This little guy has been visiting my garden for the past few weeks. He was not invited and stayed way beyond his welcome time. We live in a nice suburb that used to be woods and farmland but not for over 10 years. I didn’t really expect to have a family of groundhogs set up home next door. They tunneled under the back, solid wooden fence to enter the garden and have been gorging on my young plants.
My Hubby was the hunter/trapper in this case. Last year we purchased a humane trap and used it to trap four groundhogs and a couple of skunks. The skunks were actually beautiful animals and we let them go back into the garden. We hadn’t known we even had skunks living in the area. The groundhogs we relocated more than five miles away. Apparently, five miles is the least amount of distance you should transport them or they can find their way back. You can see my Hubby’s legs behind the trap.
We used ripe cantaloupe as the bait. Hubby rubbed the cantaloupe all over the cage to disguise any human scent and set it out near the base of their tunnel. At least the groundhog had a tasty last meal.
Then we transported him to the same area where we had taken the groundhogs last year. Hopefully, he’ll meet up with them and have a ready made family unit. My garden is happier but we have reset the trap. Groundhogs can be quite prolific and there are probably more of them running around. We shall see.