Santa Cruz County has some of the most beautiful natural and landscaped property on the coast of California. Don’t let gophers, moles, voles, or ground squirrels cause unsightly and expensive damage to your Santa Cruz home, agricultural property, or business anymore! Our highly experienced pest control technicians can visit your Santa Cruz location for a free consultation and quote.
Non-Toxic Pest Control in Santa Cruz, CA is a priority
We at Got Gophers know how important it is to the residents, farmers, and business owners of Santa Cruz to maintain a toxin free environment to protect the health of their land and wildlife. It is so important in fact that California Certified Organic Farmers, the agency that leads the state in organic education and certification, has been headquartered in Santa Cruz since its creation in 1973.
Therefore, we make it our promise to the residents and business owners of Santa Cruz to always use safe, non-toxic pest control methods when we help rid them of any unwanted critters. Our technicians are trained in a variety of pest control methods that do not necessitate the use of harmful chemicals, toxins, or poisons to get rid of burrowing critters such as voles, moles, gophers, or ground squirrels. We do this to protect the local wildlife as well as the environmentally conscious heritage that Santa Cruz has always maintained.
Pest Control in Santa Cruz, Ca
Santa Cruz County is home to 36 beautiful public parks, over 15,000 acres of farmland, and 14 State Parks. This fertile abundance of nature is home to a wide variety of wildlife, some of which are considered pests when left to their own devices.
This abundance of land resource is a huge incentive for the farmers, business owners, and homeowners to protect their properties from the damages caused by the many burrowing pests of California. According to Wildlife Damage Management a single acre of gopher infested land can see a 25%-46% decrease in natural or harvestable vegetation. Therefore, it is so important to get ahold of a Got Gophers professional as soon as you see signs of a burrowing mammal infestation.
Gopher Pest Control in Santa Cruz, CA
The pocket gopher is the king of agricultural and landscape pests (residential and commercial). These small (6-10 inches) burrowing critters can be sneaky and are rarely seen outside of their burrows unless they are travelling to greener pastures after having extinguished an areas viable vegetation. Here are a few ways to identify a gopher infestation:
- Crescent shaped exit mounds. A single gopher can create up to 3 mounds in a single day. They are crescent shaped with the burrow plug off center along the flat edge of the mound.
- A row of vegetables or small plants dragged down into the burrow from the roots.
- Sudden death of previously healthy trees. Gophers will use their rodent incisors to girdle tree roots. Girdling is when they use their teeth to gnaw the nutrient dense layer of a tree’s trunk or roots cutting off the rest of the tree from vital nutrients it needs to survive.
Vole Pest Control in Santa Cruz, CA
Voles are tiny mouse like creatures (hence their nickname Meadow Mice) that can cause un-told amounts of agricultural damage if left unchecked. They are not much different in habits as other burrowing pests, but their propensity to attack specific vegetable species such as artichoke, beet, brussels sprout, carrot, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, spinach, sweet potato, tomato, and turnip that makes them such a menace to the farmlands of Santa Cruz.
Here are a few tips to identify a Vole infestation:
- Voles spend quite a bit of time above ground scouting and gathering even though they spend much of their lives within their burrows. This offers the opportunity to catch a glimpse of your pest and identify them easily.
- Voles also have a unique burrowing system. They create a maze of “runways” leading from their many burrow entrances. These runways are well travelled and are often littered with their greenish- or grass-colored droppings near their entrances. As the droppings dry, they turn brownish gray.
- Unlike other burrowing mammals, Voles don’t create mounds. Instead, the entrances to their burrows are just holes 1 ½ – 2 inches in diameter. Discounting long uncut grass or low to the ground vegetation cover, it is relatively easy to spot several entrances to a single Vole burrow within a small area.
Mole Pest Control in Santa Cruz California
Moles are small cylindrical shaped mammals that spend their entire lives underground. A moles diet consists of worms, grubs and other insects found in the soil. Though they may not be directly attacking your precious vegetable garden or crops it is the way they hunt for their supper that causes damage indirectly to vegetation. Moles create highly visible surface burrows while hunting for worms and insects which appear as raised ridges in the topsoil of an area.
This obvious sign of mole activity is what damages the surrounding vegetation, uprooting crop, and garden plants. This up-rooting of the vegetation dries out the plants and eventually kills them.
Ground Squirrel Pest Control in Santa Cruz
Ground Squirrels are the burrowing cousins of Tree Squirrels and cause expensive damage to vegetation and property all year around. A ground Squirrel infestation can grow rapidly as females can have litters of up to 8 young per mating season. Ground Squirrels look like tree squirrels but usually have mottled brownish fur with a brown, white or gray underbelly. Find more detailed information on how to tell the difference between the different types of squirrels in Santa Cruz here.
If you need pest control help in Santa Cruz for any of the critters listed here or have any questions about our non-toxic pest control techniques do not hesitate to contact us for more information or a free consultation and quote!