Walls and Ceilings - Removing Plastic Wall Anchors? Repair Holes?

Am replacing towel bars in the bathroom, and as usual, I've had one helluva time removing the old plastic anchors. Is there a trick to getting them out? Pliers only mangle the head. Trying to drive them into the sheetrock (with hammer and nail head) doesn't always work. And if I get them out cleanly, how do I adequately fill the hole? I tried jamming fiberglass insulation into the hole before joint compounding over, but that's not really adequate depending on the size of the hole.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

If they are just the plain old plastic ones, you should be able to put a screw into the anchor and then pull on the screw with a pliers. To fill the hole, it will require several coats of drywall compound, since each coat will shrink back as it dries, leaving a dimple.

Whenever the anchors don't remove easally I always take a hammer or end of putty knife and knock them in slightly, then apply 1 or 2 coats of spacle or drywall mud.

Thanks for your input, folks! I guess anchors just aren't my strong suit, but after pulverizing two yesterday, today's body count was much better. Screw and wiggling seemed to be the ticket for me, and I couldn't be happier, since it's much easier to fill a "clean" hole than a lumpy-bumpy one with an anchor corpse barely beneath the surface!

'Ppreciate the responses...