I m Out There Digging Holes Falling Into Them Climbing Out Trying Again
Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, are unique animals known for burrowing. These large rodents can achieve upward to 12 pounds and they're found beyond the eastern and central U.Due south. and into Canada. Unlike some rodents, you can have a groundhog trouble without e'er seeing the animals as woodchucks spend most of their fourth dimension in their burrows undercover.
Frustrated by groundhog harm to your garden? Do you lot have a groundhog living under your shed? Here's how to get rid of groundhogs in your chiliad safely and rapidly.
Groundhog Advent and Behavior
Groundhogs are unique rodents and the largest member of the squirrel family. Ranging from 6 to 12 pounds, groundhogs get effectually xx inches long with a 6-inch tail. They accept brown fur which may range from lite to night brownish with a round body and bushy tail. Woodchucks take very short but strong legs and circular eyes on a flat head.
Groundhogs prefer to alive in areas where open fields and meadows meet wooded areas. They consume a varied plant-based diet, consuming everything from apples, carrots, and garden vegetables to dandelions, flowers, and tree bawl.
You'll observe groundhog activity between spring and autumn when they are agile during the day, particularly in the early morning and evening when they're decorated gathering food. Woodchucks get into hibernation in October.
Woodchuck Burrowing
If at that place'due south one thing y'all tin can count on a woodchuck to do, it's burrow. Groundhogs are extensive burrowers, edifice circuitous cloak-and-dagger tunnels and dens in well-tuckered soil. These rodents use their sharp claws to dig complicated and multi-chambered burrows that are used for nesting, edifice food reserves, and hibernating. Each den or bedchamber in a woodchuck burrow has its own purpose — including the bathroom.
Don't underestimate just how extensive a single groundhog can make its burrow. In fact, groundhogs in Ohio are fifty-fifty credited with an archeological discovery at the Ufferman Site near Delaware, Ohio. Hither, agile groundhogs accept brought many artifacts to the surface cheers to their burrowing, including human bones and pottery.
Quick Navigation: What's in This Guide?
- How to Get Rid of Groundhogs
- one. Groundhog Electric Fence
- ii. Add together New Sources of Food
- iv. Install a Garden Fence
- five. Repel Groundhog'southward From Garden
- vi. Seal Around Decks and Sheds
- vii. Expanding Tunnel Fill
- 8. Encompass Holes with Hardware Textile
- 9. Gas the Groundhog Out
- 10. Use an Ultrasonic Groundhog Repellent
- 11. Clear Nutrient from the Yard
- 12. Stay on Summit of Mowing and Trimming Shrubs
- 13. Maintain Moist Soil
How to Go Rid of Groundhogs
i. Groundhog Electrical Fence
To keep woodchucks from burrowing under your fence, make sure you have a pest exclusion feature at the base of the contend at to the lowest degree 2 feet deep. Fifty-footer way fencing is the most constructive barrier against burrowing pests like woodchucks and it's essentially wire mesh that extends away from the contend nether the ground in an 50 shape. Y'all tin too make 50-footers yourself with fencing material and wire mesh.
Ideally, footers should be installed when the fence is installed. You lot can also retrofit an existing fence with L-footers. The Humane Club offers advice for installing Fifty-footer fencing, particularly if you program to retrofit your existing fence. In this case, practice the retrofit in stages to brand sure you don't trap groundhogs and other animals inside your property.
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An electric debate doesn't have to be expensive and it'due south piece of cake to retrofit an existing fence to assist stop pests (and pets!) from climbing over the contend or, in some cases, excavation under. An electric fence won't kill groundhogs and it'due south condom for your pets. You can even choose to install it on the exterior of your fence rather than the inside.
Invest in Quality Fencing
Fencing is one of the almost constructive solutions to keep out a variety of pests — but it's also 1 of the most expensive. If you lot're already planning to debate your yard or you want to give your existing debate some work to exclude groundhogs, there are several steps you lot can take.
Groundhogs can get through a contend by climbing or burrowing — they're slap-up at both. You lot volition desire to make sure your fence is impenetrable from either approach.
Start by making sure your fence has no openings or holes wider than iii″. This includes spaces between slats of forest or holes in metal wiring.
To keep groundhogs from climbing over your fence, give your contend an upgrade by attaching horizontal boards at the bottom of the argue. The boards can be painted or stained to match your fence and they make it a fleck harder for groundhogs to go a footing and climb. You can brand your contend more secure past digging a small ditch under your fence and positioning these boards partially beneath the surface of the ground.
2. Add New Sources of Food
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If you take plenty of land and don't mind sharing some with groundhogs — or you lot live close to a wooded area and just desire the groundhogs a bit farther away — a possible solution may be planting the woodchucks a garden of their own away from your own.
Woodchucks are herbivores that can eat a lot every day, consuming everything from flowers, vegetables, and fruits to bark. All the same, groundhogs practise have some plants they prefer. Planting their favorite sources of food can be a useful tool to convince groundhogs to move to some other area of the property — or into the wood near your domicile.
You don't need to spend much money to practise this. Here are some cheap plants you can add strategically effectually your home to lure groundhogs away from your prized plantings, shed, and home.
- Alfalfa
- Clover. This is one of the most affordable and piece of cake solutions every bit you tin can buy Scotts clover backyard or ground embrace which will establish itself speedily away from your garden.
- Basil
- Parsley
- Zinnias
- Chrysanthemum
- Beet greens
- Greenish beans
As a bonus, many of these plants tin can exist harvested by you — if there's annihilation left after the groundhogs have their share!
Live Trapping a Groundhog
Sometimes the all-time or just solution for a groundhog is trapping it. You may need to trap the groundhog if it'southward burrowing shut to your dwelling house or under your deck where it can cause serious impairment or pose a run a risk to you and your family unit.
After live trapping a groundhog, you take a few options:
- Releasing the groundhog away from your belongings
- Releasing the groundhog on your property after using exclusion methods to keep information technology from returning to the den
- Euthanizing the groundhog
There are obvious drawbacks to each option. You may non want to euthanize a healthy animal just because information technology set its abode in the wrong area. Releasing the groundhog far away from your holding, on the other paw, all just ensures the groundhog'due south expiry. Live trapping and relocation places the groundhog in an unfamiliar expanse where they won't know where to observe food, water, and shelter. They're also in another creature'due south territory and may exist attacked or unable to escape from predators.
3. Alive Groundhog Trap
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Before you utilize a live groundhog trap, make sure you check local laws regarding nuisance wildlife. In most states, you do not demand a allow or trap groundhogs. There may be specific rules you need to follow when information technology comes to trapping and releasing the woodchuck, however.
For example, Indiana police allows homeowners and renters to trap woodchucks legally if the beast is causing damage to the holding. While you are no longer required to inform a conservation officer inside three days, you can't keep the woodchuck trapped for more than 24 hours. You will have ii options for disposing of the woodchuck: yous tin permit information technology go or euthanize information technology. If y'all decide to relocate the woodchuck you need permission from the landowner (even for public country) and the woodchuck must be released in the aforementioned county.
Many states have like guidelines simply they can vary. Brand sure you check with your Department of Wildlife earlier trapping the woodchuck.
Once y'all're set to trap the groundhog, yous'll detect information technology's not equally hard as yous may await. Set the trap up almost one of the groundhog's couch openings or an expanse they frequently search for food like the garden. Bait the trap with something groundhogs love. The best option is cantaloupe, flavorful care for groundhogs accept trouble resisting with an odor they tin can selection up from quite a altitude. The best groundhog baits can also include:
- String beans
- Sweetness corn
- Strawberries
- Ripe peaches
- Vanilla excerpt (can be practical to strawberries and other types of bait)
Catching Groundhogs in Live Trap
Brand sure the bait is placed backside the trigger plate of your live trap but far from the walls of the cage. Article of clothing gloves while calculation the allurement and treatment the trap to avert transferring your scent.
Once the groundhog is trapped, remember that information technology's very frightening and may try to bite or lash out. Handle the trap advisedly when relocating the groundhog past covering the trap with a cloth and wearing heavy-duty gloves. When y'all're ready to release the groundhog, place the trap on level ground with the door facing away from you. Stand behind the muzzle and manipulate the door mechanism, allowing the groundhog to run straight out and away from you.
Related Article: How to Get Rid of Skunks
4. Install a Garden Fence
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Have woodchucks developed a gustatory modality for your vegetable garden? Or are y'all interested in protecting your prized plants from woodchuck damage? The practiced news is there are several means to get rid of groundhogs in a garden and information technology all begins with fencing.
The first footstep is installing fencing to protect your garden from groundhogs. You'll need to consider that woodchucks can enter your garden in three ways: they tin burrow into the garden, walk right in, or climb over fencing.
There are a couple of options for protecting your garden with a groundhog-proof debate.
The starting time option is using chicken wire that's vi′ high and installed with 5-foot posts. The craven wire also needs to be buried at least 10-24″ into the ground. At the top of your fence leave the final 12 inches unattached to the posts and curve the craven wire outwards to forestall a groundhog from climbing up and over.
Another option is installing an electrical fence and reinforcing with L-brackets nether the ground. This pick means you won't have a loftier, ugly contend over your garden and you lot'll still have protection from burrowing.
A good option for electrifying a argue around your garden is the Patriot PE2 electric fence. This kit is DIY friendly and allows yous to build your own brusque craven wire fence and electrify information technology past running the aluminum wire effectually the base.
five. Repel Groundhog's From Garden
If yous can't build a argue around your garden and woodchucks are a business, there are a few other options to consider:
- Add plants that repel woodchucks. This won't keep groundhogs away from delicious, ripe fruit and tasty vegetables only you tin probably protect flower beds or at least discourage groundhogs by adding plants they really don't similar to your mural. Crown purple fritillary (F. imperialis) and gopher plant (Euphorbia lathyrus) are reported to repel groundhogs. Pennsylvania State Academy offers a long listing of groundhog resistant plants that they are unlikely to eat including hummingbird plants, cut blossom garden plants, herbs, vegetables, and more.
- Let your dog walk through the garden expanse. The scent of your dog may help deter groundhogs.
- Try groundhog repellents. Unfortunately, there aren't really any products that tin effectively deter woodchucks — but they may help to convince a groundhog to discover a tastier meal somewhere else. Woodchuck repellents are more probable to work before a woodchuck actually moves into your yard and starts burrowing, at which point they're committed to living in your k unless you get to extreme measures. Potential groundhog repellents include coyote or fox urine, red pepper flakes, Tabasco sauce, garlic, lavender, and even homo hair. You can brand your own groundhog deterrent spray past mixing water, a flake of dish soap, and Tabasco sauce plus crushed garlic cloves into a spray bottle. Spray effectually the garden and on plants, especially plants that have been hit past groundhogs in the past.
vi. Seal Around Decks and Sheds
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What's i of a groundhog'south favorite places to hideout? Under your shed or deck where they have cover while entering and exiting their burrow. During the spring, you may see a groundhog slipping under your deck, porch, or shed but not emerging as they're inbound their extensive tunnel system.
This is one of the worst places to take woodchuck activity as their burrowing can damage the structural integrity of your deck or foundation. The play a joke on to kicking them out is first closing the pigsty so installing a barrier so they can't get under the porch again.
You lot tin utilize an expanding tunnel fill product or hardware textile to close the pigsty nether your deck. Next, go on the woodchuck from accessing under your porch or shed by sealing off open up areas. Make certain you use galvanized steel mesh that's installed well below ground level to keep the woodchuck from burrowing back nether the deck.
How to Fill up a Groundhog Tunnel
When you've evicted woodchucks from your property, y'all're left with the extensive tunnels they leave behind. There'south a right way and wrong way to handle groundhog holes as the tunnel systems, even when left undisturbed, can collapse with heavy rainfall or be taken over by some other groundhog.
Groundhog burrows should exist left lonely until the babies are old enough to leave, which usually happens around early July. If the opening of the burrow is in a unsafe location where it poses a trip gamble, you tin mark it with a flag until the immature have left.
Later on mid-July, y'all can evict the groundhog with the methods to a higher place or stuff garlic oil or clove oil-soaked rags into every pigsty. The soaked rags will give off a pungent olfactory property that helps convince the woodchuck to get out. Another solution is using gas cartridges to rapidly impale or evict the groundhog.
The next stride is filling the groundhog holes. This will assist preclude another groundhog from claiming the burrow later. In that location are two effective means to make full groundhog holes:
7. Expanding Tunnel Fill
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I option for filling groundhog holes or tunnel openings is a production called tunnel fill up. This production, which resembles pellets, is an absorbing textile that expands to many times the original size when it's combined with water. Y'all but need to pour the expanding tunnel make full into the groundhog holes around your holding and add together h2o: the tunnel fill will expand to fill the opening.
Tunnel fill even contains ingredients that naturally repel excavation in the future to reduce the risk that another groundhog or animal-similar chipmunks will take over the abased burrow. Past filling the holes, you can foreclose the tunnels from simply collapsing over time from foot traffic on the surface and rainwater.
Related Article: 7 Best Ways to Go Rid of Moles
8. Encompass Holes with Hardware Material
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An culling solution is but covering all of the openings to the burrow with buried wire mesh after the groundhog is evicted. Remember that the extensive couch the groundhog has built — perhaps over a menstruum of years — is a hot commodity and another groundhog or other burrowing animal may want to take it equally their own domicile in the hereafter. Covering entrances to the couch makes it less likely that other pests will move in. Yous tin can but excavate each opening of the burrow a chip to close the entrance with half-inch hardware cloth or aluminum screening.
ix. Gas the Groundhog Out
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Have you lot discovered a groundhog burrow in your k? One potentially permanent solution is to gas the groundhog out. Gas pest bombs from Atlas are effective at evicting animals from an surreptitious burrow or killing them if they can't get out in time.
Atlas gas cartridges are easy to employ just you'll need to follow the directions carefully. First, make sure you identify all of the openings to the groundhog's burrow. There are probably more 1 and perhaps up to half a dozen, depending on the size of the burrow and how long the groundhog has been living in your one thousand.
Next, make sure the groundhog is actually in the burrow before yous light the cartridge. Groundhogs are most active early in the mean solar day and the afternoon. Just earlier nightfall, there's a good chance the groundhog is home.
To evict the groundhog, embrace all openings to the couch except one and so follow these easy steps for the best chances of success:
- Do placing the gas cartridge in the couch opening a few times to make sure you have proficient clearance.
- Use BBQ tongs to hold the cartridge and go on it as far from your face up equally possible.
- Have something handy to cover the opening once you lot're ready. Because y'all have just seconds to cover the hole, the best matter to do is add some rocks to a large bucket and keep it correct by the burrow entrance.
- As soon as you calorie-free the fuse, agree your jiff and place the cartridge in the couch opening. Quickly cover the pigsty with the weighted saucepan.
- Leave the encompass on the pigsty for several hours or overnight.
x. Utilize an Ultrasonic Groundhog Repellent
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An ultrasonic groundhog repeller may work in the short-term but information technology's but not a long-term solution. That'due south why we typically don't recommend them.
When yous want to know how to go rid of groundhogs in your yard, you'll probably hear or see ultrasonic repellers that can exist staked into the ground. These ultrasonic pest command devices claim to chase away moles, gophers, groundhogs, and other burrowing animals just the truth isn't so elementary.
Once a groundhog has gone to the trouble of creating its burrow and information technology has access to nutrient, information technology's unlikely to move even in the face of abrasive vibrations. The success of these devices also varies a dandy bargain from one animal to the side by side. One woodchuck may plow away when it detects the vibrations from the device only the next won't be so troubled.
Groundhogs and other animals tend to get used to abrasive noises and even what appears to exist a threat like an owl or hawk decoy, for example. You lot may notice results initially but ultrasonic devices won't keep groundhogs abroad for long without other methods.
If you lot practice determine to use an ultrasonic groundhog device, brand sure you utilise several other exclusion and prevention methods or you lot'll just be throwing away your money.
To use the ultrasonic ground stakes with best results, make sure they're installed no further than 100 feet apart in areas decumbent to groundhogs — but with enough of sunlight if you utilize a solar-powered device.
Related Commodity: Exercise Ultrasonic Pest Repellers Piece of work
eleven. Clear Food from the One thousand
Practice you have fruit trees or a thriving vegetable garden on your belongings? Woodchucks can smell these sources of food from quite a altitude and they will be fatigued to your holding. Ripe fruits and vegetables are at the well-nigh risk of attracting rodents and being stolen.
Every bit with any pest, eliminating food sources is essential to preventing or getting rid of an infestation. Pick vegetables and fruits equally soon every bit they're ripe and don't permit them to rot on the ground. Rake regularly to keep your thousand free of ripe fruits that might accept fallen from trees.
Even though groundhogs are herbivores and aren't known for going through the trash similar raccoons, it'southward still a good thought to make sure the area around your trash is clean and sealed. Double pocketbook nutrient scraps before throwing them away to prevent strong odors that may attract pests.
12. Stay on Peak of Mowing and Trimming Shrubs
Like virtually rodents, groundhogs like areas with plenty of cover to hide from predators. Woodchucks also similar to make the entrances to their burrows in areas with swell cover to disguise their home. Eliminating encompass effectually your k probably won't be enough to encourage a groundhog to move on if information technology's already built a comfortable home near nutrient — but it definitely makes your property less appealing to groundhogs.
These tips tin can assist you prevent groundhogs in your yard and other pests like chipmunks:
- Cutting back shrubs and bushes until their leaves are no longer virtually the ground and they aren't impenetrable
- Cut grass regularly and keep it short
- Don't leave piles of leaves or forest around the one thousand. Woodchucks dearest to burrow homes well-nigh piles of debris.
13. Maintain Moist Soil
Groundhogs search for soft, loose, and fairly dry soil that'southward piece of cake to dig through to make their burrows. The last thing a groundhog wants is wet or saturated soil which makes it most impossible for them to create the all-encompassing tunnel system they need. A simple yet constructive solution to encourage groundhogs to find a new home is watering ofttimes to keep your lawn and basis moist.
Of course, keeping the ground pretty moist throughout the summer may not be possible or affordable. You'll need to bank check if you have any municipal watering restrictions in your area as water shortages can force limits on lawn watering in the summer.
If yous can't keep sprinklers on for an hour or more a day, the next-all-time solution is thoroughly soaking areas that might appeal to groundhogs. This includes areas with good cover like dense shrubs, nearly bushes and fences, and under sheds.
Why Groundhogs Are a Problem
Groundhogs, unlike their squirrel cousins and other rodents, don't spread affliction and they're only active for function of the year. So, what'due south the large deal with a groundhog or two living on your belongings?
Groundhogs can crusade extensive damage thanks to their non-end tunneling behavior. In addition to raiding your garden, their tunnels can collapse in your yard and they can even cause structural damage to your home, shed, walkways, and fencing. These large tunnels aren't visible from the surface unless they plummet but they're large enough to break a tractor axle and damage surrounding structures.
Only how large are groundhog burrows? A single groundhog volition burrow two to four anxiety below the ground and create a network of tunnels and rooms anywhere from 8 to 60 feet long — with multiple entries and exit points. Each exit is nigh 12 inches wide with a mound of excavated dirt.
Because groundhogs hibernate deep underground for the winter, the best time to exclude or evict groundhogs from your yard is the middle to terminate of summer. If yous wait too long, you won't have another chance until side by side year.
Ready to evict a groundhog from your belongings? Here are the steps to take to make your lawn and garden inhospitable to woodchucks and force them to move on to a new home.
Signs You Accept a Groundhog Infestation
A groundhog problem tin can be difficult to recognize equally you may not encounter the actual groundhogs — merely the damage they leave backside. Nevertheless, in that location are some signs you can watch for that signal the animal making tunnels or digging in your k is a groundhog.
- Y'all have harm to crops, wood, and branches. Look around your one thousand and garden for evidence of a groundhog. Yous may notice teeth marks around 1/two″ wide on plants, depression tree branches, and wood besides as hollowed or damaged vegetables and fruits.
- Yous see mounds of dirt in front of holes. Groundhogs ofttimes burrow under porches and sheds, leaving a tell-tale mound of dirt in front of the tunnel archway. Groundhogs are always working on their tunnel network and making expansions which means they need to go rid of dirt fairly often.
- You see signs of excavation well-nigh a porch or shed. Groundhogs spend virtually of their time excavating tunnels and dens underground. They tend to gravitate toward natural cavities that offer good cover, like a shed, simply they will continue to burrow.
- You run across evidence of many tunnels or openings. Considering woodchucks excavate many tunnels with lots of entrances and escape routes, it's not uncommon to run across many archway holes and even signs of collapsed tunnels around your hard.
- You hear distinctive groundhog sounds. Woodchucks make very distinctive noises. In addition to the normal squeaking bawl you may hear from a groundhog like this, the groundhog tin can also brand a very high-pitched whistling noise. This has earned them the nickname "whistle pig."
- You lot have worn or gnawed trees and siding. This can exist a sign of odour mark or areas where the groundhog was chewing to wear down their incisors.
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My name is Christine and I'm living in Southwest Ohio where I was born and raised after a decade spent living in Southern California.
While I loved working equally a Pest Control Technician in Western Ohio, I did non relish the hours.
I decided to observe a new career and now I work as a author and help others detect solutions to their pest problems online.
In my free time, I enjoy traveling and going to as many metal concerts as possible.
Source: https://www.pestcontrolgurus.com/how-to-get-rid-of-groundhogs/
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