Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
qdog_gw

groundhogs

qdog
19 years ago

How do i rid myself of these pesky critters??? they have taken shelter under my new shed, and before they ruin the footings, i need to eradicate them...

Comments (67)

  • pennycp
    18 years ago

    Thanks for the info - I was about to buy some of that to try. That was my last non violent option, and now it's gone...Weeeellll.....I am not ususally a proponent of killing things just b/c it's more convenient for someone - but I do believe there will soon be a bounty on a certain groundhog family living in my backyard.....

  • steve_nj
    18 years ago

    Trapping and dunking work well.

  • wardw
    18 years ago

    I'm going to trap and remove woodchucks until I get caught. As to moth balls, until this year I would not use them, basically for the reasons mentioned above. But after the groundhogs kept avoiding the trap, and rodent bombs didn't seem to get them I decided to go nuclear and put moth balls in their holes. Since then I've trapped one and haven't seen another since. Are they being extra shifty, and staying out of sight? Probably. Even if they are gone it won't be for long, as the young one will be out prospecting for real estate soon. So there will be more moth balls in the holes I can't fill, and the trap will be ready to go.

    The next time you watch Bugs Bunny, think about having a little more sympathy for Elmer Fudd. The fellow is just trying to make a living. The current plague of woodchucks is directly tied to a Fudd shortage statewide, which is tied directly to development. How many Fudds are left in your phone book?

  • Annie_nj
    18 years ago

    My dad gets 50 cents for every ground hog he bags up in the mountains. He sights in his gun, and the farmers get rid of a pest. So I should tell him he is a Fudd?

  • wardw
    18 years ago

    Tell your dad to come by anytime, Fudd or not, but all guests must come armed to the teeth. There was a very wet groundhog in my trap when I got home from work. Being an outlaw, I transported it to a large wildflower field a few miles from home - good luck to him.

  • kkfromnj
    18 years ago

    "It is actually illegal in the state of NJ to trap and relocate the groundhogs--so don't get caught"

    Thats what I was also told about squirrels. After much conflicting info I finally got the go ahead from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife ( or was that Game). I was told the preferred method was to drown them but I could also relocate up to 5 miles away to private property with permission or to state land. I've been trapping 40 to 50 squirrels per year for the last 4 years. I drop them off at the water treatment plant at the end of Moonachie Ave. Thats where I also bring the groundhogs. Oh, one more thing. When I began trapping squirrels I would spray a little white paint on their tails to verify they were not returning. After the first 40 or so it became clear NONE returned.

  • veggienewbie
    18 years ago

    I've been having lots of trouble this year with "deer" eating my hostas and last month my dog had a nasty territorial meeting with groundhog that had taken up residence in a large wood pile. (Fortunately, my dog won.) Could it be goundhogs have a taste just for hostas? Nothing else in my garden has gotten a taste test. Any suggestions?

  • kkfromnj
    18 years ago

    veggienewbie,

    According to Havaheart the preferred groundhog baits are
    Fresh string beans
    Sweet corn
    Lettuce
    Peas
    Cantaloupe
    Strawberries
    Cucumbers
    Peaches
    Vanilla extract

    I catch mine on broccoli though last year they eat most of my parsley and ALL my brussel sprouts :(
    That was the last straw.

  • wardw
    18 years ago

    They love anything in the cabbage family, which is how I bait my trap. But they will damage any plant you have if you love it enough: they can tell. One bit a salvia greggi in two back in May, and nothing eats salvia greggi. They do come in handy though, if you're on a diet. Last year they harvested all my corn, string beans, and melons for me, saving me the trouble. How KK handled the loss of brussel sprouts is beyond me. Garden grown sprouts are a different species altogether from store bought ones, just thinking of them makes me hungry.

  • kkfromnj
    18 years ago

    How KK handled the loss of brussel sprouts is beyond me.

    Pushed me OVER the edge, ended up killing one and almost (by a hair) killing the other. I was NOT proud.

    Garden grown sprouts are a different species altogether from store bought ones

    You got that right. As a child I would almost puke when my Mom tried to make me eat them. About 5 years ago I tried fresh ones completely different world.

  • hunt4carl
    18 years ago

    Guess I'm lucky: my neighbor's kid up the street is a top-
    notch archer in high school, and he has free range of all our back yards. Just LOVE seeing those little B-st--ds
    shish-ke-bobbed !!!

    And oddly enough, this thread has convinced me to try growing some brussels-sprouts next year. . .

  • EssexClaire
    18 years ago

    After the Great GroundHog War and Relocation Program of 2004, I started this season fully prepared to chicken wire my beds again. I hesitate to mention this upon pain of angering the Great Rodent in the Sky, but so far this season, so good. Our backyard fence backs up to an acre of scruby woods. We attribute this year's lack of veggie-eaters to the fact that neighbor's cat Missy is fully grown this year. We've seen her eating caught prey, so maybe she's on groundhog patrol.

    Yours in sympathy,
    Claire

    P.S.--Brussels sprouts, what a wonderful idea.

  • Annie_nj
    18 years ago

    Only if the cat is a bobcat or larger!

  • thunder_road1
    18 years ago

    The low-voltage electric fence has worked like a charm for me....cost about 100 bucks or so to set everything up. Back up the fence with chicken wire fence and bend the top of the chicken wire fence out (horizontal)from the garden about 6-10 inches. The chicken wire fence should not be sturdy - if anything gets past the electric wire...a wobbly chicken wire fence with a 'ledge' at the top that needs to be navigated is an excellent back-up. Works really well.

  • flowersandthings
    18 years ago

    The traps as suggested.... "spooking" them as suggested. Or maybe since they love your shed you could make them a little house? :)

  • mulchwoman
    18 years ago

    Hmm--
    Brussels Sprouts? Sounds good to me..
    Pat

  • lizinnh
    16 years ago

    Why the concern for mothballs? If it is not near a vegetable garden, what are folks concerned about?

  • joeb.nj
    16 years ago

    Get a Havahart trap. Had a really destructive woodchuck for a year. Bought a trap and, eight hours after baiting it (banana), problem over.

    Make sure you get the right size trap, read the instructions, leave a little water if you're setting it while at work, and have a way to transport the (feisty) little guy five to ten miles away.

    I got my trap at Ferris Farms in East Brunswick. Believe it was about forty dollars.

  • ellenr22 - NJ - Zone 6b/7a
    16 years ago

    These are suposed to be good to repel groundhogs:

    Visual stimuli like strobe lights, mylar tape, scarecrows, and scare-eye balloons.
    Â Auditory stimuli like ultrasonic devices and loud noises.
    Â Motion activated water sprays will also deter wildlife as well as companion animals.
    __________
    f the area to protect is small, woodchucks can be excluded using a 4-foot high hardware cloth fence with a mesh size smaller than 2 by 2 inches. Do not use chicken wire, as it will rust and weaken quickly. To prevent digging, bury the bottom of the fence 10Â12 inches below ground or bend the lower 12 inches of the fence outward in an L shape about 1Â2 inches below ground. The height of the fence above ground should be at least 3 feet. To prevent woodchucks from scaling the fence, you can add an electrified wire 4Â5 inches off the ground and 4Â5 inches from the outside of the fence. Bend the top 15 inches of the fence out at a 45-degree angle for extra protection from climbing chucks. Be sure to reinforce the gate as well so that woodchucks cannot dig under it.
    _________

    --ellen

  • fmart322
    16 years ago

    My wife killed my brussel sprouts, I'm thinking of getting rid of her. JK, or am I?

    When I first moved into my house, there he was, Mr woodchuck. I thought It was going to be "the fight for the garden" with him. Then, the people behind my house, their cat had kittens and they come into my yard. I haven't seen Mr woodchuck since. Then again, someone may have put a contract out on him.

  • kkfromnj
    16 years ago

    Before we know it, the scourge of many gardens will be back. New Jersey Game of the Week.

    {{gwi:90030}}

  • MissMyGardens
    16 years ago

    Breaded Woodchuck Cutlets...LOL!

    I don't come to this forum that often but this thread made the cruise over worth it!

    Between the deer, rabbits, chipmunks and woodchucks I don't know how to keep things growing anymore.

    One can only buy so many different kinds of smelly substances to spray, scatter and hang around anything green.

    I just know the 3 mongers I've seen sauntering down the driveway are reproducing in that cavernous burrow under the shed as I type.

  • ofionnachta
    16 years ago

    It's the deer in our neighborhood right now, eating up my next door neighbor's shrubs. She tells me her daughter's boyfriend is going to be sitting on the roof with his bow---out of season right now & not in a legal area but I'm not telling.

    Neighbor across the other way has trouble with groundhogs in his veggie garden every year. He traps them & releases in another state! PA.

  • jerseywendy
    16 years ago

    This thread cracked me up, but I feel your pain, too. I've trapped and relocated too many squirrels and chipmunks to count over the past 5 years or so. Luckily our yard is woodchuck free (knock on wood). I am, however, fighting with rabbits beyond anyone's imagination. Their favorite food are my roses. :( :( Despite putting up a fence inside a fence, they manage to find their way in. They avoid the trap at all cost - I've only managed to catch one over the past year. What gets me the most upset is that they bypass my hubby's vegetable garden only to chow down on my roses.

    ---
    Wendy

  • kkfromnj
    16 years ago

    At first, when I tried to trap the hogs I noticed they didnâÂÂt like feeling the cage on the bottom of their feet. Covering the bottom with a light layer of dirt up to the trip plate solved that problem, might help with the rabbits.

  • diytrying
    15 years ago

    Haven't seen nearly as many critters since the fox had kits and the coyote is around. Hope nobody is stupid enough to kill them.....

  • grounddweller
    15 years ago

    if you people need groundhogs gone, let me know i will remove them and it goes for coon,fox, possum. i dont use posion or guns. i use a shovels, and my dogs. my dogs locate them in the ground and i dig down to them tail them put them in a pottatoe sack and relocate them.

  • grounddweller
    15 years ago

    IF you need my sevice you can email me at pain4642@aol.com for pest control.

  • freijomil
    15 years ago

    i have this large thing that looks like a groundhog under my shed...it used to be at my neighbors house, but liked my yard better.....i saw him yesterday with a rabbit in his mouth...he took it to his den...im concerened...from what ive been reading, they are not carnivores...also i have a 3 month old jack russel...this thing is twice his size....im afraid for my puppy...my kids are scared...animal patrol cant do anything...help please

  • deewah
    15 years ago

    If I had groundhog problems I would set a trap with some sexy cantaloupe and strawberries. Once I caught the Ba$-ta_rd I would fill the trap with mothballs and cheap perfume (preferably from CVS). I would let him sit there for about 2 hours then release him back into my yard so he could warn the other terrorist about messing with me.

  • eibren
    15 years ago

    I'm wondering where you live.

    Could it have been a fox? They will live in underground homes.

    It almost sounds like a large member of the weasel family--a wolverine--but I don't think they live in burrows.

    In any case, if it kills and eats rabbits, I wouldn't let my young dog out.

    You might want to call your state game commission and ask them for advice.

  • antvolpe_earthlink_net
    15 years ago

    Currently engaged in World War III with about 4 groundhogs. The previous owner of our home actually FED THEM for four years. WE FOUND THIS OUT AT SETTLEMENT. Now we have a slew of them.

    We've trapped two so far and have at least three left, one of whom is pregnant. VERY PREGNANT.

    Assuming we manage to trap and relocate the rest of the horde, what is the best way to keep them from coming back?

    Our exterminator also suggested a rather cruel method of killing them off: bubble gum. Exactly how inhumane is that?

  • millie42
    15 years ago

    We had some big @ss thing enjoying our yard over the last 3 weeks. When I would go out to the deck, it would run under our shed (where it had dug 3 huge holes).

    Since yesterday morning, we have been blaring a hip-hop station on a small radio on the floor of the shed.

    Have not the seen the 'darling' since then.

    ;-)

  • fuzzywuzzy
    15 years ago

    I'm afraid to ask this - but how does bubblegum work?

  • bigwuhead
    15 years ago

    I love this thread and have to share the great lengths my parents went to at their house. They had numerous groundhogs over the years and we tried EVERYTHING. We trapped a few and let them go in a lovely new setting. My dad tried bleach, amonia, motor oil, firecrackers, he even concreted in the hole and entire base of the shed, to no avail. Our groundhog sported a lovely streak of bleach down his back. Over time they just became used to us, they would sit in the garden and eat the tomatoes and not run until the last second. They would even come up to the sliding glass doors and tap on them (I kid you not). Unfortunately we couldn't shoot them, or I think my dad would have. Trapping was the only way.

    Cristina

  • wardda
    15 years ago

    My neighbor and I have an arrangement, he shoots them and I bury them. The only other method that ever worked was live trapping them - one year 13 in 30 days. The problem with trapping is that you are just transporting your problem to someone else. I've read that certain dog breeds are useful in groundhog control. This year a new new item has been added to the woodchuck menu - chili pepper leaves and tomatillo leaves. I've grow both plants for decades and never saw any damage. I buried that woodchuck on Monday.

  • MissMyGardens
    15 years ago

    Fuzzywuzzy, chewing gum eaten by groundhogs or other small animals will ball up and block their digestive tracts leading to their demise.

    I've been sorely tempted over the past 2 months of having almost everything eaten by these groundhogs and rabbits.

    I know exactly where their burrows are since I see them everytime I'm slashing, hacking and pulling up the Chinese Wisteria vines that are like an old "X-Files" episode where huge vines take retribution on humans!

    The deer are doing less damage now than the other two but still a pain. That will, of course, reverse itself come colder weather.

    Since I stopped ground feeding birds because of chipmunk infestation they've taken to nipping plants at the stems and just leaving plant lying on the ground. They're even climbing trees in attempt to get at suspended bird feeders.

    Moles have evidently found bulbs I relocated about 5-6 weeks ago. They're using holes excavated by chipmunks in addition to new ones and I just know by raised earth trails they're not just eating slugs under there. They've tunneled into almost every new plant I put into that garden. Mole repellant is a joke and garden has faithfully been covered in Bug-Geta to kill slugs.

    Saw "mole poison" in Home Depot the other day. If I wasn't afraid some other innocuous animal/bird would eat it I'd put it down holes and where I see mole furrows to my new plants! Gonna have to dig up every place I put bulbs to see if they're eaten and need to be replaced. Had site mapped out so knew where to put perennials and new bulbs in fall.

    I'm almost ready to give up first gardens put in this year. There are too many bugs, insects, critters, invasive vines/weeds, cement clay and black spot carried from trees to plants for me to fight constantly.

    Spend more time chasing, fencing, protecting and spraying/spreading "whatever" repellant than actually gardening.

    The groundhogs actually climbed up a 2' high container and pulled down the 3' chicken wire fence to finish off the Tithonia plants they'd been chomping back to stubs over past month and a half.

    A friend lives next door to a local school and people have been trapping their groundhogs and dropping them off on school property at night. He found 5 of them sitting on his patio one morning and total count in his yard is over 25. There's a town ordinance of fines for trapping, killing and/or relocating groundhogs. Some are doing the nasty deed silently as a last resort but most people around here have stopped vegetable/flower gardening altogether.

    Now I know why.

    Feel so guilty complaining about this kind of thing when I think about people starving because wars, natural disasters, corrupt governments and the like.

    On the bright side one of my Black Swallowtail caterpillars made a chrysalis in the hour I was NOT watching but I'm still thrilled.

    It's the little wonders that make all the rest of this stuff recede into the background for a...

  • stevef0001
    15 years ago

    I noticed a groundhog in my backyard over the summer, I haven't tried to get rid of him yet, but wanted to know if now is the time or should I wait until after winter when they become more active?

  • mondragon
    15 years ago

    The side of my yard is part of a groundhog hiway of tunnels and paths that cover the neighborhood. The builder of the big condos behind us, instead of being neighborly and working with the existing houses to upgrade existing fences just put in a new fence with a 1.5ft gap between it and the old one and that's now their conduit.

    Since the vege garden was moved to the other side of the yard from their trail and fenced in (low fence, nothing special) they have left the veges alone and the dog loves chasing them so (they're FAST) so I don't think they linger and eat.

    In previous years it was almost funny, they'd develop a taste for something they'd never eaten before and then find it everywhere in the yard and totally devour all of it. Then two weeks later it would be something else.

  • MissMyGardens
    15 years ago

    They're baaaaack....argh!!

    bigwuhead, you just shot down the two things I was going to try this year...ammonia and cement to fill the maze under my father's shed. I'd have to hurry up and do the cement deal while my father's down south for the month or he'd have a fit. With my luck, the cement would expand and lift his shed off its foundation...LOL.

    The miserable mangy mongrels are all over along with the chipmunks who've emerged with the recent 60-70F temps after over a foot of snow last week. And I still have to get my bulbs up and blooming with daily repellant spraying.

    I'm sure we could keep this thread going for decades...and they'd still be winning.

  • atticville
    13 years ago

    Ground hog- He's killing my yard?! But I have this guilt of "he's been hear longer than I have"
    I'm also dealing with the vacant house next door that has a new batch of 7 kittens along with Possums digging holes every 2/3 feet every where you look! And don't get me started on the grasshoppers eating my plants! I don't know what to do!!

  • becca318
    13 years ago

    My best suggestion is to plant Angel Trumpet Vine near their burrow or anywhere they eat by, that is if you don't mind if they die.

  • aocc_aol_com
    12 years ago

    Our ground problem started after I built a shed in back yard to store pool machinery/supplies. Sadly, the ground hogs love to live and build their tunnels under the shed, which affords them a good degree of security.

    I have tried more than 10 suggested methods of evicting them but NOTHING I tried had lasting results. Finally I tried trapping them, which works very easily, but what does one do with them? In NJ you can not legally transports one of these animals without risking a hefty fine. Besides, they are dirty and do not smell too nice, so it's not an easy ride to a new location if you should decide to risk the law stopping you. The ONLY way is to trap them and then shoot them with a good pellet gun, then drop them in a hole and cover them up.

    I buy the extra large traps available from Harbor Freight. A similar trap avialable at the local home center is at least twich as much. I bait them with an apple which works very well and is super fast. These traps will catch a ground hog in a time period of a few hours to a few days.

    Anything short of giving these critters a one way ticket out of your life has NEVER worked for me. I've tried dozens of methods and "fail safe stuff" available at the home centers with absolutely no results to speak of. You need to get serious and make them disappear!

  • selfsown
    12 years ago

    get a good dog...mines got 9 this year and about 40 or 50 in the 6 years I've had him.

  • greggebullwinkel
    11 years ago

    This is what I did and they never came back. Dig a 24" trench that is one 18" wide all around the shed. Line the side of the trench with the sides of the shed. Take chicken wire(use the wire whos openeing are no larger than 1 inch). Wire will have to be 40" so there is enough to staple to the bottom of the shed, having it then hit the bottom of the 24" shed and then bend it outward for the 18" in width. You see tground hogs are smart. If you do not make the bend they will dig and dig until they get underneath the initial 24". The bend will stop them in their tracks. This worked for me and they never came back. Well they did and did try to dig back in but gave up after two attempts.

    Gregg E. Bullwinkel

  • JosephJ
    10 years ago

    To get rid of Groundhogs: Buy a whole loaf or long narrow loaf of bread. Break off a portion of the loaf and pour normal radiator fluid (the green stuff) onto the white portion of the loaf and simply set it down a little ways into there whole. I use a broom handle to push it into the hole, leaving just enough in site to see when they have taken it and replacing it with another one. (It's a new year and a mother groundhog just gave birth to 4 young ones). This will also keep the neighborhood cats from getting at it, eating it and dying. The animals love the sweet smelling and tasting fluid. They take the loaf down into their hole, eat it and die. I have tried this several years in a row with great success every year. I have a neighbor that has a farm across the street and they keep coming from his property, so I keep getting rid of them this way.

  • yodibactum
    10 years ago

    I had a heart... I tried for a month to catch a groundhog living under my home. I used all the suggested baits to no avail... I also found out that you better check with your local state laws as many states have relocation laws prohibiting it. Then they tell you to take it to the humane society in which case some of them want $50 or so to dispose of it. I say the hell with the have a heart theory. I already spent over $100 and he is still on the loose. My next step is to call in a professional. Does anyone have Bill Murray's telephone number?

  • hopeforthefuture3
    9 years ago

    One of the forums here suggested putting down plastic netting on the ground around the garden, supposedly they wouldn't like it. I mowed and then tacked down the netting, and got to watch one of the evil critters stroll all over it the next day. My garden is fenced in with that nice green Home Depot metal fence, much nicer looking than chicken wire. It's composed of 2"x3" rectangles and darned if that groundhog didn't squeeze right through it. I guess I can hang the netting on the fence.

    They were living under my shed for a while, so I sealed it all up with plastic and then piped in car exhaust, but I think they escaped sometime during the sealing process. I should have sealed up their burrow first and then sealed the rest of the foundation. I'd be curious to hear if anybody has tried this approach.

    I could easily kill one that's in my garden. That would be a crime of passion. Much harder to kill one sitting in the HavaHart. Of course, first I have to get a gun permit, then a gun, then I have to learn how to aim shoot the darn thing.

  • subtropix
    9 years ago

    I had one tunnel under a garage to make a home. I started dumping the kitty litter box over the area. No killing, no nasty chemicals, eco-friendly, green, etc..--he or she soon moved out soon enough.

Sponsored
Ed Ball Landscape Architecture
Average rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars30 Reviews
Exquisite Landscape Architecture & Design - “Best of Houzz" Winner