Professional gopher trapping for Riverside homeowners. Safe for dogs, cats, and children. 60-day guarantee on every service.
Riverside's landscape creates ideal gopher habitat — irrigated lawns, established landscaping, and soil softened by sprinkler systems year-round. The Santa Ana River corridor and the city's extensive greenbelt areas mean that gophers can move between properties easily, and a single gopher left unchecked can create tunnel systems stretching 200 feet under a residential yard.
Most gopher control companies in Riverside use rodenticide bait — zinc phosphide or diphacinone — because it's fast and inexpensive to apply. For households with dogs, cats, or children, this creates real risks. Gophers push bait pellets out of their tunnels onto the surface where pets can find them. Cats that catch and eat poisoned gophers absorb the toxin through secondary poisoning. Neither risk exists when trapping is used instead.
Riverside's residential neighborhoods each have characteristics that affect how gopher infestations develop and spread:
Gophers prefer moist, workable soil. Riverside's dry climate means that irrigated yards are dramatically more attractive than surrounding open land. Front and back lawns with regular sprinkler schedules are primary targets, especially in established neighborhoods like Canyon Crest, Woodcrest, and Alessandro Heights where mature landscaping provides abundant food sources.
The rural-residential areas of Riverside County east and south of the city proper — including Woodcrest and the foothills toward Moreno Valley — have large lot sizes where gopher populations can reach significant levels before owners notice. A single acre can support 15 to 20 gophers in separate tunnel systems, each capable of destroying root systems, underground irrigation lines, and garden beds.
Newer developments along the Riverside city limits — particularly those bordering Box Springs Mountain Reserve and the Jurupa Hills — experience ongoing gopher pressure from surrounding open habitat. As gophers colonize freshly installed lawns and landscaping, populations can become established quickly without proactive management.
The technician walks your Riverside property probing for active tunnel runs. Fresh mounds with moist, loose soil indicate current activity. The inspection identifies how many separate gophers are likely active based on mound patterns and tunnel layout.
Professional traps are placed inside the gopher's main tunnel runs — completely below the surface. Irrigation flags mark each location so you always know where traps are set. Your pets can use the yard normally throughout treatment.
The technician returns to check and reset traps. Carbon monoxide treatment can be used to reach deeper nest chambers. Service continues until no new gopher activity appears — all backed by a 60-day guarantee.
Gopher control service is available throughout the city of Riverside and surrounding unincorporated areas of Riverside County, including:
Call 909-599-4711 to confirm service availability at your specific Riverside address.
Our recommended Riverside provider is Rodent Guys — chemical-free trapping specialists serving Riverside County since 2011 with a 60-day guarantee. No contracts required.
Visit Rodent Guys → ☎ 909-599-4711In Southern California, gophers are far more common than moles. Gopher mounds are horseshoe- or fan-shaped with a plugged hole on one side. Mole mounds are more symmetrical and volcano-shaped with no visible opening. If you're seeing fan-shaped mounds with disturbed soil pushed to one side, it's almost certainly a gopher.
Unlike some parts of the country, Riverside gophers are active year-round because the mild climate never drives them into dormancy. Activity typically increases in spring and fall when gophers are expanding their territories, but damage can occur in any month. Irrigated properties see consistent activity throughout the dry summer months.
Yes — this is one of the most common and costly gopher problems in Riverside County. Gophers chew through drip line tubing, PVC irrigation pipes, and buried wiring. Homeowners often discover the damage only after noticing soggy areas in the lawn or dead plants despite regular watering. Trapping eliminates the gopher before further irrigation damage occurs.
Yes. Properties bordering open space or with persistent gopher pressure can benefit from scheduled recurring service. Call 909-599-4711 to discuss maintenance options for your Riverside property.
Yes — unlike bait treatments, trapping leaves no chemical residue in the soil. Your vegetable garden, fruit trees, and edible plants are completely safe throughout and after the trapping process.