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O/t Groundhog control

P

Philip Doolittle

Member
I have a groundhog problem in my garden.Its 1/2 acre on a 8 Ac semi rural location along an railroad embankment with 2 houses along the opposite side- neighbors with cats. Hogs live in RR embankment. They are making holes under my barn and deck. I live trap racoons and and remove them. I CAN NOT find any bait or food that attract the Groundhogs. I got a couple with the 12Ga, but anytime they see me or hear my truck come in the driveway they run to the RR. Can anyone please suggest what I can use & not harm my good neighbors cats?
 
Pipe the exhaust from your truck into the hole and shovel it shut and let the truck run for an hour.
 
I have them regularily around my place and I find that in the spring they are easy to shoot. But once shot at, you are right, they learn to run like heck at the slightest sound. I do get a couple by going out early morn with 22 and sitiing ever so quiet near their hole. But, you only get one chance. Miss and He'll learn and never let you see him. I also have shoveled in their hole and jumped them while they're diggin it out and don't hear me coming. I'd say use a connibear trap but then you have to worry about pets. Just my opinion, but I've never seen exhaust, smoke bombs, water or even used oil drive them out of their hole. Too many crooks and crannies. Someone once said that if you throw dog p@@P in their holes they will leave, dunno.
 
Highway flares will work when lighted & put in the hole, cover all holes first. Ground hogs usually have more than 1 entrance. 22 will do the trick too if you can get to a place they can't see you & wait for them. Good luck, Keith
 
Put a good ripe cantaloupe in a havahart trap. Also, you can get rodent eliminator flares, or just use a road flare. Here's how you do it: Be sure he's home, observe the critter going down the hole! Have your supplies handy: A couple of milk jugs, a shovel, flare, matches. When you see him go in, pounce! Close off each entrance by shoveling the opening big enough to get the milk jug in tight, then shovel dirt on top of the jug, tamp tight. move on to each hole, in turn. On the last hole, drop in the flare, and repeat the procedure.
I have gotten 30 ground hogs this year, 28 with conibear traps, 2 I beat to death with whatever I had handy, a fence post end and a big rock. Sometimes a full frontal charge, with a blunt object will freak them out, to the point that they lose their bearings, and run the wrong way! I once shot at one hog 40 times with a 4"revolver, from a tractor pulling a rake! He was lost, because I had covered up his hole with a windrow of hay. When I looked at the corpse, he had 5 holes in him, from a .22 magnum!
 
Pour a quart of gas down the hole and wait about 20 mins. If they come out they will be so sauced you can walk up and whack them with a 2x4. If they don't they won't.

I actually discovered this thinking I would pour the gas in and light a match. Well I chickened out on the match part (fearing the loss of what little hair I have left). But was surprised to see three drunk ground hogs crawl out about 10-15 mins later. A few days after dispatching them I could tell by the smell the last one didn't quite make it out of the hole. I just filled it in and no more problems.
 
Sometimes if you whistle(sp)(heard a polce whistle will work too) real loud you can stopem on a dead run to make them dead with a good 22.

Some folks callem whistle pigs around here.
 
i know this is going to sound stupid but it works. spot one and chase it back to its hole, point shotgun at the hole, wait a minutes or 2 and it will pop its head back out the hole. killed 20 some like that.
 
2 ways that work, 1 a good ground hog dog, and 2 run the ground hog in to its hole, light 2 M80s and drop them down the whole and run! The concussion will kill them. Bandit
 
i use bridger body grip traps. set them over the ground hog hole, when he come out......no more ground hog. be sure to stake the trap down so scavengers dont carry off the hog and your trap.
 
Anyone out there with Rodenator experience? This thing looks great, But it is expensive, and since most of us already have cutting torch sets, I figure we could mostly make up our own. However,,what is the correct gas-oxygen mixture to get ignition once lighted?
 
I had a guy come out to the farm and blast them this year. If you think a shot gun is loud you should hear this thing. The equipment dealer could hear it 3 miles away. The cops showed up, but after we talked to them they were fine with it. The blast was amazing, the odd thing is probably 50% of the holes opened back up within a week of me closing them after blasting. The only thing I can figure is a new groundhog moved in because there is no way anything in the hole survived the blast...
 
when i was a young'n prolly about 15 or so we had ground hogs bad. they were tearing up soybeans like crazy. i used to lay out in the field with my remington nylon 66 .22 and a scope and shoot em. there was one had a den up on a knoll along the fenceline, real smart one, could never get a shot at him. one day i decided to burn him out. took a 5 gallon can of gas up there and poured it in the hole. there was a furrow right at the edge of the fencline from the moldboard plow. what i dint know is the gas vapor came out of the hole and drifted down the fenceline. when i tossed the match, the flames shot down the furrow maybe 100 feet or so and set the fencline on fire. wearing jeans, no shirt and a hat, i grabbed an armload of weeds from the fenceline and beat the fire out before i got hollered at. put the fire out, but found out not much later, the weeds were poison oak. i was covered with blisters. dad thought it was kinda funny, mom didnt see the humor in it!!
finally got the ground hog with a trap. got close to 40 ground hogs that summer.
 
Haven't had experience , Pricing is why I said may be a good part time job and have a "Blast" at the same time. On video has a liquid hydrogen tank on mule.

Most are using Propane and Oxygen The ignition system would be more commercially built than for a gas grill I suspect. couple bucks a hole and ya got a job.
 
you dont need any bait, i have caught 39 woodchucks and 4 racoons in one havahart trap in front of one hole so far this season useing no bait just puting the trap in front of the hole, it is a futile battle as soon as the hole is vacted another one moves in, and their is probably 20 holes in the hedgerow.
 
I like to drop a couple 4th of July smoke bombs down their hole, cover it with whatever is handy. Usually don"t make it out.
 
I've killed 2 like that. It took 5 or 10 minutes, but the little dork came up to look at me.
 
If you can spot them outside their hole and they run in to it(usually can't get a shot at 'em before they do) just stand back real quiet, wait 15 minutes. They will come back out and give you a good shot. Got three last year by my barn/woodpile that way last year. 12 gauge with #4's gives you some room for error.
Paul
 
For every groundhog you see, there's ten that you don't see. We killed 28 in two evenings after work in a soybean field.

I've used gasoline in my younger days, but am wiser now. It's too unpredictable.

I used to flood them out using a 250 gallon water tank in my truck. They'd come out for air and I'd pop them with a .22.

They'll wreck your buildings.

Paul
 
Sweet corn in a havaheart trap has done well for me. Rarely catch a cat with that, now using salmon for racoons gets a cat about every other time, lol. Most of my cats wont eat canned cat food now.

I've also had good luck setting up a blind and getting in it. Well mowed area with a garden patch in the middle. 5.56 mm out of a Colt HBAR with a 3x9 illuminated sniper scope. Not the range of my .270 but a lot less mess to mop up.
 
Where are you located? There are folks with Jack Russell Terriers that would love to hunt your problem and put their dogs in the ground after them.
 
I'm kind of old fashioned I guess, but my weapon of choice for ground hogs AKA woodchucks, is the old 22 Hornet. Not loud enough to disturb the neighbors, but deadly to the varmits.
 
I'll add 2 cents to this although I recommend you do any or all of the previously suggested methods. Woodchucks (groundhogs) are antisocial. Only one per den. Only exception is when female has her young. They mate in February. The female delvers in April. They come out of the den about June and then go off on their own. Each one digging its own holes. Two holes per chuck, one is the escape route. So, if you can get to them while they're in their holes and before April, it will pay off. The side of the railroad embankment is where they're denning so concentrate on that area. I block one hole and then run a flexible 2" hose down the other which is attached to the exhaust of my gas pickup truck. Wait about 30 min and go to the next one. I do this in March and have had fewer and fewer to do it to each year. You can do it any time of the year but the liklihood of their being in the hole and prior to delivery of the new litter is better before April. Some say they are scared to see their own reflection and will run from it. So, I've placed a silver "gazing ball" where they used to show up. That gets their reflection from any angle. Don't know if it works because I haven't seen any for several years. As far as shooting them, That's OK if you have a lot of time on your hands and want to bury them afterward. When they get scared and run down their hole it takes a lot longer than "a couple of minutes" for them to show up again. I remember a study that was done that indicated it took, on average, 32 minutes for them to come back out of their hole. I just don't have that kind of time on my hands.
 
I would always only get racoons in a live trap, but nailed all the groundhogs with a connibear (sp?)right outside their hole.
 
Something I forgot, that others have touched on: Groundhogs are relatively nearsighted, and have a brain dedicated to survival, though only the size of nnalert's. When you chase one into a hole, rest assured, when he pops up again in 10-15 minutes, he will look in the same direction as he last saw danger. So, as a friend with a golf club, explained to me, wait calmly, on the other side of the hole, and whack him in the back of the head, when he pops up! I got one with a big stone this way this spring - bwoke his widdle head!
 
THANKS FOR ALL THE COMMENTS> I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT WORKS BEST OUT OF ALL YOUR SUGGESTIONS. I did try #2 conibear traps but they did not get trapped. After the first trip they were wise to them. THANKS AGAIN! Phil Doolittle
 
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