We use gasoline, doesn't take much as the fumes will drive them out. We also use a 22/250 and a .243, flat shooting and quick little guns. Keep a handgun handy, as sometimes they will come out before you are back to your rifles. Keep in mind gas works really well on snakes too. Saturday night we are having a coyote shoot, so we may get a woodchuck or two as well.
They can be rough on horses, we've got 4 pastures totaling 170 acres, so at least we can move the horses around.

DFrost

My brother used anhydrous ammonia on prairie dog holes. Worked pretty well until the gas blew back on him. Fortunately, no lasting injuries for him.

I used to have a fairly steady problem with ground hogs under my porch and in my garden. I used gas cartridges from the local garden center. Farm supply stores should carry them too. It looks like a stick of dynamite. You stuff a fuse into one end, light it and toss it down the hole. Then, you shovel the hole closed so all the fumes stay down in the burrow. The burrows often have two entrances. You will need to find the other one and shovel that one closed too.

The ground hogs had to cross my neighbor's yard to get from the woods to my backyard salad bar. Then, one day, their Akita, Kerri, found out that ground hogs are the best fun ever. You can chase them, pounce, shake and toss them. I think the word got out in the ground hog community. No problems since then.

When I don't have to time to dedicate to the 22-250 method due to other chores I use my SUV and 50ft piec of garden hose. Buy a coupler that goes on your exhaust pipe and has a hose fitting on the other end. Shove it down each hole for about a half an hour. IT works alot better for me than the "bombs" and when I am outside working for hours at a time I just have to go move my truck every half hour to a new hole. I bought the coupler for $13.99 at my local feed store.

Geez, does this post remind anyone of the movie "Caddyshack"? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> I would personally hire Bill Murray to come out and eradicate the little beasts. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Derek, I've seen that method used to flush rats out from under infested barns. With a half dozen terriers on the other sides, it's a real fast action party. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Lol, well I wanted creative answers!!!! Thank you all for the advice.
Interesting method Beth, I wonder how my husband will react when I tell him to go pee down the holes in this weather. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Derek, great idea, what is this coupling thingy called? Just so I don't sound like a total idot at the feed store.
We tried the gasoline thing, they are still here, denning up and don't want to leave.
We saw this great thing online, I think it was called "the rodentator" or something. It was great, it pumps the holes full of gas then electrically ignites it and the shock wave kills them and colapses the tunnel system. Only problem is that its over 1000.00. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
Caddyshack...yup thats us! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Bob, I need a terrier! Was in the tack room yesterday and I hear this squeeking, so I look arround and find this HUGE rat jamed in this hole. What had happened, was the monster stole a horse cookie, and backed through the hole wedging its mouth shut on the cookie that was too big to fit through the hole. I pointed this out to our border colie cross and she just looked at me. :rolleyes: Well I seperated what was sticking out of the hole from what wasn't with a shovel, and the dumb mut lunges foreward......for the cookie. AAARRRGGGHHHH. Fast action party indeed! I want my JRT! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> (He passed on several years ago) Anyway enough crying, thanks for all the great Ideas!!! I will keep things updated on which ones worked this weekend.

Use an old, beater car or truck if you are going gas them with exhaust.

The new emisions systems control carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons exceedingly well. Enough so that the exhaust on a new car will be virtually all carbon dioxide, nitrogen, some left-over oxygen and water vapor.

An old beater with a poorly adjusted carburator will make all the carbon monoxide you would ever need. A lawnmower motor will work well too. Put's those hogs right in that great clover field in the sky.

I don't know what the coupler is called but it come sin a box with a picture of a mean looking rat down a hole fighting the gas fumes!! It should be in the same section as the traps etc. And yes my 2002 Durango with 18k miles does take alot longer than say a 30 year old beater. It takes about 30 minutes per hole versue 7-10 with a real ill running sled of some sort. But I like the leather in my Durango even if it is a poor mole killer.

By the way-I would love to see about 1/2 dozen terriers outside an rat infested barn with the rats running for cover

Thanks for the info Derek.
It's a beautiful sight man, just beautiful. All those creepy furry bodies flying, just beautiful. In case you couldn't tell I HATE rats. Mice too. All they do is wreck up the barn and piss off clients. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I work around horse-people and so a side-effect of that is working around a lot of little Jack-Russell Terrorists. I don't much like them - until I helped move hay one day, there were 4 or 5 little terrorists, on full alert - tail stiff and wiggling - ready for ????? I found out - every other bale or so moved - out came RATS - not mice but RATS - small ones, big ones, they were everywhere. I think those little dogs killed them all. I never saw anything more efficient in killing. It was a slaughterhouse in there. Rats flying through the air, rats trying to climb the walls, rats trying to climb us to get away from the dogs! And, not only did they kill the rats, they swallowed them whole. At the end of the day, those little dogs could hardly move, they were bloated and suffering from eating about their own weight in rats. I had a brand new respect for those little terrorists after that! But, I still don't want one. Might like to borrow some here and there to clean out my barn, though!
Molly
http://workinggermanshepherd.com