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Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 8:13 am
by treehopper
Groundhogs LOVE muskmelon...a conibear trap placed over their hole with a black 5 gallon pail over it is very effective as well. Make sure the trap is staked well.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 3:09 pm
by 3 Pound Tomato
I've used shotgun, my recurve bow, and a box trap and driving the critters down the road a couple of miles, LOL
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 8:07 pm
by Bobberman
.The ground hog is hogging my tomatoes with one bite from each. He has them all over the ground. I set my trap tonight made from a old rabbit trap. I think he will go after the apple I put in there!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 9:27 pm
by Bobberman
Caught the ground hog in my trap but when I came back in 5 min. to move it down to a stream down the road it got out some how.! Next week when I come down here I will shoot it is I see it. Its about 15 pounds pretty big!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:02 pm
by valley
Good for you! Hope you the little bugger. Be sure to take the hide in exchange for all he's taken. Best of luck.
Richard
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 10:10 pm
by Bobberman
Ground hog still on the loose. I have not been to my garden here for 2 weeks because of work and its 50 miles from where I live. I had 4 nice rows of beans that were just flowering but they are gone down to the stems. I forgot the shot gun again but made the trap better and set it with a apple.! Several of my nicest tomatoes with one big bite out of them! Had some nice tomatoes that he missed because they were up high! I hate ground hogs I see no use for them!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 2:05 am
by Kageri
I kind of liked our groundhogs. I fed them leftovers. We were middle of nowhere next to wildlife preserve so the garden had to be very securely fenced anyway. They did dig under buildings though. Just shoving a tpost in the hole and letting the doges snuffle and dig a bit for several days would make them find another less destructive home.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:03 am
by rainbowgardener
" I see no use for them"
You would if you were a wolf, red fox, coyote, great horned owl ... Woodchucks are a primary food source for a number of different carnivorous mammals and birds. People do eat woodchuck meat also. Woodchuck burrows provide homes for a lot of different animals including possums, mice, chipmunks, red fox. Some rabbits depend on them for escape routes, since the rabbits are not burrowers themselves. In overgrazed pasture, their burrows may improve soil drainage and provide a water reservoir. They turn and aerate soil and expose subsoil to weathering which helps it become topsoil. This increases vegetation around their burrow sites.
Everything in an ecosystem has roles and functions and sometimes we don't know what those are and how important they are until we subtract that creature from the system.
Do you know the song "All God's critters got a place in the choir." ?
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 11:16 pm
by Bobberman
Had the ground hog in my sights with the shot gun but it was too close to the house. Besides my girlfriend has named it rooter and thinks its a pet.! So I will have to decide if I want to shoot it or trap it and move it to a lake near by. I really don't like to kill animals!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:57 pm
by Bobberman
Bought a nice new trap at Rural King for $29 including a smaller one inside as a bonus. great deal to catch the groundhog. I had it all set near my greenhouse & figured I would catch it but within 5 days someone took it so its gone and I am not to happy! Now I have two problems. Well the shotgun is coming back next week!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 8:26 pm
by Bobberman
I got the ground tonight in one of my cage traps. Moved him a half mile to a secluded area near a stream! He was a big one! He even ate my swiss chard in my greenhouse!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 8:27 am
by rainbowgardener
If you are going to relocate them like that, you should try marking them, so you know if they come back.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:32 pm
by Bobberman
Ya but how with spray paint I guess. I had a new one that I caught today. He or she was in the hole that the bigger one was in. I put a plastic seed 6 pack in front of the hole and I knew another one was there. I caught it today and took it down to a stream away from homes.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:45 pm
by Bobberman
so far I caught 2 ground hogs and today a possum! All of them are relocated to a nicer area near a stream. They all were in the same hole under my small shed!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:21 pm
by Arriga
Will an electric fence keep them out?
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:43 pm
by jal_ut
I forgot my shot gun so I have to try something else. I also forgot my trap
Not sure what this means.......... forgot them where? Perhaps you can go get them?
How about a dead-fall trap using the figure 4 trigger?
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 12:20 am
by applestar
Arriga wrote:Will an electric fence keep them out?
I used a very small two wire electric fence -- one just above the grass and one at around 20" (set up outside the 28"H rabbit fence) to keep the groundHOG away from my dwarf apple tree. I DID NOT KNOW groundHOG would climb the low branched tree to steal the apples.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 1:10 am
by cdog222
I've been fretting over the inevitable reemergence of my resident ground hog. I convinced myself over the winter that a fence was going to be the ticket, but I don't think that's going to get the job done. So....maybe an electric fence, or trap / relocate. I know that relocation isn't necessarily a favorable option, but I can't bring myself to kill the buggar - despite his / her penchant for my veggies. I haven't taken any action yet, but I'm sure he / she is gonna be hungry - a few decimated crops will likely get my edited in gear!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:08 am
by rainbowgardener
Why do you not think fencing will "get the job done"? Deer netting is cheap and easy. It has been very entertaining at times, watching the groundhog try to get at my tomatoes when they were inside a deer netting cage.
My friends that use electric fence say that works well too.
applestar - I didn't realize groundhogs climbed until I discovered them well up into the mulberry tree when mulberries were ripe. I can spot them because the branches start bouncing!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 10:24 am
by cdog222
I guess I just assumed that the ground hog would dig right under the fence. I did use deer netting around individual raised beds last year, which kept the ground hog out but it was a pain to work in the bed with the netting around it. My thought was to enclose the entire garden with a fence and have one entry point, but I figured the ground hog would just dig under the fence. I do recall reading somewhere on these forums the idea of taking a strip of fencing / netting and laying on the ground under the fence to discourage digging along the fence. I dunno what I'll do yet - the yard was so squishy last weekend (and my raised beds were still frozen) that I couldn't do any work, and we just got another 2 inches of rain the other day. I guess that gives me a little time to come up with a game plan!
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 2:47 pm
by redneck647
I've known of groundhogs to dig under fences.. I got a big box trap to try catching them this year but I'm not sure how well that will work. So far the best way I’ve found to keep them out of the garden is to bury them with a led ball lodged in its head.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 3:11 pm
by applestar
Subject: GroungHOG ... NOT
applestar wrote:Ohio Tiller wrote:Its not the only coon around those little bandits run in bunches! Ground hogs are easy to catch you just have to set the trap in the opening of their den and cover it with burlap then a light coating of dirt. They will walk right out and not notice it is a trap.
OhioTiller you were SO right! Thanks for this tip.
I set the trap right before a major storm hit last night just after sundown, so I didn't get the chance to cover, etc., but
LOOK WHAT I FOUND THIS MORNING SOON AFTER SUNRISE !
Ha! I was looking at the photo and noticed it ate BOTH wedges of cantaloupe that were in there.
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:08 pm
by rainbowgardener
oh yeah. I'm sure no matter how much food you put in the trap, it would have all been gone!
Good job! Now what are you going to do with it?
Re: One ground hog is all it takes! War on the beast!
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 5:43 pm
by applestar
Well that one was from last year -- but this is how I see it: On our property, there are PLENTY to eat -- I know they eat other vegetation besides what's being carefully grown in the protected garden beds. I also leave patches of what would normally be destroyed as weeds that I know they can and do eat. And then, besides mulberries you mentioned, there are plums and crabapples, hickory and acorn nuts if they care to eat them, wild grapes.... NOTHING within our property is sprayed or otherwise poisoned. I toss bug-eaten portions out on the open compost pile.
So if after I make what I consider to be reasonable amount of effort to indicate that THESE ARE OFF LIMITS and they still insist on stealing the fruits of my labor, I put the good kitchen scraps in enclosed compost bin, and step up on barricading, and even if THAT isn't enough, then trap and "relocate" according to DH's judgment. I will no longer "protect" them. WAR as the OP eloquently described the state of our non-coexistence.
(...and I refuse to feel bad about it...even if my conscience prickles sometimes
)