i agree. my thoughts when he said that in nebraska you have to relocate them within 100yards coupled with his later statement that "...groundhogs not much problem ..." is that the problem of groundhogs in nebraska isn't near as bad as the gov't in nebraska. typical situation where the politicians pass themselves off as all-knowing when they pass these stupid laws which proves that they don't know jack-squat about how the real world runs. if i lived in nebraska and had a groundhog problem, yeah, i'd live trap them, but i would anonymously "relocate" them over to the governors property (regardless of the "100 yard" rule).
In New Jersey a groundhog can only be relocated on property you own, property where you have the owner's permission and NOWHERE ELSE. The reality is the only option for feral groundhogs is to kill. Live trapping is pointless, I use a Conibear 220.
This guy describes the "legal" methods of control. The advice is completely laughable. Clearly, the law is in no way allowing property owners any practical solution to the problems caused by these animals.
Ronald Sparks I’ve been in tears for 5 minutes after reading these comments, but yours is the best. People in Nebraska need to have their heads examined. These things signed their death certificates when they destroyed my garden and burrowed near my foundation.
I got a laugh out of your saying that Gravel would keep a ground hog out of the hole. My brother has a car port garage that is enclosed on three sides with a packed crush and run gravel floor. Well, the ground hog tore up the floor and made runs all through the garage. We have a book shelf that is all cockeyed now, a tool chest the same way, a huge mound of gravel under the side table/bench, a partially buried old vaccum, and a lot of other damage. We live in Missouri and I have not been able to catch it. It has shared its tunnels with an armadilo too. Both have had babies and made the problem worse. Some day I will have the energy to get out there and pull everything out of the garage and put the gravel back where it belongs, as a level floor.
I have property around Lake of the Ozarks and we have critters too. My solution was a 22 short and some cats. It's been about a year now and I haven't seen anymore. Pro Tip: Be careful with how much you feed the cats as they'll get lazy and watch all the critters run around instead of catching them.
Use cantaloupe in the cage as bait and if you have multiple groundhogs switch the bait each time because they become suspicious of the same bait each time. I’ve also had a lot of success with apples, apples with peanut butter, lettuce, carrots, broccoli and cherries. Good luck these things are a menace
I shot one with a 22. It lept in the air about 2' then ran down its hole. It probably died after hitting it in the lungs. I thought I missed it since it ran down the hole without missing a beat, but sure i hit it in the chest. Sooo, next one was 3 days later from the same hole. I made sure I hit this one. I got my 30-06 and blew his whole left side out. No doubt about that one.
@Tony L: 30-06! Yikes! That's one heck of a varmint round! You realize the first one you shot, with the .22, probably expired in his underground den, meaning you didn't need to handle his dead carcass! Anyway, aim for headshots next time.
My SIL and daughter live by a creek. So far none of the 4 woodchucks we've seen have come up to the garden area they stay down in large field next to water. We don't mow that field so they have plenty to eat. The tall grass gives them some cover from hawks. The skunks on the other hand are all over the place. Dogs love them they think they're cats or something and are always trying to play with them. Skunks keep us busy washing the dogs.
Bait is never a requirement to catch woodchucks. Set den holes as shown, dig outs under fences and trails with double door cage traps. The most rugged reliable traps are Comstock, double, powered door cage traps with wire triggers. A 24 inch 9x11 trap with a nose cone to jone the trap to the den is all that is needed. You may catch in as little as 5 minutes.
I always have groundhogs around my home. I've only had to remove a groundhog once in all the time i've lived here. Unfortunately she decided to make her burrow directly next to my home, and after some attempts at scaring her off, she didn't want to leave. It's a sad thing to do, but sometimes it has to be done.
I caught and relocated a groundhog 150 miles away. He was gone for a long time. Then about four years later who come strutting down the road but mister groundhog himself. He says he was depressed at first when he couldn't find his way back home, away from family and friends. But then he enrolled in local high school. He finally graduated and then enrolled in a two-year College. Now he has a job making almost twice as much as I a.m. and I have a four-year. So after some contemplating I realized my error all those years ago. And I vowed to right that wrong, and do what I should have done back then. I picked up a garden spade and bastards little fucking head in degree. I've then buried him in the very same Garden he used to steal my fruits and veggies from and spread quicklime over the body. Best fertilizer ever used. too bad I use them all at once instead of saving some for next season. oh, and I applied for and got his job ( when he turned up missing) So win/win, FOR ME!
✳️ If you have unacceptable destruction or too many woodchucks in your yard, I think an effective "varmint" killing dog works better than any of the other methods described. My favorite type is one who dispatches it very quickly. Then you don't poison the environment or kill off other harmless species of animals. My top varmint killer also makes a great family pet and guard dog...the Staffordshire bull terrier. Love them! Edit: a patrolling dog will also help keep them from wanting to stay on your property.💙
looks like i've got my work cut out for me, with this 1.. (the squirrels & cats are 1 thing) at 1st i thought the woodchuck was a cute lil addition, to our lil family over here, but NOW i aint so sure... 😳
we get many laughs watching them since they are so entertaining -- i think we he have 4th generation groundhogs already and never presented problems - sure they eat some flowers but so does everything else so now i just plant flowers that wildlife does not want to eat - i suggest if you do not want them plant plants they hate the smell off - they will move all by themselves
We are dealing with the VC, Varmint Cong. And a varmint will never give up. Its us or them. High speed heavy metal syndrome has been known to be effective.
The problem I have found with ground hogs is that they are just impossible to reason with. They will agree with any deal you attempt to make with them, and then turn right around and dig holes under your garage, dig holes under your fences, and eat the insulation off your freon lines. With the entire surface of planet earth to chew on, they prefer to chew up the T111 siding on your house. And they laugh at you while they do it. According to Doc Watson, their hides make "the best durn shoestring that ever was tied." If that's true, then they may be good for something. Personally, I throw their carcasses out of the back of the side by side at the end of the trail furthest from the house and let the coyotes and bears make the most of them.
Irving Ganbard: If you've tried "reasoning" with those woodchucks, and haven't had any success, maybe you should have them sign a legally notarized CONTRACT! That way you'll at least have legal recourse, if they re-neg on any deal you broker with them! Think about it. What sane and rational woodchuck would want to mess with some civil lawsuit?! I, on the other hand, don't try to negotiate with them. I built my shed with my own money, and if those woodchucks won't pay rent to live under my shed, then they will be evicted...permanently!
#1 - Do not take this guy's advice. There are much better videos. Released 10 miles, marked with paint, they've been known to come back in a short time. When a rock 8" around doesn't deter them, I'll never believe that gravel would make even a bit of difference.
My pit, Chance, caught a groundhog in our yard today. The hog bit him through his lower lip. Chance crushed his skull like an eggshell. Took him to the vet, no stitches. Got a rabbi shot, and can't be around other animals for 45 days. He's fine.
In 2017 I relocated my garden to my back yard so I could have more room. One day I went down to check on it and I noticed the carrots, peas, lettuce, and cucumbers I planted were completely gone. I replanted.. and within a few weeks what sprouted was once again gone. A friend offered to let me borrow a Have A Hart trap.. so I baited it with lettuce and sure enough I caught a woodchuck. I'm in New York and woodchucks are considered vermin, so it was my discretion whether to release him or to humanely dispatch him. I chose to release him down the road a few miles. A few months later I noticed a woodchuck down near my garden again. By now it's October and I figured "ahh I'll worry about it next year". Fast forward to May 2018. I went down to my garden one day to check on it and I noticed my peas were completely gone. I said "yup it's not happening again this year". I put a fence up. He dug under it.. dug up and ate all of the seed I planted. I put stakes in the ground.. he climbed the fence. I bought a Have A Hart... baited it. He wouldn't go near it. By now I was beyond frustrated... I found his two holes to his borrow. I got two large rounds of wood from my wood pile that I had yet to split and jammed them in both of the holes. Then I started thinking "geez it's May what if they have babies I don't want them to starve and die". So I opened the holes back up. I said to myself "just please go away. Go bother somebody else's garden". I got looking at my fence.. thinking of what more I could do to keep them out. It dawned on me. I went to the store.. I spent $74 on an electric fence controller, wire, and insulators. I put a strand of wire about 6 inches off the ground around the outside of my fence, and another strand about 3 feet up. They packed up and moved out. I haven't had a problem with any vermin since and my garden is the best it's ever been.
I recommend a .22 for "managing" your groundhog problem ! It is %100 effective and discourages returning animals. Here's a suggestion......YOU "live with them" !
I don't have any 330's. But I set 2 number 110's over holes under my shed, and sure enough the next day there was ole' Woodrow Charles with his head stuck in one of those connibears! That woodchuck was quite a bit bigger than any muskrat, but it did the job, and now I'm planning on leaving them there almost permanently, since I've seen another one! What did you think of that statement in the video, about box-trapping them and then releasing them 100 yards away?! Was that guy joking?
Not much of a problem? Pretty much on their own? See if I can live with them? Only reason I even came to this video is because I found all of my beets, lettuce, kail, cabbage, brussel sprouts, spinach, squash and some of my tomatoes all completely gone. Entirely fenced in and noticed something burrowed underneath the fence. These things are destructive as hell.
Radjehuty I have a dog in a fully fenced in backyard. I'm not going to chance it hurting my dog, BC when it comes down to it.. It'll always be my boxer over a woodchuck. I agree that there dangerous and destructive. This year.. I'm taking a stand!!
And that's why he said at the very end: Manage them. I have them living under my deck and I'm starting to get nervous they're going to damage the adjacent septic and leach field. I'm gonna manage them.
I have a problem with wiring it open, then after they eat the bait, re bait it and have it set to go off. Can I just not wire it open, and trap as usual ?
I'm in PA, I hate those things, they destroy my landscaping and chew on the wood of my house. Never been successful trapping them but have shot and killed many but they just come back. Desperately need more predators.
I've tried have-a-heart traps, but its not fun to find huge opossums who won't come out of your cage, or raccoons as well. I am lucky to have never got a skunk, if you see a groundhog in your yard a good .22 pellet gun going over or at 1000 fps with a quality pellet will dispatch these guys quickly. As I'm writing this I'm waiting for a groundhog to pop his head out from under my shed one more time.
100%. I trapped and released one a couple years ago. But the latest one got into a fight with my dog and was becoming a problem. So this time, after I trapped it, I made it watch that Sylvester Stallone movie, Bullet to the Head.
I love Nebraska. I have a groundhog that comes to eat fallen birdseed. Also, I have a Skunk, Foxes, and a Possum that visit. We have stray cats around the area, and I've had many birds, including Turkeys behind my place. All of these little buddies, and I live in the city!
I know a guy who owned a cement plant that had ground hogs all over his property, one day his dog broke its leg in one of the borrows, later that day when all the ground hogs retired to their den he had a cement truck come in a poured every hole. lol
Groundhogs are a problem for gardeners here in SE Pennsylvania. If I let her my dog would kill all of them. She's a mountain feist or treeing feist and has eliminated the garter snake population in our suburban garden (I'd prefer that she hadn't). She's killed some possum and at least two groundhogs. Truth be told I am intimidated by groundhogs and unfortunately I project that onto fearing my dog will get injured by them and so I pull her away from them. She is a rescue originally from West Virginia, very bright, not large but she has a strong drive to hunt small game (and an even stronger drive to please her owner).
yeah just Release him in your neighbors yard sounds like grumpy old man material, if Caught one in a trap I would just accidentally let it slip out of my hand in the pool and see how Long he can hold his breath.
Some people use smoke bombs. If it's legal I think that's what I would use--I'm not into blood and guts. I'm an animal lover, but I used to have horses. Horses and groundhog holes do not mix! I'll advocate for the horse every time. The guy who owned the barn where I boarded had a dog that would tear groundhogs apart, so that kept them in check. Maybe get a dog.... I don't know how you can tell if the dog is a killer though....
I just let my dogs rip them apart. The winner is the one with the biggest piece. It does not depend on size but where they grab it. The 130 lb. dog grabbed a hind leg and the 100 lb. dog grabbed the neck. The big dog pulled the hind leg off and got mostly skin. One good thing about woodchucks is they did their own graves
That's not heartless; that's just letting nature do it's thing. Nature is harsh. The food chain is a thing. Some animals get eaten by other animals. That is the way the world works.
You make me miss my coonhounds.😢 They were little compared to your dogs but their favorite tug o war was with raccoon ropes. Pretty good on beavers, too.
Wow I’ve made it this far in my life, before I realized that woodchucks are ground hogs 😅 My daughter and I were watching to show her what they are and where our hole came from, she asked me if we could come visit you to see yours and she wanted to make I told you we has one too lol
I've fired RPG's to 22s and everything in between. Now that I'm retired, I like to sit on my back porch and just watch mama ground hog lead her pups from the wood pile out for breakfast. Live and let live, I guess.
This video is such crap @ 2:16 you said “you cannot use baits” well what do you call a cucumber? Fact - groundhogs don’t care about being near water. You don’t need to cover the trap or “wire it open” it will get caught even when he goes in slow. Now the law is the law, if you have a 100 yard relocate limit you need to take it into your basement and shoot it with a cb cap. (quiet) Then take it 99 yards down the road and it will look like it got hit by a car.
Thanks for this video! I just discovered we have one (at least) under our shed. I came out to set up sprinkler for kids and found him eating clover in our yard. He didn’t seem the least bit scared of me which frightened me. I went back inside and watched him which is how I found he’s roosting under the shed. Since I don’t garden or have outdoor animals, I prefer the “see if you can live with them” approach. We had an entire community of skunks under our garage one summer. After learning about their nature, we opted to coexist with them and they eventually left on their own. I now feel comfortable sharing our yard with Mr. Groundhog 😊
wtf...first he says you can't bait them..then he says bait them? then release them less then 100yds away ?...I am lost for words..how about just shoot the frigging thing huh buddy ?
I'm seeking a solution to two groundhogs living under my deck. I can't find a poison for animals larger than gophers. I don't want to waste gas relocating them. I hear you have to take them ten to 20 miles to prevent their return. When I see him, I don't have my shotgun. When I have my shotgun, he doesn't show up. I don't want to spend $100 on a live trap. It could be worse. I could live in Nebraska.
I hate those things!! They are SOOO destructive, they dig under the slab of a garage and pulled about 2 wheel barrels of stone four from under. No way to get stones back under garage. Live in N Y abd DEC said I can trap and transport them to a county park.
That ONE might not come back but they breed. If this thing is new to Nebraska you need to listen to us, eliminate the damn things! Oh, and fighting a dog?! Seriously? Can you say pit bull? There’s no fight, it’s like me eating a marshmellow.
My cousin and I used several different size traps. 22 long rifle,22 magnum,22 hornet,.222,.223,5mm magnum,22-250,220 swift and a few times a 257 Weatherby. One of the tricks to catching groundhogs is having the proper tools and knowing how and when to use them. Groundhog. It’s what’s for dinner.
These things are good swimmers but not so much when they're still in a trap. Tie a rope to the handle of the rope and lower them into the water. We call it ground hog fishing. When the thrashing around subsides pull the trap up and empty the remains into the body of water feeds the fish and turtles. Win win.
Release within 100 yards , WTF...I turn the Schnauzer loose on em...The one eating my tomatoes only comes out at night..Bought an electric fence a week ago, too late to use it this year..Next spring tomato plants will be surrounded by it..
you've GOTTA be kidding me! this is as bad as the law in Washington DC where it is illegal to kill a rat. I would think a state like nebraska would be rooted in reality. wow. wow.
The DC law specifically exempts from protection “commensal rodents” such as rats and mice, and the law does allow for the killing of any wild animal if trapping is not an option.
Probably one of the best and sensitive videos I have watched. We have a groundhog and after watching your video I am now a groundhog fan and will not try to trap and relocate. Our yard, five acres, is a no kill zone and we feed deer all winter, relocate trapped skunks, raccoons and red squirrels. So thanks for the video.
YOU CAN NOT TRAP THEM......B.S. TRAP AND KILL THEM...STORY OVER...... THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO CONTROL YOUR PROPERTY......YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT WHAT IS YOURS!!
My husband had a friend that tried that method on ground bees. Blew up his yard and darn near set fire to his house. Gasoline explodes, brainiac. You might want to reconsider your plan or the world you light up might be yours, lol.... 😉
very funny movie. i caught 5 groundhogs in a cage like that ,i thought they were gone,but they came back,dig a big hole right next to my brick house,right along the back wall of the house. last fall i put 5 bags of cement,50 pound bags into the hole and this big one dug out the cement,it dug next to the cement and caved it in,and its back. IT'S BAAAACK.somebody gave me some gopher gas bombs that i'm aboout to try out. i wish i could shoot them but i'm in a major city
