How to Stop Gophers for Good: The Complete Guide to Gopher Wire

Mainline Materials · Lawn & Garden

If gophers are turning your lawn into a field of mounds and chewing through roots and bulbs from below, gopher wire is the most reliable way to stop them. It's a buried steel barrier that gophers can't dig or chew through — install it once and the area above stays protected for years. This guide covers how gopher wire works, how galvanized and stainless compare, how much you need, and exactly how to install it.

What is gopher wire and how does it work?

Gopher wire is a heavy-gauge steel mesh installed just below the soil surface to create a permanent barrier against burrowing gophers. Because it sits underground, gophers tunneling up toward your lawn or garden hit the mesh and can't get through — they can't chew steel, and they can't dig around a continuous barrier.

The key is that the mesh is open, not solid. Water drains straight through it and plant roots grow right past it, so your grass and plants thrive while gophers stay out. It's a fix-it-once solution rather than an ongoing battle.

Why gopher wire beats traps and poison

Traps and bait are reactive — you're always responding to the last gopher, and as long as your yard is an easy target, more will move in. Poison also carries real risks for pets, children, and the owls and other predators that naturally keep rodent numbers down.

Gopher wire works differently: instead of fighting gophers one at a time, it removes the target entirely. Once a quality barrier is in the ground, the protected area simply stops being available to gophers, with no chemicals and no maintenance.

What to look for in quality gopher wire

Not all wire mesh is built for this job. If you've heard gopher wire dismissed as "fancy chicken wire," it's because cheap mesh fails fast underground. Three specs separate real gopher wire from a short-lived patch job:

• 20-gauge wire. Heavy enough to resist a gopher's teeth and the pressure of soil and foot traffic. Thin hardware-store mesh bends, tears, and gives gophers an opening.
• 3/4" hexagonal mesh. Small enough to block both mature gophers and the young ones that slip through larger gaps, yet open enough that it never chokes root growth.
• Corrosion resistance. Anything buried in damp soil has to resist rust, which is why quality gopher wire comes double-galvanized or in stainless steel rather than bare metal.

Galvanized vs. stainless steel gopher wire

Both options use the same 20-gauge wire and 3/4" mesh. What changes is how long the wire lasts underground and how wide the rolls run. Here's a side-by-side comparison:

Quick rule of thumb: choose galvanized for everyday lawns and garden beds where you want strong protection at the best value, and stainless when the planting is permanent, the soil stays damp, or you simply want to install it once and never think about it again.

How much gopher wire do you need?

Start by measuring the area you want to protect in square feet (length × width). Then add about 10% extra — gopher wire has to overlap a few inches at every seam so there are no gaps, and you'll trim some around edges and obstacles.

• Each galvanized roll covers about 500 sq ft.
• Each stainless roll covers about 400 sq ft.
• Plan on roughly 100 ground staples per roll to anchor the wire while you backfill.

To skip the math, the coverage calculator on the 20 Gauge Gopher Wire product page tells you exactly how many rolls and staples your project needs.

How to install gopher wire

Installing gopher wire under a new lawn or sod

This is the most common install, and it's well within reach for a homeowner:

• Clear and grade the area down a couple of inches below your finished soil level.
• Roll out the wire across the whole area, overlapping each strip a few inches at the seams so there are no gaps.
• Secure it with ground staples so it stays put while you work.
• Cover the wire with 1" to 1-1/2" of soil, then lay your sod or seed on top. Roots grow straight through the mesh and your lawn never knows it's there.

Installing gopher wire in planters and raised beds

For beds and planters, line the bottom of the space and run the wire a few inches up the sides to form a continuous basket. Overlap any seams and staple or fasten the edges so there's no gap for a gopher to push through, then fill with soil as normal.

How long does gopher wire last?

A correctly installed barrier protects the area above it for the full life of the wire — an estimated 6 to 10 years for double-galvanized, and 25+ years for stainless steel. Both resist rot and corrosion underground, and because the openings are 3/4", lawn and plant roots grow normally the entire time. Once the soil and sod go down, you'll never see the wire again.

Does gopher wire stop moles?

Gopher wire is engineered specifically for gophers, not moles. That said, a number of customers have reported that after installing it, neighboring yards developed mole tunnels while their protected area stayed clear — the moles simply couldn't break through the buried mesh. It isn't a guarantee for moles, but it's a welcome bonus many homeowners notice.