We've got a bounty of burrowers as well. Like John, I'll be
implementing the high-input solution next year--making
wire-lined/trenched beds. This year I don't have enough in the ground
at our new place to warrant much worry, so I'm mostly observing them.
My next-over neighbor said that when he finds a new gopher mound, he
pushes the loose soil off the top to expose the hole. Then packs the
hole, as deeply as possible, with powdered lime. He claims that the
gophers loathe it, avoid the hole, and retreat. The grassy swales
behind his house have far less gopher-pocking than the Insta-Meadows
behind our place (i.e., former owners ran mowers over it; I'm letting
it grow up).
Like Loren, I'd have no qualms about bonking and roasting the little
buggers. They don't seem to have any other predator species around
here. The snakes seem to get hit by cars (while basking on warm
blacktop) before they get big enough to eat these rodents. We don't
have great blue herons this far upland (dry) from the Sound. We could
use more badgers, rattlesnakes, gopher snakes, and owls. ;^)
Please note, though, that eating gophers is one cause of tapeworm in
dogs. At least a vet friend tells me. I trust that this can be
eliminated (no pun intended) by carefully cleaning (gutting) and
thoroughly cooking the gophers.
These rodents were food animals for settler and First Nations people,
and I have this recipe from the Lost Moose Catalogue: