I'm not sure what varieties of daffodils will grow in SoCal, since I'm up here in NorCal, but I also have the nasty plague called gophers and I can tell you they do not eat daffodils (botanical name; Narcissus).

However, they don't have any problem plowing through the soil around them. Same thing with Gopher Spurge that's so often recommended to keep gophers away. They won't eat it, but it doesn't deter them from digging around them.

Unfortunately, the only thing that my husband and I have found that keeps them at a reasonable number is trapping. We also have about 1.5 acres and what seems to work pretty good is keeping up on trapping during the spring and early summer. That's the breeding season, and if you get a good number of them at that time, then the population is kept down.

We got busy one year and didn't trap for six months starting in late winter, and OMG!, we had dozens of the little bast*ards all over the place. We've been diligent about trapping for the last two years and now they're down to about 2-4 adults as far as we can tell.

They'll tell you they are territorial and you'll only find 1 per acre, Bulldroppings!. The year after we forgot to trap, we caught over 35 in 6 months when we started up again. I have lost dozens of plants and trees to the varmints even with setting the roots in wire gopher baskets. Btw, those baskets rust away after only 6 months in the ground.

Best trap design we've found are the good old Macabee traps, and now there's a improvement on them called "The Gophinator". This is the company http://www.traplineproducts.com/ ,they're only mail order. Made in California. The site has some good advice on setting them.

Btw; !!WARNING!! for those who are squeamish or very tender hearted. There are graphic pictures of many dead gophers and moles on the gophinator web site. If you can't take looking at that sort of thing, don't click on the link. Everyone has now been WARNED.

It's pretty much the same design, but improved by being made of stainless steel and being easier to set. They also seem to trip better. The stainless steel in addition to lasting longer, allows you to clean them thoroughly of human scent. When the macabee traps get rusty, they hold onto scent. I have no relationship with the company, I'm just a happy customer. They're a little more expensive, but I think they are well worth it.

You must get them into a fresh hole, less than 24 hours old. We've found baiting with apples works well, they love them. And you have to attach a strong wire about a foot or so long and attach the end to a strong stake, as they will pull the trap into the tunnel and you'll lose it.

Good Luck!! You're gonna need it. ;)

I really didn't want to hear that, but it is what it is. I was hoping daffodils were the answer.. Sigh. DH didn't get a doctorate degree to dig ditches in retirement. We are pretty puzzled about critters with 4 legs. We have some that we think are rats or ground squirrels, but they actually eat the tree. The whole dammn fig tree!!! DH caught one in a snap trap, and planned to get rid of it yesterday, but it magically disappeared. The dead rat took the whole trap with it to unknown land. I think it was a coyote or bobcat, but who cares. The rat is gone. Just, we now have to buy more traps.

Yeah, varmints are frustrating. The doctorate degree comment made me laugh. DH is a finance major, retired, and does a lot of digging. He also does remodeling, painting, etc. But his grandfather was a carpenter, so hands on stuff is in the family.

We actually don't do the the "dig out both sides of the main tunnel and set two traps facing both directions" thing. Way too hard, time consuming and unnecessary.

What he does is find a very fresh side tunnel. The trick is that it has to be fresh, within 12-24 hours, and only dig down that side tunnel a little until you see the main tunnel. This is only about a couple minutes of digging. Set the trap, using gloves (very important, you don't want them to smell human scent on the trap) set the trap down the hole, snap part towards the main tunnel. (Make sure you've attached a wire with a stake to the trap before this) Put a small apple at the other side of the trap, you want it at the back end so they smell it an go towards it, through the snap part. Then fill the rest of the tunnel back with dirt and put something over the hole to prevent light getting to it. We use a small piece of plywood or a plastic garbage can lid. Push the stake into the ground next to the hole. And that's it. Much less digging and just as good a catch ratio.

These side tunnels are the ones you see on top. The ones with the splayed out piles of dirt. They use it to get rid of excess soil in their main tunnels. If they see them disturbed they will come and investigate and to plug them up again. Then they smell the apple and go further into the side tunnel towards the apple smell and that's when the trap will get them.

You can only use a side tunnel when it's fresh and only once. DH goes around and checks traps every couple days or so in between April to July. That's the best time for success in trapping. The young ones are easy to trap, but if you get a breeder! Yay! Fewer gophers for that year!

If you trap consistently during those months, you usually don't have to do any more the rest of the year. We have about 4-6 traps baited all the time then. This method can really cut down on your gopher population.

Although they don't repell gophers, at least you can enjoy the flowers. The Tazetta division of daffodils seem to do very well in low chill areas, as do the jonquils. Ice Follies generally return reliably. Goldfinger and Barrett Browning have reported to be successful. There is a large yellow that has thrived the next street over from us, but I don't know the cultivar's name, unfortunately. (It is larger and taller than King Alfred.) If you like minis, tete a tete has topped out all the rest for performance in my garden. Costco usually offers tete a tete by the bag in the fall, so they are inexpensive, too.

It is pretty frustrating to see a favorite plant disappear down a hole, and you never even get to confront the enemy. So here is a photo of a gopher to glare at instead. ;)

There are 3 ways to control gophers. You can trap them, poison them, or exclude them. I don't do poison for a few different reasons not least of which being that my dogs would go after a dead gopher in a heartbeat. Exclusion works great for small areas but becomes burdensome for larger ones. That leaves trapping. You will most likely suck at it until you get the hang of it but then you'll be a mighty gopher killer.

I'll have to try the apple trick though. Anything that increases the kill rate is fantastic in my book.

damn gophers.

One other way is to encourage barn owls to live and nest in your neighborhood. Gophers and voles are important prey items for barn owls. While they will not eliminate the rodent's numbers, nor really control them, they can be effective in reducing their numbers.

I second this, and have tried but so far no luck. We used to have an owl living next door. The neighbor had a wide and deep hedge row between us and her, all on her property. It was all overgrown and wild like. It was like that for about 20 years and a large owl had claimed it as it's territory. We never had any gopher problems back then.

The one day she gets a wild hair and hires a crew to come in and "Clean up the mess". Well one afternoon of chain saws later, all the bushes, brush, etc is gone and a sad and confused looking owl is sitting on her roof for a while. She comes over to me and says she's scared it's going to attack her. (she's kinda looney, but that's another story). I tell her, owls don't attack people, but people tear down owl's homes! She asks me what I mean, and I told her she just destroyed it's home. She still didn't get it and is in general afraid of all mother nature so I gave up explaining.

I've since been trying to lure it back, but no luck yet. I haven't tried an owl box yet as it was a Great Horned owl and I don't think they use them. But maybe I'll have more luck with barn owls, I think I'll try a box. We have several very tall trees and brushy areas with natural open space between. And a lot of gophers for them to eat!

'Carlton' was a good increaser in So. Calif. z10. Lasted longer than 'King Alfred'.

I have a neighbor's nice big cat napping in my garden. And nearby there was a dead gopher!!! Obviously a good hunter.

We do have snakes, but this year we've seen only one and it was a juvenile.

tazetta narcissus, I ended up with huge clumps. It liked dry slopes fine & dandy.

BarbJP's trapping method is what I use, the apple bait I will have to try. Always used carrots, but apples have a stronger scent. The key thing is to check the garden daily and put out the traps RIGHT AWAY. They usually hit the trap within an hour.