Woodchucks and Tomatoes

They may not like the plants but they will like the tomatos. IMHO trapping is only real solution - unless you can shoot them. Frank

Around here, there are so many groundhogs, that if you trap or shoot one, another will just move into its territory. I've worked out a shaky truce with mine--I fence the things they really like, and try to keep them out of the rest of the garden with bribery. I leave offerings--half a head of lettuce that's been too long in the fridge, apples past their prime--at the edge of the compost pile, which is in-between the burrow and the garden. I also spot her grazing in the lawn--I don't use pesticides, and have a variety of wild things growing in with the grass.

And once the apples ripen in the autumn, and start dropping, she gorges on them and leaves the garden alone.

Cheers, Sue

They'll wait untill the tomatoes are perfectly ripe and then start in on the best ones. They'll tear down a vine to get at the ones they can't reach. They are the garden animal from hell. trappimg...

Good thing to know because this year my tomatoes will be unfenced for the first month. I can also tell you that my potatoes (another solanacea) are unprotected year after year and for one row a deer-made trail is less than 5 ft away. The other row is often directly crossed by a woodchuck on his way to lunch. Never lost a plant. They must be toxic to other mammals as they are to us.