Gophers live wherever they can forage. Their main food is plants, roots, and stems of fresh vegetables, fruits, and vegetables, which are easily found in your garden. The presence of this animal in your garden will certainly bring discomfort because of the devastation it brings. There are many ways to help you solve this difficult problem, one of which is using coffee grounds. Coffee grounds are a waste we get after having delicious cups of coffee, but it brings a lot of useful uses. So do coffee grounds repel gophers? Let’s find out in the article below.
Why gophers are not good for your garden?
Gophers can cause loads of damage not only to your vegetable garden but also to your own home. They have a habit of burrowing in the garden, creating large mounds of soil that cause loss of beauty, besides affecting the growth of plants as well as affecting their productivity. They love to eat vegetables, so to protect your crops, absolutely prevent this animal from appearing in the garden.
Not only that, but the gophers’ burrowing also makes the power lines or water pipes underground that you have. The consequences are not positive at all, you have to spend a lot of money on fixing them. Not to mention the bad smell they bring is also extremely unpleasant.
The reason why gophers hate coffee grounds
Coffee grounds are a waste, but they can help keep this nasty animal away. Not only beneficial when used for gophers, but coffee grounds can also repel rodents that destroy your garden like squirrels and moles.
The reason that coffee grounds can repel gophers is because of the scent it gives off. For us, coffee grounds may have a pleasant and attractive aroma, but not for gophers. According to the study Diversity Awareness Lauded by The American Biology Teacher (2002), they hate strong scents and coffee is exactly that for them.
How to use coffee grounds to repel gophers?
Using coffee grounds is an effective way to prevent gophers, but it must be used properly.
It’s actually very simple to use. You just need to spread them on the gopher’s area in the yard, specifically where the holes they make are. Or if you want to be even more effective, mix them into your potting soil. Note that you should mix it well with the soil so that the coffee grounds seep everywhere the gophers can go. This is also very beneficial for the growth of plants because coffee grounds contain a lot of nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus, followed by Environmental Science and Pollution Research, and it is considered a cheap and convenient organic fertilizer.
Some tips to keep gophers away from the yard
There are a few really useful ways we can put an end to gophers’ infestation. The first and simplest way is direct traps. This is a really good and humane way instead of using poisons to kill them. After trapping the gophers, we can move them to another place so they can’t come back to your garden anymore. For this method to really work, use the right traps, place them in the gophers’ burrows, and use their favorite fruits and vegetables as bait. Be aware that always check traps to prevent your pet from getting caught.
The next way is to use scents that gophers hate. Gophers hate strong scents, so use herbs like rosemary, musk, or lavender. You can plant them around the garden or use essential oils sprayed around vegetable beds. Note that it will lose its effectiveness after it rains or after a long time, so consider the usage cycle. As mentioned above, the scent of coffee grounds also helps to repel gophers very well, but instead of using them as above, we mix them into the soil for the best effect.
Which animals hate coffee grounds?
Coffee grounds are a popular product when we want to scare away harmful animals from our garden because it is not only environmentally friendly but also easy to find and cheap.
The first can be mentioned the effect of coffee grounds in repelling insects, which was researched by Zack DeAngelis, the creator of Pest Pointers. Coffee grounds contain caffeine and diterpenes, which coincidentally are insects. You can use coffee grounds to keep winged insects out of your garden. It is considered an insect repellent. You should burn the coffee grounds so that its scent can fly everywhere, bringing the best effect.
Not only that, but people also use coffee grounds to repel slugs, ants, and mice. The bitter taste and strong aroma of the coffee grounds are not really among the favorites of these species. Sprinkle coffee grounds around the planting area and they should definitely stay away from there.
Bottom line
Gophers as well as other rodents are a real concern for your garden. Therefore, it is very important to take appropriate measures to prevent them. At such times, consider using coffee grounds because of the benefits it brings to your garden. Not only does it help repel gophers, but it can also enrich the soil environment and create better conditions for plants to grow.
