Woodchucks are also known as groundhogs. They can be quite big and plump and the reason they are so big and plump is because they have probably just raided your garden. Woodchucks will dig holes in the ground so that they can get to their homes or burrows under the ground. They serve their purpose once per year, on Groundhog Day, by telling us how many more days we have left until spring arrives, but after that, is when they start to cause problems. Woodchucks are not known for carrying infectious disease but they can carry rabies. If you do have a problem with them, you might want to consider woodchuck removal methods to be able to get rid of them.
Prevention: You can do things around your yard and garden to stop them from living there and this way you won’t need to use a woodchuck trapping or killing strategy. You could place a strand of electrical fence wire around your garden
to help with woodchuck prevention. Or just a sturdy fence of any kind around a garden will do. Bury the fence under the ground to prevent the animal from simply burrowing underneath it. You can
try to scare them away with noise. Tin cans tied to a
string make perfect noisemakers. You can then just place these strategically around your property. The theory is that they do not like noise - however, in reality, I don't think this tactic will work very well - same goes for scarecrows and balloons.
A better method is to make the habitat less appealing - make sure that your grass is always cut short so that they will have nothing to feed on. You could soak some clothes in ammonia and place them around different spots in the garden or on your lawn, or near the
burrows. Some homeowners hope that this helps keep the population of the woodchucks at bay and this way you do not have to worry about using any types of woodchuck trapping. However, repellents aren't usually effective. Really, the only good prevention is to
limit the amount of good habitat, limit access to food, and use fences to keep the animals away.
Trapping and Removal: You can use a live trap as a woodchuck removal method. This keeps them alive but you will have to find a spot to release them. Use a large-size trap, like a raccoon-size trap, at least 30" long, like the Havahart 1079. Set the trap at the burrow entrances or
the paths the groundhogs use, and bait the trap with fresh vegetables, like broccoli or corn. After capture, you will want to make sure
that they do not bite or scratch you when you capture them or let them go. There are also lethal traps that you can use, such as a 120 Connibear body grip trap. These are set right over the groundhog burrow, and have a very high success rate. However, the are difficult
to set, and definitely not for amateurs. Another method of woodchuck removal is to shoot them. You do want to be careful that you are only shooting at the woodchuck and that nobody else is going to get hurt. You could use poison but using poison isn’t always advisable especially
if you have young children or pets around. You don’t want them to be accidentally poisoned. You would also want to make sure that it is only the woodchucks that are going to be poisoned because you could end up poisoning a different type of animal altogether. It is always
advisable that when seeking help on woodchuck removal that you ask the advice of a professional and have them come in and do the woodchuck removal service for you. This ensures that nobody gets hurt and that the job is done professionally.
How To Get Rid Of A Woodchuck In The Garden
Woodchucks are especially troublesome for people who have a garden because they love to get their teeth on the easy meal that is your vegetable garden. There are many places where a woodchuck can make a home on your property and the ways that you will use to get them out will depend on the location of the woodchuck. A woodchuck in the garden can cause a lot of damage to your vegetation. Fortunately getting a groundhog out of your garden should be relatively easy with the right tools.
If you find that a woodchuck is making way too many visits to your garden then you can place a trap close by in order to catch it. You can also install motion sensors in your garden that will activate a light or a sprinkler system. That is a great way to keep the woodchucks and other potential pests out of the garden without ever having to trap the woodchuck yourself. It is true that a sprinkler system is more effective than the light, but you should know that these methods are not one hundred percent guaranteed; some groundhogs will ignore the water or light in order to get to the next meal. That makes the trap a lot more effective.
How To Get Rid Of A Woodchuck Under A Porch
A groundhog can be a fun thing to have on your property if you are trying to find out how long the winter will last, but if Groundhog Day is not your type of holiday then you will want to get them out of your property. Having a woodchuck or a groundhog under your porch may seem like the worst place to have one. So the problem becomes how do you reach or retrieve a groundhog that is in an unreachable place?
The good news is that you don’t really have to get to the woodchuck; you can simply use live traps or a natural repellent that will get the woodchuck out. A live trap can be placed with bait at the location the woodchuck uses for entry or exit. You can use the knowledge of the entrance or exit the woodchuck uses to your advantage, because it has to go out and eat, and placing the bait so close to the shelter will be really effective. You can also use a natural repellent like coyote urine which you can find in most hunting stores nationwide. The coyote is a natural predator and because the space is so small under the porch, the smell will get to the groundhog, in most cases scaring it away.
How To Get Rid Of A Woodchuck Under A House
This is perhaps the most challenging situation because depending on the size of the house a groundhog could have plenty of places to hide. Using the coyote urine may or may not work also depending on the size of the home. If you do find yourself with a woodchuck under your house, you should first know that there is a place where the woodchuck had to get in from. Finding this location is the most important thing that you can do because it is very likely that it is the same location it will use to go hunting for food.
Once you have found this location cover a trap with vegetation so that it is more likely that the woodchuck will go in. With a little patience you will catch the woodchuck although there is also a possibility that you will trap other wildlife before you actually trap the woodchuck under the house. There are also occasions where you will even find that the need for more than one live trap to catch the animal raiding your garden.
How To Get Rid Of A Woodchuck In The Shed
If you have a backyard with a shed then there is a chance that a woodchuck will make a home in there. It is not the most difficult job to get them out of the shed unless they are under it in which case you should use live traps, bait or repellents. Trapping a woodchuck in the shed is a lot easier with live traps. The traps should include some sort of vegetable bait and in some cases they will also go for blood meal.
Once you have placed the trap, you do not have to check it more than twice a day until you trap it. Remember that because of the size of a groundhog you should use a trap of the same size. A raccoon trap will do fine for trapping almost any woodchuck. Once you have trapped the woodchuck you want to release it somewhere at least a couple of miles away to make sure that it does not come back. Woodchucks are not the easiest animals to trap, but following these instructions you should have better luck in doing so.
Click here for more info about
how to remove a woodchuck under a deck.
Woodchuck removal methods must be carefully thought out and planned out and you shouldn’t make any rash decisions because this could lead to someone getting seriously hurt. Humans have a tendency to just want to get rid of anything that is bothering them. This goes for woodchucks as well as other types of animals. You will want to make sure that the woodchuck is really causing harm before considering whether you should be looking at a woodchuck removal method. It is always best for humans to just get along with woodchucks and try to co-exist.
Woodchucks do a lot for the ecology of our planet. They were put on this planet for a reason, just like everything else in the world. They are good for more than telling us when spring is coming and they are more than the subject of a silly tongue-twister. Woodchucks do aerate the soil. This means that it makes it better for your plants to grow. They also help fertilize the soil. Woodchucks do eat bugs and insects so they help to keep these at bay too. When considering a woodchuck removal method, you do want to find one that will work because otherwise you are going to find that you are going to have just gotten rid of one family of woodchucks and then another family will move right in on top of those ones. When you are considering getting rid of woodchucks, you want to do so safely and effectively.
More groundhog information and education:
How big do groundhogs get?
