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Shooting is effective but in populated areas is a problem. A lot of suburbs and city areas have rules on shooting even air rifles and archery.
Trapping works but isnt selective you get the chucks rabbits neighbors pets.
Poison works but again arnt selective and can poison a large range of animals including predators.
A large live trap will catch them and also allow bunnies and pets to be released set it in front of the hole and set it check it daily. When you catch one there are several ways to dispatch the animal. put the trap in a heavy bag and exhaust from lawn mower or car into it. A deep stream or pond tie the doors closed a rope on the handle and drop it in. Releasing in a new area isnt an option as almost everywhere this is illegal.
We used a Hav a hart live trap that was around 12" square. caught ground hogs but pets and others could be released. Conibears work good but as above arnt selective. Leg holds they either dig themselves in or chew off their leg.
Some of the old timers here would sprinkle red devil lye in the holes this killed them, they went out into damp grass this activated the lye and they lick their feet. The other problem with poisons is you end up with a carcass some where rotting.
Nuke'em from orbit, the only way to know for sure.
The big Harvahart box type traps work, baited with cantaloupe/ muskmelon. If you like to eat the nasty things the rind and seeds will be enough for bait.
Make sure the latch works well on your trap otherwise the groundhog can get out. I found this out the hard way; the one I bought worked, the one I inherited from my uncle let them back out.
Robert
CCI "Supressor" rounds out of your 22 rifle. Very quiet and very effective. The neighbors won't even know.
Good luck,
Rick
My Father trapped quite a few coons with my large HavaHart but he had to do some adjusting/modifying on the trap to be successful because coons would back out after getting the bait. First he had to tie the bait down so they couldn't drag it over to the edge and eat it through the wall of the trap. Then when they started stealing the bait and backing out he fixed the toggling release in the middle of the trap so only the side furthest into the trap would move down releasing the door. That forced the animal to go all the way in. Then he added some large magnets to the door so it would fall harder and operate the latch. After that he had very few getaways. I too like the fact that you can release anything from this trap that you don't want to kill.Originally Posted by Mk42gunner
Coons possums woodchucks will get out if they dont get all the way in If there tail is under the door it may not lock and they can get out. We weighted the doors on both our have a hart traps along with the sliding bars that lock the door. Another trick is to leave one door closed and locked putting the bait close to it. We copied a large hav a hart making it the same size except 8" longer 4" each way. Raising the trip pan a little may have helped also. But the one we made was way more effective. If I remember we soldered the sheet metal to the wire mesh
Another trick when setting the trap in place is to wiggle it some working grass up thru the bottom wire mesh. On the one we made we also made the trip pan an 1" longer each way.
You can bend up the wire mesh over a 2X4 better is a frame. then bend up sheet metal to make the piece under the pan the pan and doors actually the doors can be made from wire mesh with a sheet metal frame.
We made box traps for muskrats from wire mesh entirely. doors were hinged the muskrat swam thru lifting the door and it dropped behind them Very effective and on a good night we would get 2-3 in one trap.
Thin walled angle can be used to stiffen and make the plates to drill for pan and triggers.
Again,, we all need to be aware of the legalities of some things. How you dispatch an animal in a trap may have State restrictions. Some may be quite silly,, or even stupid. But if caught,, it could be serious trouble.
Poisons are generally illegal in many places due to the fact they do not discriminate. Plus,, they are usually a painful death,, (read; "He was charged with Cruelty to animals.")
One silly law in NC is you can not drown an animal in a cage trap,, yet you can legally trap an animal with a foot hold trap, in or around water & have a drowning cable.
And the earlier mentioning of moth balls & skunks. As a professional,, I have had SEVERAL (read well over 100) customers over the 20+ years of doing this for a living,,who TRIED using moth balls for skunks. The skunks will just dig them out or remove them from the hole.
A properly set Conibear 160,, placed in the entrance of a hole or a normal passageway,, is super easy & very effective. Again, just as I've mentioned,, make sure no free roaming Terrier breeds are around. In a groundhog hole,, only rats, opossums, and later on,, skunks will enter them. I've caught well over 1000 groundhogs with them, and never had a single cat in one. As long as the owners & neighbors keep the Terriers away,, no dogs will get caught, and again,, I've never caught any dogs.
I get paid for results,, NOT for catching "Fluffy" or "Phido". Plus,, my business would suffer if I did that.
And cage trapping,, yes,, you can easily release non-targets,, but catching them defeats the purpose. Use a bait specific for the animal you seek. When using cage traps on groundhogs,, I've never caught any pets either.
And just for giggles; My days work today was as follows.
Go to customer #1, and pick up a cage trapped raccoon.
Go to customer #2, and remove a dead opossum from under a porch.
Go to customer #3, and seal several potential squirrel entry points, and add a squirrel excluder to (2) active entry/exit points.
Tomorrow is to be;
Possibly go back to customer #1 for more raccoons.
Go to customer #2, and add a couple of squirrel excluders to the sides of a wall.
Go to customer #3, and remove the bat excluders & seal the openings.
Go to customer #4 and pick up my groundhog traps,, (conibear 160's.) I've already caught the offending, basement digging groundhogs.
Just another day in the life of a professional animal damage control agent.
Peanut butter smeared on the trigger of the live trap. Capture followed by trial and execution. I killed 37 woodchucks when I lived in northern Indiana. Woodchucks can be very damaging to the landscape and building foundations. I enjoyed the freedom to shoot them but overall I caught more in the trap than I shot. Your daily mantra:
mr. woodchuck is not your friend
Swedish Mauser 1900 Mauser Oberndorf (frankenSwede)
Large live trap with modified trigger and peanut butter works well. Weatherby .300 with hollow points is way over kill, but a lot of fun.
Lots of things offered as bait can & will catch groundhogs. As noted above,, peanut butter can work. BUT,,,,,,, peanut butter can also catch non-target species such as squirrels, coons, possums etc.
And as I expected,, going back to customer #1 for another pair of coons today.
Shooting any critter inside a cage trap allows for the chance for the bullet to hit the cage on the way in, AND on the way out. Cage damage isn't good.
Just don't "relocate" the miserable animal to someone else's neighborhood. That was a continuous problem growing up on a farm on a minimally traveled country road.
Don't just dump your problems onto someone else.
It's nasty, rude and here in Michigan it's illegal.
My daughter's summer college job was working the toll booth at a local park, it was almost a daily occurrence to be cussed out for telling people they couldn't dump what ever live animals they had brought to the park.
They would pull up to the toll booth, announce what they were there for and wanted free entry. "We're not staying, we're just releasing the squirrel, woodchuck, raccoon, chipmunk."
More than a few just drove in with out paying, my daughter got pretty good at reading license plates and calling the park cops. Who were also fully deputized county sheriff's.
She also got cussed out when the cretins left.
Don't dump your problems onto someone else.
no need to dump unwanted woodchucks. they are some tasty meat and the fur makes excellent glove linings among other things
Very well Put.. I tell "City Folk" you need to know that whatever you Drop Off...I Dispose Of...
I wish somebody would drop off about 500 groundhogs near my big soybean fields so I could once again use all the varmint rifles I have. I would dearly love to sit in my truck by various fencerows drinking cold Gatorade with my 17 Remington, 221 Fireball, 22-250, 220 swift, 22 CHeetah, 6mm Remington etc. in tow and sandbags on the hood the way I used to when groundhogs were plentiful.
Sure wish I could get them Buggers from here to You. They don't hang out in fields when there are Buildings to Destroy ... around here anyway!!
Ground hog on the BBQ smoker... like pulled pork...
Yeah, that's my problem here too. The coyotes kill them if they try to live out in the fields the way they used to, so they all move in around the barns and shop buildings. Even those don't seem to last all Summer. I am hesitant to shoot any because it seems we only have enough to barely reproduce for next year. So frustrating for a shooter who mainly got into rifle shooting for the varmints and has a bunch of 22 centerfires and thousands of bullets on hand.
^^^ Yup, I haven't used my 6mm-06 much in years.. lately when I bust it out, I been re-zeroing, Closer!! I ain't the Shot I used to be... Probably should pass that one Down!!!
One thing I have found is that the havahart type mesh traps that are sized for a raccoon or ground hog do not work for armadillos. The critter is just too long and the door hits them on the shell, allowing them to back out.
Robert
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