A new tool in the tool box to safely and organically exclude gophers and protect your plants

Gophers are out again in force and we are on it with Gopher goo.  We just drove one out of our own yard and into the waiting paws of our gopher kitty, Thaddius.  We mixed up the Gopher Goo with water ( 1pt goo to 5pts water) stirred and let it gel for about 5 minutes.  Then we added about 2 cups to the burrow and washed in down to plug the gophers exit holes (the holes he creates to waste our water and prevent us from drowning him in the hole). Then add more slurry form of Gopher goo to fill up his hole to the top and get it down deeply to get every nook and cranny of his home.  If he doesn't come out, he can just stay in there and become soil.  Either way the burrow is "out of commission".  The gopher won't dig it out because Gopher Goo is the consistancy of applesauce and he can't move it without getting sticky (which is very bad for a gopher, everything will now stick to his fur).  If the Gopher does survive to re-dig another burrow, it will be much smaller and easier to find and fill.  Keep and eye out for those tell tale mounds and get right on it . . . and then go sit on the porch and smile, your work is done with no traps to check or set, no poisons to worry about, no sound makers to find or replace.  You are done and your plants are safe.  Got a Gopher?  Gopher Goo!

Love a good testimonial : )

Now 'Gopher Goo' is carried at all 7 Miner's Ace Hardware stores, and after trying it they think it's AWESOME!!  : )

 Awesome Product Alert–Gopher Goo

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Kat

I must admit that normally I get more excited about plants than lawn & garden products, but this one has me really excited. What if I told you there was a product that could eradicate your gopher problem? What if I also told you it was non-toxic and pet safe? And what if it costs only pennies more than the toxic gopher poisons you have been using? I bet that if you have gophers, you are excited now too. Well read on because we are giving some of it away.
Gopher Goo is a brand new product that will change the way you deal with gophers. Gopher Goo starts out as a dry powder that when water is added, expands 300%-500% of its original size. When flushed down the gopher’s burrow along with added water, it expands to such a size that the gopher is either forced out of his burrow or forever trapped down below. In addition to trapping the gopher, Gopher Goo also makes much needed water available to your stressed, gopher nibbled plants right where the gopher was chewing on them helping to ease their recovery. Unlike wastefully running plain water down the hole with a hose, Gopher Goo holds it in place and keeps it where your plants can get to it. It also plugs the hole to prevent future water loss which is great in our arid climate.
Gopher Goo is a super absorbent starch and nutrient-rich combination made out of 100% organic materials, unlike the “water crystals” which are man made petroleum-based material that are toxic to plants and people as they degrade. It is scented with peppermint oil which is unfavorable to the gopher, but pleasing to us. Gopher Goo will break down naturally in your yard in about one year, feeding your plants as it does. It is pet safe, child safe and you don’t even need to wear gloves to apply it.
Gopher Goo is made here locally on the Central Coast by its inventor Heather Vallier, PhD.  You can watch Heather in the video below showing just how easy it is to use this product.
You can also get more tips and information about this amazing product at the Gopher Goo website.

Gopher Goo is now available at all seven of our stores.

Happy gardening without gophers!
Kat

Safe and Natural Gopher Control

Everyone wants a safe and natural way to control gophers, and no one I talk with really wants to use gopher poisons or traps. These methods are expensive, time consuming, and may or may not actually work. Gardeners want to save our gardens while eliminating burrowing rodents, and this remarkably easy to use product 'Gopher Goo' does just that. It is fast, easy, and gets the job done.

In our garden gophers, moles, voles and other burrowing pests are NOT tolerated, we simply mix up some goo with water, let it gel for a few minutes, and then fill their tunnels and burrows with this safe and natural starch based product and they are forced out, their safe home is now filled with goo and will remain so for years to come to prevent another gopher from moving into it.

They can be caught and re-located, or simply dispatched by your cat, dog or a handy shovel . . . either way they are no longer chewing on the roots of your plants and terrorizing your garden space. We just did this in our own yard, and the cheeky gopher was last seen running from our big tabby cat, literally toward the hills . . . it was hilarious to see the tables turned and the gopher on the run!

Although it is winter time it has been warm and gophers are still active and digging burrows for a winter breeding session. This is the perfect time to disrupt their life cycle and prevent a spring infestation of new gophers. Head on over to www.gophergoo.com and pick up some goo to have on hand so that when that next gopher intrusion occurs you are ready for action : )

Necessity is the Mother of invention . . . Gopher Goo is born. Gophers Beware!!

In the spring of 2009 my Cambria home was to be on the Spring Garden tour. The usual turn out is over 300 people, and since I have helped put it on I know that is a conservative estimate. I had waited many years for this opportunity and was poised and ready, the garden vital and strong and basically done to my exacting standards. One thing I was known for and it was true in this garden was the host of different plants I was able to grow . . . literally bananas and ginger in the same garden with natives and antique paper roses. We live in gopher country, and tropicals and roses are favored gopher food. All preventative measures were taken; the beds were lined with Stainless Steel mesh, regular examinations were done for new activity on the outside of this mesh, and so far so good in getting these plants nearly mature and full sized.

As I was tidying up one day in the garden I heard a sound . . . a chewing sound coming from the tropical garden. A "chewing-under-ground sound" that could only mean one thing . . . a gopher had come over the wire and had invaded the banana bed! And in fact that is exactly what was happening, the gopher was eating the banana as I stood there listening. How could this be happening?!? Right before the tour my biggest red banana was going to die, probably within a day or two. Half the root system was gone already I learned upon inspection, and the hole was a small vertical burrow, with no way to trap in it even if I could do that in time to save it.

From the center of the yard I stood listening to the gopher chewing away, and got mad. Really mad. MAD!! My heart raced and my blood boiled and I am sure there was steam out my ears, but all I heard was that awful chewing of my beloved banana tree. Just then wonderful inspiration came to me and I realized I had the solution to this problem right inside the house! I am a plant doctor and had been working with Cal Poly, SLO to develop and trial an irrigation product based on a starch soil amendment. What if this Starchy, gooey gel could fill up the gopher hole and drive the gopher out by displacement? I had nothing to lose by trying this, it would help the plant not dry out at the very least, and the gopher would get gooey too!

In to the lab and back out to the yard in a flash with a large cup of the starch granules, I poured it down the gopher hole and added water to expand the granules (300-500 times their original size is the claim). With in a very few minutes it filled up the hole to the top, and right in front of it came a very frantic gopher. A very large, very frantic gopher, who could not figure out what had happened to his hole and his tasty afternoon snack which was now covered with gooey starch and out of his reach. He popped out of the hole covered in goo and then tried to run back in as his hole was closing behind him, completely on the run now and clearly frightened. I put the cup over his head and called for my son to "re-locate" him. Both my son and I were pretty impressed at how fast and effective it was. The gopher was literally stuck to the inside, and we were happily AMAZED.

In a flash of inspiration the gopher problem was solved, the banana was saved, and Gopher Goo was born. I had invented a GREEN gopher control option. "Got a gopher? Go for Goo!!"