Traps. We use box traps but many people have success with wire traps. You can get gassers but they only work *sort of*

Where do you get the traps? How do you go about setting them up?

I Have 2 dogs! Gretta and Nina They work wonders on any critter that comes around. With the exception of the frog and turtles.

You can get traps at livestock feed stores, Ace Hardware, and probably other hardware stores.

Whichever kind of trap you use, you have to find their run. You can take a metal rod and push it into the ground a few inches away from where you see gopher workings (piles of dirt), until you find where it's hollow, you dig down to the tunnel and set the trap in the tunnel. Directions from there depend on what type of trap you get.

Hi I was in home depot this weekend and was told to try moth balls. Has anyone tried these before?

Here is a link to a great web site from the University of Nebraska. It explains various control procedures for gophers including traps and toxicants. Information on other wildlife pests can be found at http://icwdm.org/handbook/index.asp#rod

Here is a link that might be useful: Pocket Gophers

While I'm a live and let live kinda guy, when it comes to gophers destroying my yard, I take on a caddyshack kind of persona. This is my method of last resort and something that works every time for me. Go to the store and get a large carrot. Cut about 1 inch off the leaf and and save it. Drill a 3/8" hole down the center of the carrot following the core as far as your drill bit will reach. Fill the hole with gopher bait and plug the hole in the carrotwith a piece of the end you saved. Push the carrot down the hole and cover the hole with dirt. If you tie a piece of string to the carrot and tie it to a stake, you can pull it out in a day and check to see if they've taken the bait. A dead gopher in the tunnels will keep any others away for quite a while.

moth balls did not work for us nor did any other "remedy" that we have tried we have holes every where!

A tip for using the claw-like traps. Set them in the holes and then cover the hole with a piece of heavy black plastic sheeting. We caught twice as many that way.

Stick a hose in the hole and let it run.

I sort of forgot about the hose and it ran 2 days straight without any surface flooding.

The gophers either had a pretty amazing tunnel system or latched onto the aquifers. Either way, I never drowned them out. They came back and it cost me an extra $75 on my water bill.

I did buy poisin.

I did buy a cheesy solar powered inserts that supposedly emitted vibrations that irritated them. They look like garden lights, only they absorb the solar rays and send annoying vibrations through the Earth.

I no longer have gophers, but I'm not sure if it was the poisin, vibrations, flooding or if they simply died, as is the case in so much of mammal life.

I tried every method, including ammonia, water, gas bombs, traps, mothballs, juicy fruit gum, cats, Critter Ridder (pepper stuff) and poison granules. The poison was the last thing I put in the ground as a last resort. It seems that is what finally worked. It's been 5 weeks since we have seen a gopher in our yard, and the neighbors are complaining they have some, so I guess it worked! I found the main tunnel, and opened it up wide. Then I liberally sprinkled the poison in the hole, and left the hole open. When I came back the hole was filled in and I never saw another critter. So whether that worked or something else I stuck in the ground finally got them, I'm not sure. I do know that the hibiscus they were devouring has come back lovely green and is blooming, and nothing else has died or disappeared suddenly underground. Also visit the Garden Clinic forum. There is a very extensive thread devoted to gophers, with something like 90 or so follow ups with every kind of method of getting the little pests out of your yard.

I gave up and got an outside cat to patrol my property.
She has done a wonderful job. No critters in my yard at all anymore, she even alerted me to the rattle snake on the patio!

I have an Irish Terrier, he won't dig and tunnel to get the gopher, but, if sees it out of the hole, or pushing dirt, he will go into overdrive and kill the bugger.

He's gotten one gopher, and a few roof rats, his breed is a ratter, but a high legged one for chasing, not digging.

I have a new gopher this winter, its only a matter of time before I am greeted with a variety of gopher parts strewn across the lawn.

Check this out!! GophBuster.com

Here is a link that might be useful: GophBuster

Try a "Blackhole Gopher Trap" made by the VICTOR Co.
Years back I had a MAJOR Gopher problem here.
The gopher POISIN got rid of most,but also got rid of 2 of my DOGS too!!
Tried the BlackHole Gopher Trap and it worked great.
Caught 5 in one day. Had tried the wire traps with little
success.
Two traps work better than one. Place them back to back
a few inches apart in the gopher`s run so you don`t have
to guess which direction he`s traveling in.
I bought my traps over 15 years ago from Peaceful Valley
Farm Supply and they`re still in good shape.
You might try Googling "Blackhole Gopher Trap" and see if they or any one else still sells it.

wow, this is amazing to read every time I visit.. OK, fought this battle too and have read tons about it, forums, university research, etc. I did the gas bombs and car exhaust thing, I just think the gas disperses too much and gophers move too fast and far to be effective, same with water flooding. Just not crazy about the traps, too much digging for the reward in my experience. Probably a great solution though from my reading, just not for me.

Poison pellets well placed did seem to slow them down a lot, so I began combining their use (way in the ground tunnel and covered to prevent other critters harm) with lots of ammonia near my best plants, and habanero peppers ground up and pushed into the gopher holes. Get the nastiest peppers you can find, protect yourself with gloves and maybe even safety goggles to chop them up!!

The combination seems to have caused them to thin out, die or relocate.

And do NOT touch any of this stuff without seriously dirty garden gloves, your scent will ruin anything you try otherwise.

This combination done somewhat religiously seems to have ended a years long losing battle with the SOB's, mine are pocket gophers pretty sure.

good luck all

Plant a castor bean, you'll get a beautiful tree and no more pocket gofers. I had them making a total mess out of both my front and back yard. A friend told me about the castor bean so I tried one in the front. No more holes. Still have the little monsters in the back so going to plant one back there to.

Pam