KILLING GROUNDHOGS

[r porter]

two things I know that work [besides a kid with a .22]

I used to shoot chucks on a dairy farm and when they wanted the hogs gone they parked the liquid manure wagon over the hole and dumped it.

used to shoot prairie dogs in texas and they gave a guy permission to trap them. he used a water wagon to decimate thousands in a few months.

 

[MossRoad]

"A 2004 study of grey squirrels who were live-trapped and relocated from suburban areas to a large forest showed that a staggering 97 percent of the squirrels either soon died or disappeared from their release area. "

...from the Humane Society!

Scrap the Trap When Evicting Wildlife : The Humane Society of the United States

Just read that entire article...

It tells you:
- don't relocate animals because they'll die.
- try to find a way to exclude them if they're causing property damage.
- if the only alternative is to kill them..... then relocate them.

Good grief!

 

[Ford850]

Just read that entire article...

It tells you:
- don't relocate animals because they'll die.
- try to find a way to exclude them if they're causing property damage.
- if the only alternative is to kill them..... then relocate them.

Good grief!

In other words, it's ok for them to die a slow death on their own as long as no one sees it happen. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it still make a noise?

 

[52wej]

The best ground hog removal system is a pack of coyotes. But the yotes also have a fondness for fresh veal when they can get it, not a good thing for a cattle farming area. I have shot them in trees, edge of their den, under buildings, and in the middle to a yard. I know people who enjoy eating them. But they still were common until the yotes moved into the area.

Best groundhog dog I ever saw was an Airedale. I saw him catch a groundhog that was 50 yards from its hole once. The dog was 200 yards when it saw the groundhog and caught the ground hog before it could ever reach its hole. I have never found a replacement for him.

Unfortunately they are very destructive pests. W. Jones

 

[CobyRupert]

In other words, it's ok for them to die a slow death on their own as long as no one sees it happen. If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it still make a noise?

Ah yes!! You get it!

This is the concept behind feel-good "Have A Heart" :heart: :heart: traps, where the user can fool themselves in a guilt free way to believe they're so humane and loving to animals, ("Namaste!") and release them to go play with their friend Thumper and Bambi in the woods and live happily ever after. Awww!

 

[LouNY]

The only reason I have for Hav-A--traps is to release any critter that the trap wasn't set for (ie. maybe a neighbor's dog or cat ) and to move the desired critter to a safe location for permanent disposal,
not to make it someone else's headache.

 

[MossRoad]

Pretty much every article I've read so far this week dealing with the cons of relocating wildlife says the relocated animals either die or disappear. How do they know they died? Where did they disappear to? Where's the study where they tracked them to their end?

Who's got any links to any actual studies that have been done that tracks released animals to see if they actually die a horrible death that shows data and numbers?

If it were really the case, why do so many wildlife rehab places exist?

Just asking the questions. I've dispatched my share of nuisance/destructive animals when necessary, and released some in our yard and on our rural property.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yea, i find it hard to believe a GH will die because of being relocated. Course i relocate them back into their hole if i can, so the cousins will know what happened to them.

With that said, i am getting over run again with GH, need to relocate some more. My problem is getting a good shooting angle.

 

[MossRoad]

I have groundhogs in my yard constantly. I put up an electric fence around the garden with an 18" wide tilled noman's land just outside so they make good ground contact with their paws when they touch the low wires. Works pretty well.

I also have a BB gun with a scope. I put a couple pumps on it and sat on my deck and popped one in the rear end from about 40-50 yards away. It picked its head up and looked around and then keep grazing in the grass! :laughing: So I kept adding a pump and firing. Think I got up to about 6-7 before it finally decided to leave. So when I'd get home from work, I'd go in the house, get the gun, give it 6-7 pumps, walk out on the deck, pop it in the rear end, it would leave, and I'd go inside. Repeat daily for a couple weeks. Finally if figured out the noise of my loud Suburban coming in the driveway, and the neighbor said it would pop its head up when it hear the truck and leave as I pulled into the driveway.

 

[CincyFlyer]

I leave them alone as long as they stay away from the house or garage. One burrowed under the front porch; we started dumping the clumped kitty litter in the hole, and that thing was gone. My neighbor likes to pick them off for sport.