How to Get Rid of Groundhogs, Moles and Gophers

Locate the groundhog's two burrow openings. Find both the entrance and the exit hole. Look for an opening about a foot across surrounded by a large pile of dirt. Shovel dirt into the holes and stamp it down. Repeat daily and sometimes the groundhog will leave. Set up a live trap baited with alfalfa or vegetables. Put the trap in a high-traffic area. Release the rodent into a wooded, wild area.

Locate a gopher colony by finding the openings to their four-inch burrows. Try flooding them out with a garden hose. Use lots of water; gophers build burrows above the main tunnels and it will take time and water to fill up the burrows. Stamp the ground around the holes to collapse the burrows. Blow up the gophers using a precision instrument called a gopher blaster that mixes propane with oxygen and detonates with an electronic ignitor.

Look for moles by locating their fresh tunnels and molehills. Determine which runway tunnels are active. Stamp down the dirt and the moles will repair it within a day. Choose from the variety of lethal traps on the market that chop the mole in half, impale it or choke it to death. Set the trap along the tunnel at the entrance to a molehill.

Control rodents and moles by gassing them with carbon monoxide gas cartridges. Carefully fumigate the tunnels with car exhaust fumes. Rig up a hose yourself or buy a ready-made kit. Use a hose long enough to reach deep within the burrow. Seal the ends of the tunnels with dirt to hold the gas in. Try aluminum phosphide pellets as an alternative gassing method.

Hunt down and shoot rodents if you live in rural areas where they are a persistent problem. Find their feeding grounds and above-ground trails. Look for them at sundown or sunset when they're more likely to be seen near their holes. Make clean kills using a .22 or a .22 magnum caliber rifle. Use at least a three-power scope.