I gave up the battle with groundhog and decided to put up an electric fence. I tried everything before that like smoke bombing the burrow, traps etc. I even planted green beans inside a trap to attrack it but no they seem very cautious. Finally added a hot wire to my vegetable garden fence. I’ve seen him walking around in the yard. But no damage inside the vegetable garden. So I’m guessing he got a good shot at some point and that taught him a lesson. Most my fruit trees are caged. I guess the cage is no game for him if he really wanted to climb in but there’s plenty of food in the neighborhood so he doesn’t go through the trouble.
2 Likes
Heads of cabbage quartered are my go to because they don’t dry out too quickly and they have a smell WC’s cannot resist. Skunks have never shown an attraction to cabbage, but I bet they would go for cantaloupe during dry weather. Use some cabbage chunks to lead them into trap and don’t touch anything with your bare hands.
As I’ve said before, and maybe on this thread. having the open end of the trap right next to the burrow guarantees a quick capture.
When they get in my garden I have to cover everything they like with landscape fabric before they will go after the bait in a trap.
2 Likes
I killed one with a brick yesterday. Don’t judge, couldn’t use a trap because of cats, couldn’t legally fire a gun that close to the neighbor’s house and he was right by the greenhouse so could have caused thousands of dollars of losses in a single day eating transplants.
It was a yearling, chased him into the hole then dumped 2 garbage cans of water down there, when he came out I was ready. It was quick.
7 Likes
Its burrow is somewhere in the neighbor’s land. Groundhogs are really difficult to catch. The ones that I and my friend caught were young/inexperienced ones. Hard to catch mature adults.
2 Likes
There’s a learning curve, and I can’t be sure yours are like mine, but I have to trap them out every year, one way or another- they always wander onto my property eventually, generally a couple with at least a child. Last year I had to resort to leg traps- they were entering my veg garden through a large rock wall on one side that is starting to collapse. Once they are caught I shoot them with my shotgun while they are caught by one leg- so it’s not a very pleasant pass time- but if I know I can get them quickly that way, I will go that rout- the landscape fabric is a pain to keep over everything they want to eat.
If I didn’t know where they were coming into my garden I would have eventually enticed them into my trap. Sometimes I can’t find their burrows. Mine never seem to focus on my fruit and are satisfied with a couple of peaches a day, but they destroy my veg garden if I don’t trap them.
2 Likes
I finally trapped my groundhog. It took me over a month but he finally decided to check the trap out. The only bait in there was some 2-week-old cantaloupe which must have been pretty rotten, not sure why he went for it.
Next time I am going to be more careful to not get any of my scent on it, I am keeping the trap outside and will be careful to wear gloves. My guess is he was suspicious of the trap until seeing it in the same spot for over a month.
3 Likes
If u see one, there is usually more…but since they look all the same, we think there is one. What i’d did was when I caught my last one, I just left the trap in the shades, and it called his family out to rescue him…so, the whole family of 2-3 showed up to see him trapped…I just left him in the shades for the next 6/8 hrs until my husband came home from work to take him to the reservation area. So, the sight of this trapped loved ones must have scared the other family members cuz I have not seen his family members in about 2 weeks…I have the traps out every day waiting for them…I usually see them early morning and late afternoons but no sighting so far…but I know they are around…
2 Likes
I had another one show up a few weeks ago. Fortunately he nested right by our house so it was easy to trap him, I could put the trap right by the burrow. He really liked nuts, we had this old trail mix that proved irresistible.
There are lots of groundhog holes in our neighborhood, but somehow I have had few incidents until this year. Let’s hope this was an unusual year, I lost a great deal of fruit this year as well as several trees too damaged to keep.
4 Likes
.22
1 Like
What do the laws say about muzzle-loading rifles? They are not true firearms, so maybe you can get away with it? If it is already trapped, even a percussion pistol would be enough to finish it quickly. Crossbows? It’s not like they issue tags for them…
1 Like
Pitbull
rat terrier 
1 Like
In say a open feild , if you can get in between the ground hog and its hole, and run towards it. It has no where to go , and will often lay flat on the ground , trying to hide.
As teenage boys we would grab them by their back legs and sling them in the air, when they hit the ground it would knock the wind out of them, and reapeat.
This was somewhat of a sport. If we were really bored .
Well .,you know. Boys – will be–
Well …really mean sometimes !
1 Like