woodchuck under garage

crawdad · Jun 13, 2002

this afternoon i spied a very young (baby?) woodchuck looking critter hanging out by the rear corner of my detached 2 1/2 car garage. went out to investigate and looks like he has dug himself a hole under the garage. i have a concrete slab floor. should i be worried about him or just let him be.

pretty funny,when i went out to investigate i made my 15 year old german shepherd come with me,first he did not want to get up off the floor with the a/c on, then i point and tell the dog to "go get him" he barks and runs in the wrong direction,finally i bring the dog over to the hole to pick up the scent he takes one sniff and could not care less. years ago he would have dug that thing up and wrung its neck. just had to share that, it made me laugh.

so anyway , what should i do with this critter, thanks

chim · Jun 13, 2002

Shoot him when he appears again...............chim

rancar · Jun 13, 2002

Scott,

[blue]"...i bring the dog over to the hole to pick up the scent he takes one sniff and could not care less..."[/blue]

Your best friend knows best [wink]....if he couldn't care less about this critter, why are you concerned? Let the critter be. He'll likely do no damage under your concrete pad and at best he'll make an entertaining conversation topic when your friends and relatives come over to visit. [grin]

rancar · Jun 13, 2002

Scott,

"...i bring the dog over to the hole to pick up the scent he takes one sniff and could not care less..."

Your best friend knows best /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif....if he couldn't care less about this critter, why are you concerned? Let the critter be. He'll likely do no damage under your concrete pad and at best he'll make an entertaining conversation topic when your friends and relatives come over to visit. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

njrqs · Jun 13, 2002

[blue[so anyway , what should i do with this critter, thanks 

Tell it to get tough with woodchucks or it's no A/C for you fido /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

EdKing · Jun 13, 2002

should i be worried about him or just let him be.

I would definitly be getting rid of the groundhog. It may be cute now, but as it gets bigger, it will make bigger holes. This undermining could cause damage to your floor.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 13, 2002

Guy here in Upstate NY told me that when he was a kid they would find both ends of the burrow, then at one end they would pour down a quart of gasolene and them put a rock over it. That made the 'chuck move down toward the other end of the burrow, just a few feet from the entrance where he could get fresh air with his body blocking off the tunnel and the gas fumes. Once the air inside was saturated with gas vapor, they would drop in a firecracker and replace the rock quickly. Baloom! He said it blew the chuck like a cork from a popgun and he never came back!

cowboydoc · Jun 13, 2002

I agree with Ed. If you've got one you will have more if you don't do anything about them and if you don't have more the one you have will continue to dig tunnels and hamper your foundation. They can do ALOT of damage under your concrete and severely hamper the structural integrity of your concrete. If you are concerned with the "killing" aspect just use a racoon trap and put food in it and then take him at least 10 miles away from your house and let him go. Personally I'd either shoot him or poison him.

Anonymous Poster · Jun 13, 2002

Around my place woodchuck burrows are only allowed in the hedgerows, the woods, and the overgrown meadows. When they start encroaching on my turf, I find it easy to induce the woodchucks to move. I simply pack the burrow entrance with fresh dog droppings. The woodchucks get the hint and leave. The reason this works may be related to the natural behavior of foxes (in my area they normally take over and widen a woodchuck burrow for their dens).

rozett · Jun 13, 2002

I have a number of recipes for woodchuck if you need them. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Anonymous Poster · Jun 13, 2002

Victor Conibear Trap
Just set it up outside the chuckhole, and stake it down good.
If you leave that cute little rodent alone, you'll have structural damage soon enough. Even worse, he'll invite friends over to dig next to his place and turn it into a woodchuck subdivision.
Or, you can shoot him.
Either way, when you fill the hole back in, post mortem, stuff some wadded up barb wire into the hole, that will discourage future occupants, and they will come.

Drago · Jun 13, 2002

I'm not a "hunter." But when it comes to woodchucks I've found shooting them was the only way. I tried everything to get my first nemisis to move away from our house - cat litter, dog droppings, gas, filling in the holes with anything I could find, etc. You know what, each time I thought I solved the problem...but he/she always came back.

Hopefully you'll have better luck getting him to move.

beenthere · Jun 13, 2002

Those gas fumes would be ignited by the fuse on the firecracker so fast there would be no time to replace that rock. I would suggest not trying this trick in the form it was presented. One lighting the firecracker might end up being the cork, rather than the woodchuck. And the smell of singed hair and eyebrows is not pleasant.
I also wouldn't permit a woodchuck to burrow and undermine my concrete pad. Such pads are not designed to bridge a gap and who knows how big a "room" the woodchuck would want to make under the concrete.

Trev · Jun 13, 2002

...i made my 15 year old german shepherd come with me...

Crawdad,

Forget the German-speaking canine.. what you need is a cat! See attached. They'll chase anything that moves. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bob

p.s. Hope the attachment works.. never tried this before.. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

rancar · Jun 14, 2002

Hey Bob....

I've got a white cat just like this and he doesn't do anything with the dear problem I have. He just sits there and looks at them while the dear eat my landscaping plants. What's the trick to get these cats into hunting mode? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bob

Von · Jun 14, 2002

Simple,..... Don't feed it!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Trev · Jun 14, 2002

I've got a white cat just like this and he doesn't do anything with the dear problem I have. He just sits there and looks at them while the dear eat my landscaping plants.

I think I see your problem. You want the cat to chase the deer. The basic rule of getting a cat to do anything is that you have to desperately want the cat to NOT do it. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

TerryinMD · Jun 14, 2002

crawdad,

You must take of that critter as soon as possible. You will end up with many more burrows as they will have multiple homes for foraging.

Go to you local ag center and get some groundhog fuses. They create a noxious gas that kills them quickly. You need to make sure that you find all of the openings. Plug all of them except for one. Light off the fuse, dump it in, cover the hole to keep in the gas. Voila - no more critter. Oh, I forgot. Make sure he's in his hole before you start. Kinda important. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Another way is to use a Havaheart trap. This was mentioned by Cowboydoc. I only use this method when the critter is under my garden shed. It has a wooden floor and using a fuse is impracticle. I tried and it didn't work. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Have you ever heard a groundhog cough. Kinda funny.

Terry

crawdad · Jun 15, 2002

thanks for all the replys,

trev, the cat pic made me LOL

after the dog and i were hanging out by his hole i filled it in while i knew he was in there,the next morning he had dug himself out, i filled in the hole again and i have not seen him since. i dont see any other holes around so hopefully he moved on. knowing my luck hell be like that crazy gopher in "caddyshack".

ill keep all ya posted.
thanks
scott