Groundhog!

[Mike Goetzke]

Been in our house for 40 years and first time ever I see a groundhog has a burrow under our porch. It is starting to drive my dogs crazy (and us). I see some mix vinegar or ohter solution to get them out then try to block their entrance. Others get a live trap and release them in the forest.

Anyone else have a these? Can you just block the entrance with stone? Is a trap the way to go?

Thanks

 

[rvieceli]

Mike - I feel your pain. Blocking up the entrance won’t help they will just unclog it or dig out another. Once they have a litter there, they seem to come back every year.

Try a groundhog size live trap. This year I have had good luck with setting it and putting the open end as close to entrance as possible. They seem to just walk in and trip the gate.

I have gotten a pair this year. I relocate them about 5 miles away near some woods.

The varmint people around here say the only way to keep them out permanently is to clear everything away from the foundation where they have taken up residence, excavate a distance out and place woven wire around the area and cover again. This is pricey.

They do a great deal of damage. Digging what seems like way too much for what they actually need.

Ron

 

[rvieceli]

If that doesn’t work you can try baiting the trap. We have used apples, cabbage and other stuff. Everything else likes that stuff too. So we have caught bunnies, opossums, raccoons and a skunk.

Good luck. My big problem now is that an armadillo has decided to turn the space under the deck into home.

Ron

 

[Mike Goetzke]

OK - guess time to get a trap. Also, think the wire mesh @rvieceli mentions is called hardware cloth. I used it on the bottom of my raised garden beds. Guess I’m be modifying my porch now.

 

[Cheese]

FWIW...when I was about 13 years old, my parents had a huge gopher problem in the back yard. For some reason if you place a garden hose down the gopher hole and turn on the water, the gopher will exit the hole from where the water is entering...not the brightest animal...so when exiting the hole, half drowned and confused, they'd immediately enter the live trap.

Maybe a groundhog is just as stupid.

 

[Packard]

People used to run a hose from their car’s exhaust into the gopher’s hole. Nowadays, with the catalytic converters and clean running cars, they would end up with a headache only.

Also writers of TV movies that used the hose technique to kill or commit suicide should take up another profession.

 

[peter halle]

People used to run a hose from their car’s exhaust into the gopher’s hole. Nowadays, with the catalytic converters and clean running cars, they would end up with a headache only.

Also writers of TV movies that used the hose technique to kill or commit suicide should take up another profession.

The exhaust hose approach does work on vehicles with catalytic converters. My sister committed suicide that way.

Peter

 

[luvmytoolz]

The exhaust hose approach does work on vehicles with catalytic converters. My sister committed suicide that way.

Peter

I'm really so sorry to hear that Peter! It's extremely sad the rate is so high, seems no-one is untouched by it having lost a brother myself.

 

[peter halle]

I'm really so sorry to hear that Peter! It's extremely sad the rate is so high, seems no-one is untouched by it having lost a brother myself.

Thank you for that, and sorry to hear about your brother. Happened a long time ago when I was a couple of years out of high school. It was a shame; Monica was brilliant, was a few weeks away from graduating college, had been accepted to law school with a full scholarship, but was in love with a married man who would not leave his wife while stringing her along. Mom and Dad were never the same.

 

[Mike Goetzke]

I picked up a trap but took 1-1/2 days to catch one. My wife says it's the only one but I have read it's not likely to only have one. The trap I bought was little more expensive than most but it was pre-assembled and has what they call quick release. You pull an arm to one side to trigger the trap and when it tripped it goes to the other side. So to release the animal you just pull the handle - no need to put your hand near the release gate.