Groundhogs and my pole building

[Repsolracer22]

So I built a nice 40x60 pole building last year. Real excited. Now I find 2 groundhog holes that go under the building. Any advice?

It has a concrete floor but it's a pole building so it wasn't built with a block foundation. So I'm assuming the tunnels could go everywhere underneath.


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[CNGsaves]

If the bastages are still alive, need to trap/kill them first. Only then work on filling in the dirt they dug out.

 

[bob from indiana]

Get them gone or dead quickly. A have-a -heart box trap will do the job. Bait it with a cut apple and wait.

 

[flat tire]

get a leg hold trap and set it just in the hole. catch, clean and grill

 

[maxpower_hd]

My vote is to shoot em. I actually talked with an exterminator that was trapping them and taking them away from an area I work at. He said that was to satisfy the bleeding hearts because it is illegal to relocate them, here at least. So he took them off site someplace else and eradicated them.

A friend has a large pumpkin patch and he shoots them with a 22 pellet gun. Not allowed to discharge an actual firearm in his area.

 

[SJR033]

I get a number of groundhogs in my yard every year. I have a mulberry tree, that they love to feed on, when it drops its berries. I typically will set a live trap baited with cantaloupe. They say cat food also works well, but the neighbor has an outdoor cat. After they are caught, they usually go for a "swim" in the lake before finding their final resting place in the bottom of a hole. This is the trap I use (the larger one)

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...lease-live-animal-trap-pack-of-2?cm_vc=-10005

Before I get hate mail. The wife has a small dog. So my official answer is "We do it to protect the dogs"

 

[doctordirt]

I have a couple large pole barns with a huge ground hog problem. In the last 9 years, I have eradicted over 600. My method is to use a conibear trap that kills them. The trap is placed in front on the enterence to there den with no bait When i first started after buying the property i would get 3-5 per day. The buzzards sure enjoyed my trapping. My property is 25 miles from home. The traps work wether or not I am there. I just have to reset them when I visit. Just when I thought I had them eradicated. A new group seems to appear so I leave the traps set all the time.

 

[killahog]

I don't mind having them around my place until they start digging under my barn . When they do i shoot them . If you can't shoot where you live I would get a few 220 size conibear traps. The traps are numbered by size the 110's will work but I find the 220 size more effective.

 

[ItsNemo]

How could you people kill these wonderful creatures?

 

[Furious Filipino]

My father has a 1/4 acre lot where he absolutely loves growing squash. Naturally, the little "ground chucks" as my kids call them have decided to take residence under the shed and have an unlimited supply of food.

To date, the old man has trapped and relocated about 14 of them. No "ground chucks" in the past six months, but he started getting little cotton tails moving in instead.

I don't know about groundhogs, but rabbits are tasty to me.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

How could you people kill these wonderful creatures?

Trap, gun, poison, water, fire, shovel (or other lawn tool) all work pretty well.
I do not recommend burying them alive, that would be cruel.

 

[bjcouche]

Sure, they look cute, but they can do tens of thousands of dollars in damage in a year. They tunnel under everything, your house, porch, garage, driveway, etc. IF left unchecked, you could be busting up all the concrete and pouring a new floor, foundation, driveway, etc. They don't seem to have any natural preditors around here and keep multiplying by 6 or 8. I have two dens, one under my back porch and one under the front porch. These holes usually come in pairs, so most often, there are 2 holes per den. In the last couple years I've killed 10 last year, and 8 the previous year. Last fall thought I had them finished off but I didn't fill in their holes. This year, it looks like another family is moving in, and using the old den. They travel from neighboring property to yours looking for a new place to take up residence and an old den is inviting....
I've got them by connibear trap, live trap, and 12 gauge #6 shot. I recommend against anything smaller, and a 22 is inhumane. They are extremely tough, and even a 12 gauge with a target load, they will survive long enough to run back to their hole. The live traps worked for me with apples and cantelope, but I also caught lots of raccoons. Some Ground hogs refused to go in the trap.
Once they are gone, you need to do work to keep them out. Around every foundation or vertical wall, take some heavy gauge metal mesh, chicken wire, etc. and bend it in an L shape. Install it so that it goes up above the ground level of the foundataion, then under the ground a couple inches, then out away from the foundation 3-4 feet. The critters will try to dig a hole alongside the foundation and discover the wire. They don't know (or want to) to dig 4' away from the foundation. IF you don't do this, they will keep coming back, traveling from neighboring properties.

Brian

 

[Mongo68]

Friend of mine uses The Rodenator. Boom!

 

[tdkkart]

Used cat litter.....

I had a couple of these little bastards excavating the hell out of the gravel floor of my 12x 16' yard shed a few years ago. Went in there one morning, caved in a run and damn near broke my ankle. Looked around, they had the whole floor tore to hell.

Moved everything outside, raked and shoveled everything back where it was supposed to be.

Left for literally less than 3 hrs, came back, checked the shed, ALL tore to hell again, worse than the first time. Fixed it again.

2 days later, same thing.
In the mean time, I had talked to someone who suggested pouring used cat litter down their runs. We had a couple cats at the time so I gathered up all the used litter we had, 2 litter boxes, plus a near full bucket the wife putt the daily cleanings in, poured some of the nasty stinkin' **** in each of the actual open runs, shovel them shut again.

The cats have been gone for 3 years, and I've never had to borrow any used litter, so the groundhogs have been gone at least that long.

 

[mmb617]

We no longer have a ground hog problem. About 6 years ago we got a dog that thinks her job is to keep the yard critter free. She's a pit mix and a real sweetheart with our cats, yet she's a stone cold killer to wildlife.

We used to have moles, but no more. She's also killed squirrels, birds, chipmunks, and rabbits. The wife gets upset about the rabbits, but it's just what she does.

I would not have thought she could take on a full grown ground hog, but a year or two ago the wife came running in to tell me Zena was fighting with some animal up in the yard. I went to see and by the time I got there she had killed a good sized ground hog. I was impressed, as I'm sure those things can put up a fight. I haven't seen a ground hog in the yard since. Our next door neighbor who has a big garden gave Zena a treat as he's had less of a ground hog problem since we got her.

So there you go. All you need is the right dog.

 

[ssdave]

A quick and expedient solution is to get a flexible tube that will go over your tailpipe on your truck or car. Back up to the hole, put the hose on the tailpipe, and run it down the hole. Let it idle for a half hour or so, and the problem goes away.

Traps are effective also, as noted above. No bait needed, just set them and place them in the burrow entrance.

I've shot thousands of them when I was a kid, they infested our bean fields. One field, they would take out 2 to 3 acres before we aggressively trapped them out. They quickly become too wary to shoot them all.

A .22 lr is a great chuck killer to about 100 to 125 yards. I remember one day I shot 39 for 39, and then missed one. Later in the day, I lined up two and got up even again, for about 46 out of 46. I've killed thousands of them in a trap by a quick blow with a shovel.

I wouldn't eat one for anything. I hate the smell of them. It's a real distinctive smell you never forget.

 

[RPH]

I have smoke bombs that are used to put them in eternal sleep. Plug up the holes that you can find and be ready for a few you didn't. Anyone trapped below is a goner. Bought them in Canada made just for this purpose.

 

[ford fanatic]

A .22 usually does the trick...

 

[md21722]

Ground hogs & prairie dogs are a nuisance. Not only can they eat your crops and damage foundations but they can break the legs of livestock. I say shoot or trap as fast as you can. A lot of opinion on what is right depends on where you live and what you're doing.

 

[TooMuchHair]

The guy on the TV show 'Barnwood Builders" blames groundhogs with many of the problems with America's old barns.

 

[bob from indiana]

Get a coaches whistle. when you see the varmitt check you back stop, put whistle in you mouth opposite your shooting side. Carefully line up the sights, release safety. Give a short blast on whistle. When varmitt raises up to look around squeeze trigger. I used this method back in the 80s using a 50 cal. muzzle loader with good results. A neighbor liked to cook them. The 50 cal round ball performed well. Scoped .22 works very well with head shots.

 

[NUTTSGT]

My stepfather leaves a radio playing in his woodshop all the time. This and along with some jellybeans thrown down the hole were recommendations from an old farmer.

 

[MagicMarker]

What is an alternative to used kitty litter? I don't have a cat nor do I know anyone. My dog tends to pee in the general area around my shed, but not sure that is very effective.

 

[ff4500]

Ugh, I have this problem too.

Maybe the dead possum that tried to crawl down one of the holes and got stuck will help. Hahaha.

 

[NUTTSGT]

What is an alternative to used kitty litter? I don't have a cat nor do I know anyone. My dog tends to pee in the general area around my shed, but not sure that is very effective.

Shovel / dog turds in the hole ? It won't cost yoou anything to try it.

 

[4 FN 27]

Ground hogs & prairie dogs are a nuisance. Not only can they eat your crops and damage foundations but they can break the legs of livestock. I say shoot or trap as fast as you can. A lot of opinion on what is right depends on where you live and what you're doing.

I shoot up to 3 Ground Hogs a year digging around my old Pole Shed. Last year I shot 2 that had dug under the building right next to the open door. I mean just on the other side of the post. I leave the back door open all summer.

At work they had destroyed every emergency exit landing outside the building. We had to lift the slabs out and replace the dirt, lay the slab back down.

CZ 452 Varminter 17 MachII. One shot, very clean termination.

I head to South Dakota to help control the P-Dog population. Just landed a "job" two weeks from today. They are looking for Professional Shooters to trim down the P-Dog population in a "tight" shooting area. Buildings and equipment surrounding the Dog Town. Needless to say this is a free service I offer...LOL...

For the big P-Dogs: