Woodchucks or groundhogs can greatly damage a garden.
How to Prevent Groundhogs from Invading Your Garden
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Do you have trouble with these burrowing pests? Here are tips for identifying and getting rid of groundhogs in your yard and garden.
What Are Groundhogs?
If every day is Groundhog Day in your garden, you’ll probably agree with those who call that gluttonous rodent their least favorite backyard creature. Even skunks get more respect. Speaking of Groundhog Day, find out the origins of that funny holiday.
The problem is that groundhogs—also known as woodchucks or whistle-pigs—are binge eaters who can wipe out your vegetable garden in a matter of minutes. They climb, they burrow, they swim, and they eat—an adult consumes about a pound to a pound-and-a-half of vegetation daily. Between spring and fall, they double their body weight.
Do Groundhogs Hibernate?
Yes, they do! Soon after they emerge from a winter’s hibernation, they mate, giving birth in mid-spring—at a time when the pickings are at their slimmest. Neat rows of seedlings must look like manna from heaven to hungry groundhogs, who sometimes perch on garden fence posts as if they are looking over the salad bar.
When hibernating, groundhogs—who are never speedy—really slow down, drawing a breath only about once every 5 minutes. Hibernation is curious behavior: Barely breathing, these mammals cool off to just a few degrees above the ambient temperature, sometimes as low as 39º to 40ºF. Their metabolic rate drops, and they sleep profoundly in their winter dens, neither eating nor drinking for 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 months, drawing all their nourishment from the body fat they accumulated during the summer. No wonder they eat so much!
How to Identify Groundhogs
Members of the squirrel family, groundhogs are squarish, stocky animals that typically weigh between 4 and 14 pounds. They have short, strong legs, coarse, grizzled, gray-brown fur, small ears, a short, bushy tail, and curved claws. Groundhogs look a bit like runaway fur coats as they waddle back to their burrows. This critter can grow to be about 3 feet long. They have large, competent, chisel-like teeth that make them efficient but not quite endearing.
Are you wondering where groundhogs live? Do you see any deep tunnels in your yard, under your deck, or near your foundation? You may have a groundhog. Groundhogs dig burrows to live in, and the entrances are usually 10 to 12 inches wide, with the excavated soil spread around them. There are usually two or three entrances.
Groundhog Damage
What do groundhogs eat? Everything from flowers to vegetables. Favorite foods include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lettuce, broccoli, plantain, and soybeans. Groundhogs will often devour your seedlings before they even have time to grow. Rabbits and deer eat some of the same plants, so make sure to check for burrows before concluding that you have groundhogs. If you don’t have vegetables around, groundhogs will settle for twigs, bark, bugs, and blossoms.
Groundhogs eat mostly during the early morning and afternoon, so try to see when your garden is receiving the most damage. These creatures will also gnaw and claw at fruit trees, so check your trees for any such marks.
Catherine Boeckmann
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Nice article. I have a lot of trouble with Groundhogs coming from the large park behind my house. My Doberman Pinschers patrol my garden area thinning out the Groundhogs. One last year was one of the biggest I'd seen and was rototilling a row of pole beans when Rowdy caught him, the other was a bit smaller. The damage they do is quick and tremendous.
We have a small garden, primarily for fresh leafy greens. We have had good success in fending off the neighborhood woodchucks with wire cloches, simply formed of 2" galvanized mesh and closed at each end.
I find the groundhogs that live under the storage container near my garden like all the cabbages except for kale, and they like the beans but only before it's got real leaves, so I start my beans indoors in dirt-filled toilet paper tubes and transplant them once they've got real leaves, then I leave citronella tea light candles from the dollar store around the fresh plantings. I'm going to try a hardware cloth cloche over the broccoli this year and see if they dig under it, I'm glad that works for you. Last year I tried row covers and it thought a covered dining tent was the best thing ever :D I've also found that surrounding things with potato plants keeps the bunnies and groundhogs from investigating the area but my garden's a bit small to make it work every year, plus it takes a while before the potato foliage is developed enough to be a deterrent.
Today I read that DUBBLE BUBBLE bubble gum is very yummy to groundhogs. They eat it and it gums up their insides and they die (supposedly). Bought 320 pieces of it online and while waiting for it to arrive, I sent Hubby to town to buy every available bag of that gum. When he was at the cash with all that gum, an old lady told him "That is not good for you." Hubby replied that it was for the groundhogs and raccoons and got a look from the woman as if he had lost all of his marbles. Ha ha ha ha ha ...
But at least bubble gum is safe for cats, dogs, skunks, deer, little children and, as well, eco-friendly. We're hoping for the best, meaning death and destruction to the pests!
.22 air rifle works wonders
Please don't relocate groundhogs, or anything else. You just make them someone else's problem, they could die, and in the spring you could orphan babies, killing them too.
So, you want to save all the rodents that not only destroy backyard gardens but large patches of farm field crops too. Did you know that woodchuck have 2 to 3 litters of young every year and they all become someone's problem. Do you know they undermine farm buildings foundations, causing them to collapse. These creatures must be thinned out by killing them or there won't be any food for people. I came to this article hoping to find a way to repel them from my garden and buildings because the "orphans" always seem to survive anyway. And fencing doesn't work, had one dig 20 feet into the middle of my garden from the outside. Livetraps are a joke, never had one work, ever. So, don't worry, they will always have a large population. Oh, had one injure a dog once so they aren't real sweet either.
Who cares?
So we have found that collecting our dogs feces & urine & pouring them down the holes is helpful. Also found when the canister in my vacuum is full, I will dump that down groundhog holes & dump the dog feces on top of it, it seems to help. They have destroyed the foundation around the barns at this abandoned farm we recently moved to.They also have burrowed near the foundation of the house. I ran an old hose down the hole near the house, buried the hose, covered the hole & poured the dogs urine down using a funnel. I had to do twice & now they do not try to burrow near the house. I use the feces & vacuum contents near the barns. They are still definitely around, but they are not digging the foundations up anymore & mostly stay close to the fields & the creek. So we are partially winning this!
Tractor Supply or other farm supply stores including Home Depot and possibly Lowes, sell smoke bombs that will clear them out pretty quickly. Then pour a gallon of straight sodium chloride bleach into each hole followed by chlorine "shock" for backyard swimming pools. That will keep them from coming back. If your out there in the country, a small bore .22 LR rimfire or personally I like the newer .17 HMR or WSM cartridges to dispatch them for good.
