Raised beds with galvanized hardware cloth on the bottom. Or bury the same to exclude them from the garden.

cats

Cats? LOL... Mine used to do a good job, but they've gotten lazy.

Traps and poison seems to do a good job, but since you can't use traps, I'd go with the poison. If my neighbors would do something about them, I probably wouldn't have half the problem.

I'd tell my city to come take care of them or I'd go to the next town over to buy some traps.

Kevin

That is ridiculous for the city to ban traps. It is going to cause big problems for them. Anyway, I always put veggies in raised beds with galvanized HW cloth on the bottom. (1/2" type). I have TONS of gophers, and the HW cloth works.

My dog gets some gophers. And I do sometimes trap them. But I guarantee you none of the deterrents work. You have to exclude them or kill them. Macabee style traps work pretty well.The traps are placed underground and nobody would know you were trapping them, nor is there much danger to any other critters. You can cover the location where you put the trap with a rock to make sure dogs don't dig it up. So far my dog has not dug up any traps, though he often tries to dig up the holes. He can smell which ones are fresh. Anyway, if you want to know more about the traps, follow up. I'll be happy to tell you what I know.

Are you sure? Maybe someone is pulling your leg. What possible reason could there be to ban gopher traps. Gophers are rodents. Are mouse traps also banned?

Besides the raised beds with hardware cloth, I also use the things you shove into the ground that either chatter or squeak every 30 seconds or so. The only time I've had gopher activity in the last 3 years is when the batteries die. We have plenty of gopher activity in other areas of the property!
I certainly wouldn't COUNT on these, though! Your gophers might find them to be music to their ears! Nancy

I have seen extensive gopher mounds right next to noisemaker devices that are SUPPOSED to deter gophers. I think they flat out don't work. At best, they may deter gophers from entering a new area, but they will not eradicate them after they are already there. Maybe some specific brands work better than others.

--McKenzie

Like I said, I wouldn't count on them. My experience is that there is no gopher activity unless the batteries die. Then we'll see some. Replace the battery and they're gone. Our other yards where we don't use them are full of the little suckers!
Maybe it would be best to install them early, before planting or they wake up from hibernation (if they indeed hibernate). We have them going year round cause we don't know when they're going to start showing up.
Nancy

We never had a problem until one month ago when new mounds popped up in flower beds almost daily. Our gardener pulled a up a geranium plant to show us how the root was eaten. He also told us to bury some used coffee grounds near each mound. Thanks to him, and the neighborhood coffee house, there haven't been any new mounds for the last week.

We are keeping ours fingers crossed. Good luck to you!

Hmm... Never heard of that one pennypond.

I wonder if I sprinkle some of them around the base of my maters and peppers that they'll be discouraged. I already do this -- but, maybe if I do it religiously, it might have an effect on deterring them. I can't put them at the mounds because they're in my NEIGHBOR'S yard.

Kevin

UC Davis has studied gophers extensively.

Here are two URL's:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/QT/gopherscard.html
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7433.html

I will put one of them in the "Optional Link URL" box so that you can click on it. But you can also cut and paste the above URL's. If you want to solve the problem, read the info from UC Davis. There are a lot of commonly recommended remedies which just do not work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gophers--UC IPM

I found this blurb in that link that the poster above linked in their message regarding pocket gopher control:
LEGAL STATUS
The California Fish and Game Code classifies pocket gophers as nongame mammals. This means if you are the owner or tenant of the premises and you find pocket gophers that are injuring growing crops or other property, including garden and landscape plants, you can control them at any time and in any legal manner.