Problem with a Groundhog..

Hi guys...im having a problem with this groundhog that likes to live under my house during the winter.. I moved here (pennsylvania) last may and he was already settled in and all.. He even pooped a few times on my sidewalk i guess to let me know that this is his home..lol

The problem is he has atleast one underground tunnel from the front side of my house to the back side of the house...And im worried he may have made even more tunnels under there... My biggest worry is a foundation collapse of some sort... I've been reading extensively today about groundhogs and it says that they have been known to cause foundation problems..if they do infact have tunnels under the house.. He has atleast 5 other holes around the yard.. An active groundhog indeed.. Seems like a cool animal and all and i'd feel bad to kick him out of his habitat... But i gotta prevent him from living underneath the house... I tried covering the holes with dirt several times..and he just digs it back out..

Any info on how to either get arid of him...or just prevent him from hanging under the house would be great..

thanks alot..

mike

Reply to
mike
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Relocate him with a hav -a- heart trap. Or Gopher bombs will kill him, but be sure you use them when you wont be home and can air out your home when you return.

Reply to
m Ransley

Well there are several ways. Groundhogs do not like dogs or electric fences. I've tried to trap them without success (I used an apple slice as bait in a Hav-A-Hart trap and only trapped possums). You could use chicken wire to him from digging out the hole again after filling up the hole. Groundhogs can be very destructive to gardens.

Reply to
Phisherman

You could try screaming at him. I noticed a smell from a staircase that was in the house but the underside was in the garage. Turned out that a possum was raising a family there. I went and screamed a few minutes at her. She looked at me like I was an idiot but moved out the next day. Cleaned it out and no sign of possom dung at all. They do smell though.

Reply to
Art

.22 works great

Reply to
jim bosworth

............. I hope you are joking !!!!

Especially possums, I will tolerate most wildlife, and try not to hurt them, but possums are nasty creatures. The last one that snarled at me, got to meet it's maker real fast. The only critters I will kill are those with long naked tails (rats, mice, possums).

I had a rat digging under the wall in my barn. I'd fill the hole with dirt, and the next day it would be dug out again. I tried filling it with horse manure, the next day it was dug out again. I wanted to shoot it, but it never showed it's face when I was around. I finally got a bag of ready mix concrete. I filled the hole with concrete, and the hole was never dug out again.

Reply to
rkelly

Someone named "Art" Proclaimed on Mon, 03 May 2004 01:41:42 GMT,

Hahahaha... What did you scream at her? A few minutes huh? LOL! I'd love to see that...

Reply to
G. Morgan

Don't know it it would help, but you might try filling his tunnels with moth balls. I got rid of some armadillos digging under my porch that way.

Bill Gill

Reply to
Bill

I use a .22 myself, but maybe you don't live in the country. You can get a live trap and trap him, but then what? It depends on your local ordinances. For instance, where I live I can shoot the sucker but I can't legally take him 15 miles away and release him in the state forest, though I have done that. If you do elect to relocate him once you have him, it has to be a goodly distance--they can find their way home.

Start by calling your local animal control officer and see what your legal options are, and then decide.

Reply to
donald girod

No joke and I have a second true possum story.

2 stray cats used to hang around my house. I bought a couple of houses for them to sleep in and left them on my large front porch. One day it is raining like mad and the cats are in the garage instead of on the porch in one of their houses. I think, how stupid is this. I go in the rain to the porch to grab the houses to move them into the garage. Pick one up and it is a bit heavy. Look inside and there is an angry possum staring at my face, nose to nose. I gently put it back down and let him go back to sleep.

Actually I have a 3rd story of finding one sleeping curled up on an old blanket in a wheelbarrel in my garage where one of the cats usually sleep.

Reply to
Art

The LL Bean Fish & Game Cookbook includes at least one recipe for groundhog. Just thought I'd mention this as an option. :-)

Reply to
Doug Kanter

Good Grief, I think I would have freaked. I had one of those things under my porch last winter, and when I was going in the house it ran across the porch and came close to getting in the house. I slammed the door, and was face to face to that possum. I grabbed a snow shovel, ended up putting a big dent on my porch floor trying to knock it out. The possum jumped off the porch and ran into an empty pail that was laying next to the porch. I grabbed a few shovels of snow and covered the entrance to the pail, trapping the possum. Then I must have shoveled half my lawn, because I ended up with a 5 foot high pile of well packed snow on top of the pail. When the snow melted in sping, there was a dead possum in the pail.

I have figured out they eat cat food. I have coons eat right with my barn cats. I dont mind the coons, just chase them away, but possums are nasty and I dont want them around.

Reply to
rkelly

The possums are pretty grotesque, but they eat a lot of disgusting stuff that otherwise only our dogs would eat, so overall, possums are good. I don't even mind the skunks that cruise our birdfeeders at night. But I've never been sprayed, so ....

Groundhogs are another story. Way too destructive. I recommend using a small bore shotgun on them, 20 gauge is fine. Shotgun pellets lose their oomph after a hundred yards or so, and won't richochet around the neighborhood and though your neighbors like 22 caliber projectiles .

Reply to
FarmerJim

Possums consider slugs a delicacy.

Reply to
Art

thanks everybody..alot of helpful suggestions...

well, i just got my havahart trap and am in the process of putting it outside now... It says they like bananas, lettuce and apples... the only thing i have home now are bananas...so im gonna try that now... Im guessing it probably wont work...but its worth a try.. Another thing i thought of is... I will most likely not catch him...but probably another animal like a possum, racoon, small cat. squirrel or something like that first... and with all that rattling going on.. the groundhog will instantly know that cage is Bad....Danger... So i feel like....if i dont catch him on the first try...im screwed..

If that doesnt work...im prolly gonna do like Rkelly said... Filling the holes with concrete.. I would like to shoot it to get arid of it..but i'll probably feel bad after..lol Afterall, he's just trying to live a life like the rest of us..

mike

Reply to
mike

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