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 five 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 four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half 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.
Wondering where groundhogs live? See any deep tunnels in your yard, under your deck, or near your foundation? You may have a groundhog; they dig burrows to live in, and the entrances are usually 10 to 12 inches wide, with the excavated soil spread around the entrances. There are usually 2 or 3 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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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.
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.
Your advice is to keep rid of ground hogs is to pour dog urine in the hole. How do you catch the dogs urine?
How does one collect the dogs urine?
Firstly, a family of groundhogs or woodchucks has lived adjacent to the garden for years and I've never encountered problems. Matter of fact, they have been beneficial in that their long burrows absorb rainwater and therefore keep the ground moist during the dry summer months.
Be sure to read your state and local laws before trying to humanely relocate a groundhog. Where I live it is illegal to dump animals on another person’s property without permission, and illegal to release on public land also. Good luck finding someone who wants a groundhog on their property. They can ruin the foundation of your shed, home, retaining walls etc. People and pets are injured when stumbling upon their excavation work also. Unfortunately the only option may be to trap and humanely kill and dispose of the carcass. I won’t use poisons and risk harming other animals or scavengers. It’s distasteful but drugging after trapping (sleeping pills were recommended by a rehab person- that’s what they do) and then drowning or suffocating them is more responsible than just pushing your problem onto someone else’s property where they may be poisoned or trapped inhumanely.
I have battled these bastards for years! They are a major annoyance where I am and it is a populated village. They can be killed as they should be. Horrible cocky creatures that have no issue with dogs or cats! I wish they would just hunt these guys because they really are major nuisance animals here. They are not deterred by much. I put traps out but I have the stupidest possum that every night goes in the dang trap! My girls do not want me to do anything with him but he is keeping me from catching the ugly chuck!!
