Mine is a connoisseur ... only eats the safflower sprouts from my bird feeder and every single one of my Gloriosa Daisy plants. So far s/he has successfully avoided the Hav-A-Heart traps. Me thinks I may have to sacrifice some broccoli sprouts to get him into the trap. Three weeks s/he's avoided my baits. Fortunately I plant tons and tons of everything in multiple locations around the yard, but I want the lil bugger out of here anyway.

Check out the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: groundhogs

Here is one more..

Here is a link that might be useful: Groundhog.. pest control

My husband used the fumigation method in getting rid of a groundhog. He covered one hole and the groundhog went running out of the other and he never came back. I never had any problems after that. He also has trapped one and killed it. They may be cute animals to some people but farmers hate them. My dad (a farmer) told me if they tunnel under a building they will ruin the foundation. So you want him away from the garden and out buildings.

Fran, here's my experience with groundhogs: At our prior home we had a resident GH that I thought was so cute until she ate every plant as it emerged from the ground! We tried doing everything you can imagine to the burrow that summer. The next spring, the burrow remained closed until mid April. I thought she was gone. Not a chance! Called a pet exterminator who came out and set traps to no avail. Apparently they go off in late spring to mate. She was back in late June with 2 of the cutest babies. Back to the pet exterminators. We ended up catching 7 GHs including Grandma (the biggest GH they had ever seen). Cost --> $500!!! An interesting note: about 1/2 of the GHs die within 1 hour of being trapped due to heart failure.

Fast forward to out new home. Yes we have a resident GH again!!! Lives under our shed. I bought a live trap but that also comes with complications such as my gardening buddy cat. Don't want to have him get caught in the trap and maybe lose his tail. Plus, you must close the traps after sunset or you risk catching the night animals like skunks!! Once the ws babies are in the ground and I'm not outside so much, I plant to start baiting the trap again. They love broccoli! I know it is illegal to relocate in our state, but it's me or the GHs and I win!! They are tough to catch and very distructive. Don't be fooled by their early disappearance as they will be back in numbers post partum! So to all of you out there with this pesky problem, I wish you good luck. One more year of this for me and then I'm calling the pet exterminators again!

Here's the latest attempt to keep the "fur ball" aka groundhog from eating everything in site.

Everyone in the neighborhood thought I was having a party.

A friend and I blew up 100 cheap balloons. Strung 3 at a time on a piece of twine and tied them to the chain link fence in the back of the house, especially around the gate where we know the groundhog gets in.

Then we put some on the arbor in the front yard in one of my flower beds that has last years WS lupin in it that is getting huge.

Mind you it looks crazy out there and I should have taken pics but it was so hot, we where dying out there.

I left the hose on all day with the sprayer nozzle off just in case he/she got inside the fenced yard. I was planning to zap him/her with the jet spray. OK thought if I did it enough, it would learn.

Then we waited all day and no sign of the critter around the plants.
Neighbor across the street called and said he was in the veggie garden eating away and he scared him off. Now this veggie garden is surrounded by chicken wire that is down 2 feet in the ground and the groundhog dug a hole outside the fence and came out in a hole inside the veggie garden.

Told neigbor about the balloon idea and he went up to the local Walgreens and bought himself a bag of 100 balloons, blew them up and put them around his yard, on the fence of the veggie garden and on a pole right beside the hole inside the veggie garden. He put his ballons low on the ground same as I did.

Then he sat and waited to see what happened. No breeze blowing the balloons but they where there.

Low and behold, the groundhog started coming out of the hole in neigbors veggie garden, froze when it saw the balloons and retreated back in the hole. score 1 for neighbor, zip for the "beast".

Hubby came home and saw the "beast" toddling up the yard beside the driveway. He opened the car door and watched as the "beast" went to the gate. Beast saw balloons and moved away, walked further down to another spot he can get in and saw more balloons. I'm watching for the critter and watched him try the one other spot and oops balloons. He toddled off to his hole. Score for me, zip for the "beast".

Would be nice if this works for good but I'm not counting on it. Would prefer to just get rid of the damn thing for good. Have visions of sending a firecracker down the hole and running away and seeing body parts come flying out. couldn't happen to a nicer critter, but my luck would be it explodes the hole and the groundhog and takes a few trees down with it and they land on my house causing damage. Now how do I explain to the insurance company that the damage just happened?

Fran

You could try putting some mothballs around, or down in the hole - supposedly they don't like the smell....