Groundhogs

we have groundhogs under our gazebo. How do we discourage them from digging there. We have put rocks in their hole and they pull them out. Some of the rocks are very good size. Now we have noticed they are coming to our deck. We have looked under there and don't see any sign of them. We have lattice around the underside of the deck. This is war. How do we get rid of them??? Thanks for any help. Rusty

Reply to
Rusty
Loading thread data ...

Rusty wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.net:

I got rid of a family of groundhogs one year by flooding them out. If access to water is no problem for you, just flood the hole. They will return. Keep it up for a couple of weeks. They will give up.

Jim Zone 6, Niagara

Reply to
Jim McQuiggin

Years ago I had groundhogs getting into my vegetable garden. They were climbing the chicken wire fence! After I installed an electric wire around the fence, no more groundhogs and no more deer problems. The groundhogs would not enter a Hav-A-Hart trap (I tried baiting with apple and corn). I did beat one groundhog over the head with a shovel, and that did not work either! Groundhogs do not like dogs.

Reply to
Phisherman

We have a vegetable garden-ruining groundhog too!!! How high was the fence you built that they climbed? We were planning to do a 4 ft fence (we have deer to contend with also). Also, should we bury the fence a bit - have you ever had the groundhogs tunnel under a fence?

-kim

Reply to
Kim E.

Use the fence. Don't bother burying it. Just make it difficult for the woodchuck to get into and out of the garden. (You can't make it impossible.) If you them plant something outside the fence that woodchucks like, they will stay outside rather than risk being caught inside the fence in an emergency. Clover works well, but takes some time to get started. You could even start a sacrificial garden outside somewhere with broccoli or cabbage or sunflowers. Use cheap seed.

Be alert for tunnels appearing in the garden. If one appears, get a woodchuck smoke bomb. Not the small ones that most hardware stores have, they're designed for small rodents like voles, but the large woodchuck-sized ones. Agway carries them. They're about 1-1/2 inch in diameter and 5" long (estimate from memory). Tie the bomb to a long stick. check to see which direction to shove the stick into the hole to get it as far in as possible. Get a shovel full of soil ready. The fuses are never long enough, so get everything ready to go. Light the fuse, shove the stick into the hole (bomb end first, of course) as far as it will go and start filling the hole.

It works much better if you can find all the entrances to the burrow (there are at least two, and possibly three or four). Bomb them all. If you miss one or two the woodchuck could be back in a week after the smoke dissipates. If you get them all, it might take two or three weeks before it comes back. If you get lucky and the woodchuck was in the hole when you bombed it, it might take four weeks before another woodchuck finds the hole and moves in.

Reply to
dps

THere is *plenty* of clover in our yard to keep 10 gophers well-fed, believe me! And a lot of the clover is near the garden. I was thinking of doing the opposite, planting something distasteful like marigolds around the outside of the garden to keep the groundhog away.

This we will do. About how big is a groundhog hole anyway, because we have tons of holes in our yards, but they all seem too small for our giant groundhog (i assumed they were snake or chipmunk holes).

-kim

Reply to
Kim E.

The chicken wire fence we built was 4 feet high, supported by T-metal stakes. We stapled the bottom of the fence to cedar logs laid around the garden perimeter. This fence will keep out rabbits, but not groundhogs. We use a solar powered electric fence with built-in battery backup--works great. I've learned not to accidentally touch it ! If you still want to give the fence a try, bury it or staple the bottom as I did--if it does not work you can always electrify it.

Reply to
Phisherman

Probably about 5-6" across. The hole will go down at an angle, then make a turn and probably another turn, so the general direction of the burrow is not indicated by the direction of the outer part of the hole.

One hole will be fairly easy to find: it's the hole that the groundhog uses to look around and check out the safety of foraging, and it'll be close to the garden. It's generally under a shrub or partially hidden. The tunneling spoils will be thrown out another hole which will be hidden as well as possible under shrubs or dense undergrowth or even under a porch or shed. The burrow might have an occasional side tunnel that leads to the surface with a very small hole, not enough to get out of, but enough to provide some air. The burrow might be up to 100' long between exits.

The long tunnels don't respect property boundaries, so one or more of the exits could be on a neighbor's property (or several different neighbors).

Reply to
dps

Years ago I put a rabbit fence around my garden. It was about 3' high. One day there was a rabbit inside. I opened the gate and tried to herd the rabbit toward it to get it out. The rabbit just looked at me and jumped over the fence.

3' is not high enough.
Reply to
dps

Rusty, A website called www.backyard-lifestyle used to carry a product that I used called, "Mole Out Granules". Just go to the webstie and search for MOLE, it should come up that way.

It was a granular repellent is formulated to repel moles, skunks, armadillos and voles from lawns, golf courses, and other turf recreational areas.

I hope this helps, Norman

Reply to
normantci

. How do we get rid of them???

I have used a product that is sold at farming supply places such as Southern States. It is a poison smoke bomb. You light the fuse, then toss it in the hole, then fill in the hole with dirt. It works great if you know where they have their back door because you will also have to do the backdoor hole.

A friend of mine insist they are easy to trap. And he insists that I trap and release. My thought is that trapping and releasing only creates the same problem for someone else.

Reply to
Chip's Mom

Move

Reply to
Vox Humana

(piggybacking) If it's really war, get some plastic explosive and make little gopher-shaped charges, plant them in the holes, then when they come to talk to their little buddies, you blow them away. ;) (snip)

Reply to
The Watcher

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.