Woodchucks and Groundhogs
laperouse
18 years ago
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laperouse
18 years agogardenbug
18 years agoRelated Discussions
Woodchucks or groundhogs
Comments (3)do a search on woodchucks. My old yellow lab dog would lay-in-wait and catch and kill the small ones. For the big ones, (we live in a no shooting area)I got a trap and baited it with watermellon,& gave them a shot of spray piant on their back to see if they returned. I called the police to see where I could release them, and they said any public area-and I said well, the parking lot at the police station-he hestitated and said yes (get their names). Don't release them on a country road and make them some other homeowners problem. I hear that if men will pee in a pail (mine won't), you soak rags in the pee, and put the rags down the WC tunnels (usually 2 or 3 entrances near each other) and cover with soil. their tunnel systems can be huge, so look for other entrances too. gas bombs, & car exhaust didn't work for me. good luck...See Morewoodchucks
Comments (27)I think I reported on another thread, that I had a woodchuck this year. We were having damage in the yard and it wasn't until last weekend that we saw the woodchuck wandering all over the yard, feasting on the clover that is in our lawn. We chased him and boy are they quick. He was out the fence by the time we were going down the back steps. I was suspecting a woodchuck because last year I met him walking in my gate, as I was sitting in the yard. What was odd though, was that he hardly touched anything last year. This year, I started noticing leaves all chewed up, a few weeks ago then we decided to try blocking the gate with a small picket fence with rocks. That worked fine, until he chewed through the bottom of the pickets along another fence line. We blocked that one up and he just dug under the fence further along. So we stopped trying to keep him out before he wrecked our fence. Soooo....I have read all the posts here and found some of the ideas suggested interesting. I really wanted to deal with the woodchuck right away and not have to worry about him or wonder if what I was using for deterrents was going to work or not. So, I called Critter control that whitegarden mentioned. This is what I was told by Critter Control. They charge quite a bit..which I won't post here...but a significant expense. They have one fee for coming and finding out where he is getting in the yard and they set up multiple traps. Then they charge you another fee for each woodchuck they capture. Then I asked well..if you remove all you can find and we leave the tunnel system, what's to stop another woodchuck from moving in? He said true, so they charge another fee for each hole that they take care of. They fill it with small rocks. So I asked what they do with them and he said they euthanize them. I thought you couldn't trap them or kill them in Massachusetts? He said no, you can't 'kill trap' them. Which I guess he meant a trap that kills them. They 'require' you to euthanize them and not relocate them. I would assume that he must know the law if he is in the business. After hearing all of this, we decided to try something less drastic before considering this as an option. Today we bought some 'coyote urine' at Russell's. We just came in the yard from distributing it. So now we watch and wait. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will do the trick. It stinks to high heaven if you are right next to it, but supposedly it will fade in a short time then only the animals can smell it. You get little bottles that hang with cotton batten in them and you squirt it into the bottle and get the cotton batten moist, then you hang them every 12 feet around the place you are trying to keep them out of. It is supposed to last a month, but that seems a stretch to me. It cost $10. for the bottle that came with 3 dispenser bottles. You can buy extra bottles but they charge you $1.59 for a little 3" high plastic bottle. Which can add up if you have a large property you are trying to keep them out of. We used 9 bottles in our small yard and it only took care of about 1/4 of the yard where they are doing the most damage. I would think you could come up with your own bottles if you wanted to. I will come back and report how this option is working. I took photos of my poor coneflowers and asters and I was going to post them, but I think you are already plenty familiar with what that looks like. [g]...See MoreCan you help identify a critter? Looks like giant gopher.
Comments (21)Well, I saw Chucky again today for the first time in a while. He was disguised as a large rock sitting on a table (OK, maybe it's time to update the bifocals). I thought that perhaps a meteorite had landed ever-so-gently on the patio table, so I went to investigate. I didn't realize it was him until I scared him away. Interesting that several of you mentioned that they like living under sheds, because that's precisely where Chucky ran when he broke out of his rock-ish state. No wonder Mowse the Cat is always trying to slink under that shed! Actually, Chucky didn't seem as large as he did when I saw him before, so maybe this time it was Chuckina, or a Chucklette. In any case, I still haven't seen any noticable havoc wreaked, so I guess he likes my weeds better than my planted stuff...or he's dining at the neighbors'. So far, I kinda like having him around....See MoreSuper Groundhog!
Comments (3)Electric fence Could you elaborate on this please? I have an electric fence powered by a Zareba LIS3B for deer, and it works great. But the wire is at deer-height. A groundhog-height electric fence would be so close to the ground it would short out with the first weed or blade of grass that touched it....See Morelam702
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