Quick Answer
Carbon monoxide treatment can be effective in dense tunnel networks when runs are properly sealed. This is an advanced option that demands strict legal and safety compliance.
The Gear
- Approved burrow injection device
- Personal CO monitor
- Shovel and tamping tool
- PPE per device label
- Warning flags
The Process
- Confirm local regulations and label legality before any treatment begins.
- Identify active runs and pre-seal secondary openings to prevent gas escape.
- Insert the injection probe from an approved, purpose-built CO device into the main tunnel and start treatment per label timing — never an improvised automotive exhaust setup.
- Seal the injection point immediately after dosing and monitor nearby vent points.
- Return after 24-48 hours to check for new mounds and retreat only per label limits.
Bagger Pro-Tip
This is a method for a large, established tunnel network that trapping keeps missing — for a single-gopher situation it’s overkill. The published guidance is consistent on one point: seal every opening you can find before starting, or you’re just venting the tunnel to atmosphere. Gas work rewards precision, not cowboy energy.
Safety Warning
Carbon monoxide is lethal and odorless; never use in enclosed areas, near structures, or without certified safety equipment. This page is about pressurized injection devices, not the burning cartridges sold as “gassers” — those are a fire hazard as well as a gas one, and have their own warnings on the bait and fumigant pages.
Get the Gear
Pressurized CO devices and burning gas cartridges are two different things, and this site keeps them apart. The cartridges are on the gopher bait and fumigant page, alongside UC IPM’s verdict that cartridge fumigation “isn’t effective because gophers can seal off their burrows rapidly.”
This page isn’t linking a specific device. Every pressurized CO unit I could find sold on Amazon under this category is actually a reusable exhaust-pipe attachment meant to route a car’s exhaust into the burrow — exactly the improvised setup the warning above tells you not to use. If you go this route, buy from a dealer selling equipment actually labeled and approved for burrow fumigation, and follow that label exactly.