How to annoy a Groundhog?

[chrisinerie]

I don't have a good way of killing the groundhog eating my tomatoes. How can I annoy it into going elsewhere?

[Redbaron]

Electric feathernet fencing.

[bcday]

I second the electric fence. Or at least a fence of some kind, if you don't have one already. (Do you?)

Is this groundhog eating the plants or just the fruit? Can you stake or cage the fruits high enough off the ground so it can't reach them by just standing on its hind legs? Groundhogs can climb if need be, but they really prefer to stay on the ground. Yours might look for easier pickings if it can't easily reach its snack.

[tjg911]

how about a trap. they may like apples better than tomatoes, i'm sure google will tell you their favorite foods. once trapped you can kill it. i hate rodents.

tom

[chrisinerie]

I will look into the electric fence. The critter is eating only the tomato fruit, so far, and various native perennials. I can get a large trap but don't have anything large enough to submerge it in to drown the groundhog.

Chris

[bcday]

You don't have to drown it. Call your friendly local Pennsylvania Game Commission guy if you don't have a state game land area nearby where you can relocate it. The PGC should have a listing in your phone book's gov't pages.

In the meantime, maybe try treating the fruits to a hot pepper spray, or get them higher up off the ground.

I once had a problem with a rabbit chowing down in a fenced-off garden. This 4' fence was there to keep the dog out, but the next time I saw that rabbit in there I let the dog in. After a few circuits round and round in there, the rabbit cleared the fence in two jumps - never saw a rabbit climb like that before - and lit out for the next county. It never came back.

[ArthurDent004]

Have you thought about watching the movie Caddyshack for clues on how to take care of that groundhog.

[novel grower]

Originally Posted by ArthurDent004

Have you thought about watching the movie Caddyshack for clues on how to take care of that groundhog.

I needed that laugh ty

[TomNJ]

A 12 gauge shotgun loaded with #4 buck annoys them really well!

TomNJ/VA

[PA_Julia]

My neighbor and I take turns with the bow and arrow method.

The count this year has been seven killed. YAY!!

[carolyn137]

We call them woodchucks up here as in how much wood could a woodchuck chuck, well you get the picture.

I had a terrible time with them when I had my large tomato field at the old farm. At that time Charlie, my farmer friend, was also having problems with them at the farm. He had a nuisance license to shoot them but they never appeared when he was there, and I don't shoot critters or anything else as far as that goes.

The secret is to find at least one of their burrows, they have several escape hatches as well.

Charlie finally decided to pour some gasoline down one of them, assuming that they would escape and would be warned off.

So he lights the gasoline, and wonder of wonders all of a sudden he sees flames appearing in a nearby greenhouse, goes in there and the flames are coming from under the wooden floor where coal used to be kept for the coal burning furnace although that had been converted to oil, so dad stored soil under there for Spring seed sowing in flats he made.

Problem was the old oil tank was also there with still a lot of oil in it.

End of story.

Charlie lived, the woodchucks lived and I couldn't stop laughing when Charlie told me about it b'c I wasn't there when he flamed them out, or so he thought.

Carolyn, who notes that this was the abandoned greenhouse where the sash were gone, birch trees growing up inside and where I spent many many wonderful hours in the dappled sun sorting out my tomato plants to go into the field, and always there was Bootsy, the cat that adopted my mother, lazing near me and keeping me company.

[Zana]

The little beggars will get bold as brass and quite complacent about you being in "their garden" if you interrupt them while they're munching on "your/their" maters. I walked up to one who was doing so, and go within less than 3 feet of it before I turned the hose on the dang thing. It only moved out of way of the spray and continued to eat. That's when I started with the moth balls.

If you find the entrance to their burrows near your garden throw some moth balls down there. I also recommend putting dishes of them out in amongst your plants. I used to put them on the ground around my potted plants (since I grew all mine at the time in containers of various sizes).

I didn't let the mothballs touch the soil where I was growing, so no cross contamination. And I found 2 entrances where I dumped a box each of the mothballs down the hole. Within a week no groundhogs.

[Worth1]

I have absolutely no problem eating a Ground Hog AKA Wood Chuck.
Kill A half grown one and do this.
Skin the critter out and let soak in brine over night in the frig.

Then put it in a kettle and slow simmer for 2 hours.
Take out and pat dry.

Put on BBQ Pit and mop with a mixture of--------.
Red pepper(1 tsp).
Powdered garlic (1 tsp).
Salt (1 tsp).
Black pepper (1 tsp).
Cumin (1tsp)
Onion powder (1tsp).
Paprika (1 tbs)
Chili Powder (1tsp)
Lime juice (1/2 cup).
Molasses (1 tbs).
Steen's cane syrup (1 cup).

Slow smoke at 140 degrees for 4 hours (mopping every hour), and serve.

Worth

[Zana]

sounds delish Worth....when should we be over to share some with you?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zana

sounds delish Worth....when should we be over to share some with you?

Cooking a pork butt on the pit as we speak.
With the same ingredients.
We have no Wood Chucks.

I love my pit, I can fire it off let it burn down, drink beer, fall out, get up and eat.

Worth