I have a ground hog that spent the summer on the south side of my house. I have some large poison ivy plants on that side that I must get rid of. I have been reading that they, ground hogs, hibernate during the winter but I remember seeing one eating something by the roadside a couple of January's ago. As large as some of the stems are 2-3 inches I will need to use herbacide of some type. If I cut the stems down and paint with something,Roundup???, how safe will the ground hog be. I do not want the baby to decide a midwinter snack was in order and die because I was not careful enough.