My Neighbor Has Gophers — Will They Spread to My Yard?

This is one of the most common questions we receive, and the answer is direct: yes, gophers spread from property to property, and an active infestation next door significantly increases your risk of developing one. Understanding how and when this spreading occurs helps you decide whether to act proactively or wait and monitor.

How Gophers Move Between Properties

Gophers are territorial animals that maintain and defend individual tunnel systems. They do not actively seek to colonize new properties — what drives movement between yards is primarily two mechanisms: territorial expansion and juvenile dispersal.

Territorial expansion occurs when a gopher with an established tunnel system extends its territory into adjacent soil. There are no fences underground. A gopher established in your neighbor's yard tunnels continuously as part of normal foraging activity, and those tunnels extend in all directions without regard for property lines. If your yard has attractive conditions — irrigated lawn, planting beds, root-rich soil — the gopher's expanding tunnel system will eventually reach it.

Juvenile dispersal is the more significant spreading mechanism. When a female gopher weans her litter — typically in spring — the young are expelled from the mother's tunnel system and must establish new territories. Multiple juvenile gophers searching for unoccupied territory simultaneously in late spring and early summer is the primary driver of rapid multi-property spreading. A neighbor's untreated gopher that produced a litter in February may release three to five juveniles in May, each of which will move through the soil looking for an unoccupied territory. Your yard may be the closest available one.

How Quickly Can Gophers Spread?

A gopher can extend its tunnel system several feet per day under favorable conditions. From a property line, a gopher in your neighbor's yard can reach the middle of your yard within weeks if no barrier exists. Juvenile gophers dispersing in spring can travel significant distances overland or underground in a single day when establishing new territories.

The practical implication: if your neighbor has visible gopher activity and it is spring or early summer, monitoring for new mounds in your own yard daily is prudent. Activity can appear quickly once spreading begins.

What Increases Your Risk

Properties that share a long border with an infested neighbor have more exposure than those with only a corner contact. Properties with highly attractive conditions — heavily irrigated, well-amended soil, diverse plantings — draw spreading gophers more strongly than properties with dry, compacted, or sparsely planted areas. Properties downhill from an infested neighbor face additional risk because gophers naturally expand into the lower, often more irrigated terrain downslope.

What You Can Do

You cannot control what your neighbor does with their gopher problem. You can act quickly when activity first appears in your own yard — early treatment of a single newly arrived gopher is far less involved than treating an established infestation. Some homeowners in high-risk situations choose to have their property inspected and treated proactively in spring when neighbor activity is visible, addressing any newly arrived animals before they establish.

Talking to your neighbor about coordinated treatment is worth attempting. A property where one side is treated and the adjacent side is not will experience reinvasion continuously from the untreated side. Coordinated treatment on both properties at the same time produces better outcomes for both parties.

Frequently Asked Questions

If I treat my yard but my neighbor doesn't treat theirs, will gophers keep coming back?

Yes. An untreated neighboring infestation is a permanent reinvasion source. Your 60-day guarantee covers retreatment during the guarantee period, but properties adjacent to untreated neighbor infestations benefit most from ongoing maintenance service rather than single treatments.

How do I know if the gopher in my yard came from my neighbor's property?

You cannot know for certain, but timing is informative. Activity appearing in your yard shortly after visible neighbor activity — especially in spring when juvenile dispersal occurs — strongly suggests the connection.

Can I ask my neighbor to treat their gophers?

You can ask. There is no legal mechanism to compel a neighbor to treat rodent pests on their property in most California jurisdictions unless the infestation creates a documented public nuisance. The practical solution is treating your own property and considering ongoing maintenance if neighbor pressure persists.

Call 909-599-4711 — if your neighbor has gophers and you want to get ahead of spreading activity, we can assess and treat proactively throughout Southern California.