trapping groundhogs?

Linda,
Like your place, it's very nice and peaceful looking. Butler twp is not too far north. Before I was transferred here, I interviewed for a job up there. I work on Neville Is. aka Paradise Island! LOL Snakes! Yikes!!

Know what you mean about on the edge. We are on the edge of the twp, right above Coraopolis. Huge hill going down and near OLSH on the other side. Lots of acreage around here where the deer are allowed to run free and ravage!

I guess when you put it that way, I was asking for it when planted my 3 cherry and yellow nectarine out in the back of the property. The deer run in the backyards, had deer tracks and poo within 15 feet of the back of house last fall.

Thinking about digging up all my dwarf fruit trees and putting them into huge pots, and placing them out front. Tired of the boogers eating on my babies. Besides, that would double my space available for garden, and I know I will need it next yr after this RR!

Finally have my own place and what do I get to do? Grow in pots?! What do you all think of that plan? Saw some big pots today at the store and thought about it...
LMK, need a sounding board right now. Thanks, Suzi :)

I'm sorry to report that Pittsburgh deer will go right up onto the front porch at my parents' place to eat the azalea bushes, so I'm not sure putting your fruit trees in big pots out front will help, unless you mean the pots will get the trees up high enough that the deer can't get to them.

One friend of ours planted standard size fruit trees.... he has to use a ladder to pick, but he says at least most of the fruit is out of reach for the deer!

My parents have had some luck using that black polypro deer fence as a netting to drape over shrubbery, so I wonder if that would work on your fruit trees.

Sorry to hear of your deer problem. I've learned to plants lots of what the woodland critters don't eat. I haven't figured out how to keep them from eating the plants they like. I tried "Deer Off' a spray bottle hardly likely to help with trees and it turned my plants a funny color. I also tried Liquid Fence spray. It really stinks but it did not discolor my plants. The only thing is I would have to keep spraying as new growth appears. At $10-$20 a bottle and I use a bottle every time, I gave up. Luckily, the deer graze on my roses during the winter only. I'll have to protect my climbers this fall, but they prune my shrub roses in the garden to perfect little 18" mounds. I didn't have to do a thing this spring and they're growing like crazy. Is a deer fence possible? I understand they're 7 feet tall. I have a friend with horses and the deer go right over the fence that keeps the horses in. I hear a lot about deer in the area (i.e., Fox Chapel). My friend in Brentwood is also battling them. And, thank you. I love my backyard. It's my little retreat from the world! Sorry I don't have any more help re the deer. I have found that if I move things up toward the house the groundhog stayed away. LOL. Linda

IF I do decide to put them into pots, I will have them in front of my side porch, on the driveway. Would also build an enclosure around them, perhaps use lattice board with 2x4 frame. Have the 7 - 16' 2x4s too.

Have 54.5' driveway, long enough for 3 cars. Only have one car, but would still save enough room for 2. If had visitors, they could park on the street too.

It is either that or put in wire garden fence out back. But, can only find 5', not high enough to really protect anything from the deer. Not sure which want to do... Have set aside some money, enough for one of these... But, ideally, both would be nice. Either would make me happy if protected babies!

Kinda hate to dig up the fruit trees too... Can't be good for my back. Putting in fence posts won't be either! P. Oak and P. Ivy back there on the side that still have to be cleared out... yikes! Hard to be single w/back probs and want so much done!

Gee, I have strayed off thread topic so much! Sorry, Suzi :)

Hey, deer can be even more destructive than groundhogs, so it's not a bad turn for this thread to take -- although you might get more input by starting a different thread on the topic.

The nursery guy down the street from my folks uses the black poly mesh fencing.... It's all but invisible once it's up (much nicer than chain link), and it seems to do the trick for him. Yes, I believe fences have to be 7 or 8 feet tall to keep deer out, so the 5 foot limit on fence height in our subdivision would be a problem for us.... If we ever have to fence against deer, I'd probably put up a 5 foot fence and top with an extra couple feet of the black mesh and hope nobody officially took notice!

Gurney's has a poly mesh deer fencing, 8'x100' roll for $26. How good is it and how long will it last? What poles would I use w/ it? Can only find 5' poles here, which won't cut the mustard! Maybe use the 5' poles and then hook up an extension of some kind? Or possibly put a pvc pipe over to extend the height, but how would I hold fencing onto PVC pipe?

Nooo, they are eating the actual trees!! No fruit yet, since only got those last year. They shrank from the 5'-6' trees they were this spring, to less than 3' to about 4' for tallest now. Have more I got this yr that afraid to put out. Put in pots that were too small, as temp measure. Need to repot into bigger or plant out for certain mutilation...

I will see if can work up a post, but it would be my first and not sure about doing that... Where would I even post it? General? Edibles? Other ideas? Thanks for all your help and ideas! Suzi :)

I'd post in the Garden Foes forum (same place we are now). Take the plunge! Maybe somebody can make a recommendation on fence construction. When we moved here and saw the big corn field behind us (will be houses in a few years, but we're enjoying the view now), I thought for certain we would have major deer problems, but I've only ever seen a couple of footprints in the winter snow. So, I haven't had to check into the fence thing.

If you use wood, you can get fence posts in whatever length you need. Not sure what size lumber you'd need for the poly mesh; 4x4's seem like they'd be overkill.

The good news is, last night I caught a groundhog in my new trap!!!

The bad news is that it was a little one..... so I'm definitely contending with a family.

We used our remaining smoke bomb on what we thought was their main hole over the weekend, but I guess they weren't all at home. Hopefully we got a couple.... will have to keep an eye out for them.

1 down - 2 many 2 go! But, hey, 1 is better than none!! ~ Suzi :)

Congratulations! I just got a groundhog by accident and it is making
me feel just awful. What a screwy moral sensibility I have! I just
hate them and yet I can't stand killing them.

This is just an awful story... I'm having trouble sleeping now. This last
weekend I was mowing my fields with my bush hog and I actually mowed
a groundhog. I just keep telling myself it was either already dead or
it was a very quick death. But what an awful thing! But, one less groundhog
here in Pa.

I told the story to a friend and he said he just couldn't stand groundhogs
and yet when he has a chance to drive over them on the road, he just
can't bring himself to hit it. So why is this? I do it too - swerve away.

Cuz you have a heart! They are not bad, they're just bad if they happen to live near a garden. If they aren't harming, why would you harm them?! Besides, mine went for a ride where there wasn't a garden to get him into trouble. ~ Suzi :)

Suzi,

Thanks.

And when you do take your catches on a ride, be sure you're not
relocating them to Barto Pa :-) Sometimes I wonder if all the
gardeners are just relocating the same groundhogs - circulating
them around the countryside.

ha ha ha ha ha Free groundhogs!!! Free delivery!! LOL

No, I got my step-bro + neighbor to take it somewhere neighbor knew. It was down on the Montour trail, near the gun club where they have a creek and wilderness type area to run around in. So, if they happen to have a few gardeners that belong to the gun club, groundhogs best stay away from that half of the place!!! ~ Suzi :)

Yeah, I'm a softie too.... that's why we went with the (live) trap instead of buying several more smoke bombs. But when I hadn't caught any in over a week with the trap, I decided I had to try using my last leftover bomb. As Suzi said, they're not bad, they're just bad in the garden. I have to admit that the little one was awfully cute. Hopefully any remaining members of his family will be joining him soon!

LOL at the idea that groundhogs circulate the way fruitcakes do during the holidays!

I have a groundhog (family?) burrowed under my shed which is adjacent to my vegetable garden. The whole thing is fenced in so this guy or family is fenced IN the garden, not fenced OUT. :( I bought a Havahart "raccoon" trap (model #1079) and have had it set out for the past 2 days. I have it baited with broccoli and bananas (!) which were recommended to me as ideal baits. So far I haven't trapped anything. Tonight I will replace the bait with apples as some of you have recommended that as the best bait. Does anyone have experience that indicates how long it usually takes before you trap one? I walk out early each morning to check to see if the trap has been sprung and am diasappointed (and, truthfully, a little relieved) to see that the bait hasn't been touched and the trap is still set. I'm wondering how long I should wait before I try a different approach. Has anyone tried flooding the burrow? I don't really want to drown them and don't like to waste water but right now I'm losing my garden bit by bit. First they ate the peas. Didn't leave me any. Then the beets, the turnips, the radishes, the zucchini, the Jerusalem artichoke leaves and even my daylilies. I'm getting desperate.

We flooded a burrow repeatedly last summer that was under our deck. Eventually, the groundhog got discouraged and moved elsewhere. Just be careful that you don't affect the foundation or footings for your shed.

I'm not having much luck with my new HavAHart trap. So far, it's captured 4 bunnies and 1 baby groundhog. I've been advised to put it right next to the burrow, but that's not feasible for me (too much poison ivy and out of sight for easy checking). I'm still using apples, although I've tried other things (will now have to try bananas). A friend of mine says she always get them right after a storm, so the next time you have a thunderstorm, go out afterward and put fresh bait in your trap.

However, I did catch a groundhog yesterday in Grandpa's rabbit trap! The adults are certainly too large to fit in this old wooden trap, but this teen-sized groundhog fit just fine. I put the trap in the back of the car about half an hour before taking him for a drive in the country. In that time, he peed himself, pooped in the trap (what a stink!), and then, unbeknownst to me, managed to escape! I had a neighbor's girl along for the ride... She went to peek in the trap and say farewell to the groundhog, then announced with wide eyes, "Miss Jill.... HE'S NOT HERE!!" Sure enough, he was in the back of the CR-V, crouching behind the big cooler. With Meghan well to one side to be sure she wasn't blocking his escape, I opened the rear door and moved the cooler. I said, Well? Come on!! and he just crouched down and stared at me. Meghan's eyes got bigger as she wondered how I'd get him out. But I just reached into the car through the rear passenger door and gave the seat back a thump! right behind him. He SHOT out of the back of the car, dashed across the road (why do they always want to run into traffic rather than down into the nice gully?), and disappeared into the brush by the creek. Meghan thought the whole thing was a High Adventure, and we giggled about it all the way home.

Holy smokes! That is a GREAT story. It makes me realize why I have been slightly relieved when I found nothing in the trap. Thanks for the T-storm advice. We've had several of those recently. Of course, it's been dry since I set the trap out!

Jill - Congrats on the catch AND for getting him out of your vehicle! Can imagine that was a lot of excitement too! Wow!

I'm pretty sure I caught mine last yr w/ tomatoes! Had to wedge it in the back under the plate, so that he would be back far enough, trip it and actually get closed in. Good Luck!! ~ Suzi :)

A friend of mine lost all her new chickens to a nasty raccoon. She's been trying to trap him
for weeks. She tied chicken legs (from the grocery store) to the back of her trap. The
raccoon did not trip the trap but cleaned every bit of meat off the bones. Way too clever!
Ground hogs are much easier - just takes patience.

Anyone ever caught skunk by mistake? I did - and was my DH unhappy with me! At
least I managed not to get sprayed. The property was stinky for weeks (months?) and
the trap took almost a year to lose that smell.

Tam

Hey. I got lucky! I caught a groundhog this afternoon in my Havahart trap! I've had it set for 3-4 days and hadn't had any luck. Earlier today I had some leftover pineapple (the core) and baited the trap with it. But I read the emails from Critterologist and others that recommended apples as bait. So I cut up an apple and headed for the garden to bait the trap and noticed that the trap had already been sprung and I had caught a groundhog in the middle of the day! It is kind of small. Maybe a foot long not counting the tail. I'm afraid it might have some siblings and a parent or too also living under my shed.

I am waiting for my wife to get home with the car so I can give the critter a one way ride somewhere. I am praying that I don't have an incident like critterologist described.

Critters was in her wood rabbit trap, so you should be good to go. If you take it at least 5 miles, preferrably near someplace they would all like to relocate to and you should be all set, IMHO ~ Suzi ♥

It's 5 miles for squirrels, but I don't think groundhogs are such world travelers. Two or 3 miles should suffice, as with rabbits. And don't worry, the groundhog will not be able to let himself out of your Havahart trap! I think that when Meghan was messing with Grandpa's wooden rabbit trap earlier and swung the door in a little, the groundhog said, oooOOhh, that's how it works!

Things worked out well. When I got to the the groundhog's new "home" I opened the cage and he shot out of the cage into the bushes. All I saw was a blur. Last night I re-set the trap and baited it with apples and this morning I had caught another groundhog, a much bigger one than before. At least that's what I thought. When I got a little closer to the trap the animal turned and looked at me and it was a raccoon! I wasn't expecting that. So, "Rocky" also got a one way trip to a distant woods. It was a good sized raccoon and during the night he had raked into the cage about 10 lbs of garden dirt (including pieces of my potato plants). That made the cage very heavy and very unbalanced. But all went OK. He's now about 5 miles from here.
What next????? I can't wait to find out. I'll re-set the trap tonight.

Good luck!! ~ Suzi ♥

Good going! One groundhog, one racoon.... I'm looking forward to seeing what you catch next, too!

Sunday afternoon I caught another ground hog (medium sized) and then last night I nabbed a possum. This is getting ridiculous! I have to hand it to Havahart though. Their traps work well. I just am getting sick of handling all of these critters and having to give them rides to the park. If I catch a skunk I'm shutting the operation down!

So far the count is:

2 groundhogs
1 raccoon
1 oppossum

I guess I could have said that the count is:

Peas - two pecks for the animals, none for me!
Beets - a couple of dozen for the animals and about a dozen for me
Turnips - dozens for them, 5 or 6 for me
Etc.

Guess who is eating well? Them!

Last year I caught 6 ground hogs in less than 2wks. We have been eating
more produce from the garden this year.
tam

Six??? Holy smokes. Well, it's heartening to know that you got rid of the problem. I'm getting tired of this routine. But I'm not giving up. I've set out the trap again tonight. Now they've really made me mad by eating all of my zucchini leaves. My squash plants look like... well, they are just a lot of stems sticking up! Actually my vegetable garden garden looks awful. I have half a mind to plow it all under and say forget about it. But I can still get some good out of it. It just isn't very pretty and the pickings are slim. Not the way I dreamed it would be.

Well - I didn't "get rid of the problem" but rather improved the situation.
And I've caught skunk, many raccoons, opossum and even a few cats and
a guinea fowl. (released the skunk, very carefully, relocated all those chicken-
eating raccoons & opossum, released,the poor cats & guinea fowl.)

There's lot of time left this summer! Don't give up now. And if you don't
get enough zucchini to fill your needs, I'm sure there's a lot of us who have
a few extra to share :-)

Tam

When I got home from work yesterday groundhog #3 was in the trap. This is getting old.

My observations from my small sampling (about 1 week span during which I've trapped 3 'hogs, 1 raccoon and 1 opposum):

Havahart trap # 1079 had done its job well. It is called a raccoon trap. I was concerned b/c it only has one gate rather than 2 and I'd read somewhere that animals were hesitant to enter a trap with only one entryway. Not so.

I have caught all 3 groundhogs during daylight hours not at night. Maybe everyone knew this but me, but I thought they were primarily nocturnal.

The bait I had the most success with is sliced apples (Fuji). Pineapple also worked. Someone recommended broccoli and I'd say that was a bust.

To lure the animals and bait the trap I would throw a couple of slices of apple down into their burrow, a couple more leading to the trap, and the bulk of the slices in the trap at the back behind the plate, not wedged under the trip plate and not touching the trip plate.

Camouflaging the trap didn't seem to make a difference. I caught 2 'hogs with the trap totally exposed, and 1 hog with the trap covered with zucchini leaves etc.

Now that I know that there were at least 3 groundhogs working on my vegetable garden it makes sense b/c I was puzzled how one could do so much damage.

Hope this helps any others looking to rid their garden of these varmints. I used to think they were cute. Now I hate them.

Way to go!!

Congratulations on your success as a trapper, and thanks for passing along the tips. I've been baiting my trap similarly, with the apples at the back of the trap.

Great job!! Hopefully that is all there were, 3... ~ Suzi ♥

Unfortunately, upon returning home from work tonight there was ANOTHER groundhog in the trap. A very small one. #4. Oh joy! I never expected such riches. Sigh.

'tis better to relocate him too, than allow him to enjoy your garden... ~ Suzi ♥

One comment about baiting the trap - I have a two door haveaheart
and I definitely have a huge boost in success when I wedge the apple
on the trip plate. I suspect its the trap design that makes that recommendation
not work well for a one door. With two doors - they can easily get the
apples w/o touching the plate (if they enter "the right" side).

Congratulations! And enjoy the fruits of your labor (the veggies that is)

Tam

TAmmy, good point. Wedging the apple with the one door model may not be necessary but it sounds like your experience has proven that it is necessary with the 2 door trap.

We are really giving folks a lot of advice on this forum! Who'd have thunk a forum on trapping groundhogs would be so interesting? Well, maybe it isn't of interest to the general population but I think it's great.

All of you helped me a lot. I appreciate the feedback, and encouragement from you and Critterologist and Suzi. I'm not looking forward to groundhog #5. But the trap is set again and if I get another one, so be it. I have let all of them go in the exact same spot, so if they are related they can reunite as a family in their new environs (a nice wooded area about 4 or 5 miles from here!!).

My next question is: after I have trapped all 132 groundhogs {4 down, 128 to go :)} that have burrowed under my shed, is there anything I can do to minimize the chance that another group of groundhogs move in? I feel like filling the holes in with cement!!!!

I would think some chunky gravel in the holes would be a good idea, both to stabilize the ground under your shed and to make it more difficult for those little paws with the huge claws to re-dig the hole.... they may just dig another hole right next to the first, but then again the gravel may discourage them.

If I remember, I will ask my brother. He had similar prob and said he put something in there... and they relocated to better place. I have the one door and that booger kept getting the goodies w/o springing trap, so after I wedged it under, it worked... Suspect it was big one... mind doesn't remember... ~ Suzi :)

I think I said it somewhere before but I've got a friend who swears by wood ashes to
keep the groundhogs from using their borrows. I guess they hate digging in it.
Tam