ask.

It's common for people in Canada, Montana, and Minnesota refer to ground squirrels as "gophers."  Technically, they are wrong, but what matters is that is that the person they are communicating with uses the same term. 

Some others, think that ground squirrels and gophers are the same digging critter or they truly have no idea what they are dealing with and they call them the first word that comes to mind. Often that word or words are not fit to print - especially if the burrowing rodents are causing extensive damage and their holes are a safety hazard.

Ground squirrels and Gophers actually fairly easy to tell apart. The Gopher is chunkier with beady eyes, small ears, and buck teeth. The Ground Squirrel is sleeker with larger eyes, perky ears, and their front teeth don't dominate their face. 
GOPHER


Gophers are underground eaters and love plant roots. Although sometimes they eat above ground.
Ground Squirrels usually forage above ground, eating food producing plants, ornamentals and at times, insects and eggs.

Gophers are nocturnal and can be above ground at night.
Ground Squirrels are diurnal and are above ground during the day.

Gophers have crescent shaped plugged holes. When they dig the push the dirt behind them. In fact, they often leave mounds of dirt throughout an area.
Ground Squirrels do not hide their holes - they do not plug the top. They excavate the excess dirt and pack the sides as they tunnel. 

Unfortunately, both Ground Squirrels' and Gophers' burrows can cause extensive damage to athletic fields and pastures. People, horses and cattle trip in these holes and can be severely injured.
Burrow Blocker Ground Squirrel Control
GOPHER HOLE
Burrow Blocker Ground Squirrel Control
GROUND SQUIRREL HOLE
Gophers are solitary animals and can have up to a 2000 ft. territory.
Ground Squirrels live in colonies that can consist of several dozen animals.

For detailed information on ground squirrels and gophers, visit the following UC Davis, IPM sites:
Gophers
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7433.html
Ground Squirrels
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7438.html

Both of these burrowing rodents can be extremely destructive. Please contact me or visit the Burrow Blocker website, if you'd like to learn more about these diggers and ways to control them.

Quick quiz: What's the name of the burrowing rodent at the top of the page?

~Lisa
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Lives in that Hole?

Admit it. Holes can be mysterious. When we see a hole, we wonder what lurks below. Even Alice found the rabbit hole intriguing. Maybe it's because we know that there is more than meets the eye. It may not be Wonderland, but ground squirrel burrows can be 6 feet deep and 35 feet long. They have multiple entrances and have nursery, food and sleep chambers. A kit fox's home often has a key hole shaped entrance. A badger's entrance is often shaped like the letter D and gophers can make a crescent, C-shaped mound. If only all holes could be identified with a letter from the alphabet at their entrance! HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S IN THAT HOLE? Unless you are some nature TV host getting paid the big bucks, it's not such a good idea to just stick your hand in the hole to reach for whatever is inside. 1.    OBSERVATION -   Start by getting a comfy lawn chair, a cool drink and sitting back and relaxing awhile. Observe who g...
1 comment
Read more

Ground Squirrel Control Remedies Can Make You Nutty

Are ground squirrels making you a little nutty? What crazy methods have you tried to control them? Before we created the Burrow Blocker, our ranch was over run by ground squirrels. We were so desperate for solutions that we tried almost everything to get their population under control. Since we didn't want to risk poisoning our dogs, cats or other wildlife with pesticides, we tended to get pretty creative. Here are a few crazy things that we've tried: Wrigley's Gum - I'm not sure why it had to be Wrigley's gum but we heard it worked, so we tried it. First we put the sticks of gum in the holes and a few weeks later, when the ground squirrels were as plentiful as ever, we thought maybe we should have chewed it first. We had lots of holes and lots of gum and our jaws got tired pretty quickly. All we ended up with was fresh breath and gum stuck to our shoes...and still too many ground squirrels. Water - The next idea was to just fl...
19 comments
Read more

Ground Squirrel Dogs

Dogs love to hunt for ground squirrels. Below, is one of our squirrel hunters from the ranch. Actually, Pepper is more of squirrel chaser and not much of a catcher. We rarely have squirrels at the ranch, so Pepper doesn't get much practice. Here she is sitting on her buddy, Brutus, in the duck blind. (Don't tell Mike, but his great duck hunting dog is really a cuddly lap dog - even in the duck blind.) Dogs really can help with ground squirrel control. Jack Russell Terriers, Rat Terriers or pretty much any dog that is feisty enough will make an excellent squirrel hunter. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and patience to get those digging rodents. Unfortunately, when a large property is ridden with hundreds of holes, the task becomes pretty much impossible for a dog. Of course, it doesn't mean that the dog won't love trying! When our dogs go up on the hill, they are on high alert for ground squirrels. Sometimes they get lucky and a neighboring squirr...
13 comments
Read more