If there are gophers or groundhogs anywhere near your garden, you’ll understand the urgency of my search for something like a non-violent, wind-powered gopher repelling device… while there’s still some hope left for the baby vegetables struggling to live between the great gaping holes in the ground!

folk art hummingbird whirligig

The theory, according to philfear, who has had considerable experience with persistant garden rodents, is that gophers like everything to be peaceful and quiet.

Whirl-a-gigs — whirligigs, you may call them, or windmills, or spinners — send vibrations down into the ground as the blades turn in the wind. The rodents can’t stand the disturbance to their peaceful routine, and they pack up and leave.

And apparently a whirl-a-gig will also work to repel moles, while decorating your garden in fine folk art style.

True, the gophers probably just move on down the road to someone else’s garden… but maybe it will spark a whole new fad for whirligig art!

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. domestika

    That makes very good sense! – a bit like putting a cut-out silhouette of a hawk onto your window to keep the little birds from coming near and crashing into it. Taking a hint from Nature, eh?

  2. Laura

    This is interesting! Where I live they have a problem with Grackles and Squirrels. Some places put out fake stuffed owls (a predator of the pests) to frighten them away.

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