How Gopher Activity Can Threaten Your Foundation’s Stability

The threat gophers pose is often associated with damage to lawns and gardens. When gophers tunnel in soil far from a home, the damage is unlikely to affect the structure. Gophers become a concern when they tunnel into soil beneath a home and its foundation.

Gopher activity can affect a home’s foundation in several ways. At Best Pest & Wildlife Control LLC, we provide professional gopher removal and prevention services throughout Colorado, Orange County CA, Phoenix AZ, and New Mexico to help protect your home’s foundation from underground damage and wildlife threats.

Can Gophers Damage Foundation Stability?

Gophers are known for aggressive digging behavior. As they tunnel underground, they disrupt the soil in the areas where they are active.

A home’s foundation depends on dense, compacted soil to support its weight. As gophers disrupt soil and tunnels start to form, the density of the soil begins to deteriorate.

Soil weakened by active tunnel networks cannot support structures the same way compacted soil can. The ongoing activity of gophers tunneling beneath an area means that the once sturdy soil that supports a home starts to lose its stability.

Why Gopher Tunnels Near Your Home’s Foundation Pose a Threat

There is generally not an issue if gophers disturb areas away from where homes or other structures place their load on the supporting soil.

The issue emerges when gophers tunnel into soil near a structure’s foundation. Gophers often access areas near a home’s foundation because soil is often less compacted in these areas. Soil disturbance near a home’s foundation increases the risk of structural damage.

Gophers and Water: A Potential Compound Problem

While growing access tunnels to areas outside of a home alone can cause threats to the stability of the areas near these homes and structures, water further compounds this problem.

Because gopher tunnels create an alternative route for water to flow, there is an increased chance that water will access soil areas that may normally be protected from water exposure.

Water flowing through tunnel systems increases the risk of damage to nearby structures. Professional wildlife control helps eliminate tunneling paths that allow water to reach and weaken surrounding soil.

Gophers Near Your Home? Look for These Signs

Gophers are sneaky animals in their efforts to access homes and disrupt landscapes, but there are some early signs that will give away their activity.

If you notice soil mounds, soft or sinking ground, or cracks near your home’s foundation, there are likely gophers working their way around your property. When paired with visible evidence of tunnels expanding or holes in the surface of nearby soil, it should be enough evidence that gopher activity is happening too close for comfort.

What Makes Residential Properties Attractive to Gophers?

There are a few reasons why residential properties are a natural attraction for gophers. One of the main reasons is the access they provide to plant roots. In addition to this, residential properties have less access to existing pests that would otherwise threaten gopher populations.

Finally, once gophers find an area where they can access underground tunnels, they are capable of creating an extensive network. If the area continues to meet their needs, they are likely to stick around despite ongoing efforts to disrupt activity.

Active Gopher Threats Don’t Fix Themselves

Gopher activity may not pose an immediate threat. But over time, there is an increased chance that their presence will lead to damage developing on nearby structures. Because gophers can easily rebuild tunnels, addressing their activity early is important.

Your structure might look fine on the surface, but soil underneath it may be more easily disrupted due to tunnels like these. If there are no visible holes for gophers to access outside your property boundaries, they may have already accessed your yard long before you were aware of their presence. Even if you flatten their mounds and fill in their holes until they look like they never existed, you will ultimately only be disrupting surface access.

When left unmanaged, gopher activity can continue to threaten structures on your property.

How Professionals Handle This Activity

The risk that comes with potential damage to nearby structures means that professional services will need to address this in a way that lessens the chance of repeat activity.

By removing wildlife from residing near these locations and by limiting their future activities, experts help to reduce any possible scenarios where gophers have the ability or desire to disrupt nearby soil areas.

Stop Gopher Tunneling Before It Affects Your Foundation

At Best Pest & Wildlife Control LLC, we focus on stopping wildlife access at the structure itself. Serving clients throughout the Western United States, our wildlife exclusion service is designed to block entry points that allow gophers and other wildlife to tunnel near foundations, crawl spaces, and landscaped edges.

We start with a detailed inspection to identify weak spots, then install durable barriers and sealing materials built to hold up over time. This work limits repeat activity and helps stabilize the soil around your home. Exclusion is not a surface fix. It is a long-term prevention step that supports structural stability and protects what lies beneath.

If gopher activity is getting too close to your home, we are ready to help close those access points for good. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.