Evict a groundhog family - mothballs ok?

[Darrell Ulm]

Hello. We have a ground hog family living near the garden. They like to eat everything. will a few moth balls down the hole do the trick or are they too toxic?

Thank you, Darrell Ulm

[Steve Daniels]

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:37:01 -0700 (PDT), against all advice, something compelled Darrell Ulm , to say:

I've been given to believe that dog shit will work well. And it's organic.

[Boron Elgar]

Your organic solution doesn't work.

Boron

[Pat Kiewicz]

Trapping and careful fencing are the only non-toxic, non-fatal solutions that I can vouch for.

As for killing groundhogs, shooting is very effective when done by someone skilled.

If you can run them into one of their midday bolthole / bivouac burrows, gassing works pretty well (use 2-3 Giant Destroyer smoke bombs taped to the end of a bamboo pole and fill in the entrance). This is less effective on a full burrow complex, because they have several entrances, including some that are hidden (no fan of fresh dirt).

Some useful informations and products for sale here:

have ordered from them in the past. Not much for web design, but very informative.)

[phorbin]

Using fencing with trapping is better.

They either tolerate mothballs or push them out of the burrow.

What people don't realize before they lose a crop is that these "cute" eating machines are ****eating machines****.

When you go to transport them, put plastic down and several thicknesses of newspaper over it. They normally leave a parting statement.

When they are gone you are left with cleanup apart from the trap. That is, you have to fill _all_ the holes. Skunks will use burrows. Transient groundhogs will take up residence. If you can get the neighbours to fill in every hole they find, you'll be several steps ahead of the next assault. ...There's at least one male nearby.

My experience suggests that filling with something undiggable is better than just using soil. Passing groundhogs will redig old holes. I fill with saplings or whatever depending on location and what I have. Usually to a foot or two below the surface if we need to use the area.

In one area I put down a subsurface layer of chicken wire... It'll be a PITA at some future date, but it's prevented digging in a difficult to police area for several years. (There was no other option or material at the time.)

[General Schvantzkoph]

I've been using fox and coyote urine this year. I haven't seen any groundhogs this season so it's possible that the stuff works. This is a single data point which isn't enough to prove anything but it's worth a try.

[jellybean stonerfish]

How do you get this?

[General Schvantzkoph]

I bought it at a garden center. It's not liquid, it's essentially kitty litter that's soaked in urine. It comes in a shaker bottle.