gopher or cut worm or both?

10 years ago

First time posting a thread here. I hope someone sees it and I am doing this right. I have a gopher or other burrowing animal. I am in Burbank, CA in the San Fernando Valley. It is a daily occurrence just about now. I go outside to visit my veggie garden (first one in numerous years), and another plant is either totally gone or cut to the ground. I have done quite a bit of research online and learned that cutworms will de-stalk tomatoes and even eggplant, but since there is obvious evidence of a burrowing furry critter as well, I am not sure who is cutting and leaving toppled over plants. The ones that have disappeared entirely underground, which thus far as two awesome hot spicy heirloom chile pepper plants, are obviously the animal. A few weeks ago, I lost a tomato by having its stalk severed in half. I dug up the base/root system (these are Bonnie brand plants in those degradable pots), and there was a curled up caterpillar (cut worm) in the soil. So I am thinking I am dealing with both little darlings. I rather not kill the ****ing gopher but I sure would like him to leave. I have used neem oil treatments for both prevention of chewing insects (it works to some degree but washes off easily and needs re-app), aspirin treatments, and baking soda treatments for early blight on one tomato (nixed that!). I threw a secret blend of spicy hot ground spices around my plants. If I had only known there was an animal living underground, I would have done containers or a raised bed. Just yesterday I lost an eggplant to severed stalks and today a beautiful gorgeous fat round tomato plant. I have heard they can be rooted (like other plant 'cuttings') but have not had any success.

I am not sure I am just venting or asking for advice. Or both. I am at my wits end....replacing plants this late in season is getting costly. I might just take up my most precious and either build or buy a raised bed planter this weekend, and transplant them to another part of yard within the confines of the framed box.

One day, while fencing off my garden, I heard a crunch and saw a stalk of one large tomato plant just disappear underground before my eyes! Caddyshack sure comes to mind!

Should I take up what I can and replant in containers? Either way, it is costly!

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Comments (4)

gorbelly
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Cutworms aren't usually able to damage established plants. Anything with a stem that is relatively mature and fibrous or thicker than a pencil is not going to felled by a cutworm. If you've seen a gopher, I think you have your explanation.

Google "castor oil repellant" for moles/voles/gophers. It's usually granular, sometimes liquid, and you sprinkle it on the ground and water it in. It becomes an irritant in the soil and smells and tastes unpleasant to burrowing rodents. It inspires them to find somewhere else to live and forage. You have to start from a central point and then work your way outward in application in stages, like you're using it to slowly push them out and away from your garden..

I honestly don't know how well it works, but it seems like it's worth a try, given how frustrating things seem now.
Christen Genova
Original Author
10 years ago
thank you for replying! yes i have read about it. I guess it is worth a try. that is sort of what i have been doing with neem too, leaf application and soil spray. but the neem was initially for insects. honestly, i feel like crying. just yesterday i was admiring that one tomato, how it was flourishing....bigger, totally deep green leaves, awesome, and boom wilted this morning. i think the cutworm did get that one plant a few weeks ago (the stalk was much thinner, like you say) and the cut was even like a scissor. since then a few peppers (those that did not disappear), were gnawed at with more jagged edges, like teeth, so I suspect the gopher did that! also my spaniel dog was causing more havoc trying to get to the critter, even with garden fencing. my hubby finally stepped in and staked everything a bit better for me. i will try the castor oil repellant....why not? and I think it might be worth it to try and transplant my prize plants elsewhere. In California especially with water restrictions right now, it is especially awful to have this happen, for obvious reasons! I would like a tomato that did not cost me $500.00 when all is said and done!

p.s. i have not seen the gopher as such, just holes in yard and a dog digging open those holes. it could be a vole, which is also a vegetation eater!
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gorbelly
10 years ago
Ugh. I had a vole move in late last summer. It ate all my sweet peppers and gherkins and gnawed the gherkin vines until the plants died. It gnawed some cherry tomato plants, but by the time it had taken up residence in the yard, the tomatoes were already huge with thick "trunks". I was going to try the castor oil this year, but some chipmunks moved in this spring, and I think they kicked the voles out. Of course, now I have chipmunks...
gorbelly
10 years ago
Another option is a capsaicin/hot pepper spray. But that doesn't really address below-ground damage.