How to Rid Your Garden of Groundhogs

There is lots of advice on getting rid of groundhogs and woodchucks published on the Internet and most of it is just plain wrong.

Groundhog on Laval University campus, Quebec, Canada by Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Five years in the making

This is my story, the trials and tribulation of 5 years of efforts to rid my gardens of groundhogs.

In the beginning

I’ve been gardening since I was a child in the 1960s, and have had my share of pest infestations, insects, slugs, tomato hornworms, squash vine borers, squirrels, birds, and even a tomato stealing chicken, but it wasn’t until five years ago that groundhogs, aka, woodchucks, became a problem.

My first year of problems with groundhogs ended when my next door neighbor’s son died, and her family threw a 2 week long party (wake) to pay their respects. The constant 24/7 noise just a few feet across my back fence scared the Whistler away. He came back the next year with a wife and two kids devastating the half of my garden planted in the backyard, but they ignored the front yard as I live on a corner lot with lots of traffic.

It was during the second year that I managed to trap one member of the groundhog family using carrots in a no kill trap, but live trapping wild animals comes with problems. You see, here in North Carolina, as in most states, it is illegal to relocate live animals without written permission from the owner of the land you release it onto. I carried the trap into my front yard, opened the cage, and watched Marmota monax run for over a quarter of a mile as hard as he could run. Thing is, once trapped, groundhogs grow leary of traps. Thus my story becomes interesting.

“Can wildlife be relocated? It is illegal to relocate many wildlife species in North Carolina, including those in the order Carnivora (e.g., coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, bears, bobcats, mink, weasels, and otter), armadillos, groundhogs, nutria, and beaver.”

A friend of mine paid $250 in fines for relocating a single groundhog a couple of years ago.

Don’t fence me in.

So begins year 3. Some people will tell you that fences will keep groundhogs out. Tell that to the Chuck that climbs the 8 foot privacy fences that surround my back yard. The fence is, in fact, part of the problem as they make ol’ Chuck feel more secure. I have on occasion spotted Weenusk in my Mulberry tree. I’d tear the fences down but they belong to my neighbors.

I mint to…

In the third year a single woodchuck with an affinity for cabbage and cantaloupe came to dine. On most every website you will read that mints and various herbs will repel groundhogs but my gardens are surrounded and interspersed with Spearmint, Sage, Catnip, Lavender, Sedum, Chives, Thyme, Geranium, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Marigolds, Dog Fennel, Marigolds, and Zennia . The Monax runs right through it all to get to my vegetables. He ate the marigolds and zennia. He sleeps in the spearmint and huffs catnip like a crack addict.

I have successfully used Mighty Mint, a peppermint oil spray, to rid my home of roaches. Because it worked so well I decided to spray my gardens with it. Meanwhile, rabbits were dining out front and the Whistle pig enjoyed mint flavored vegetables in the back. Unlike rabbits which only nibble, groundhogs will pull entire plants from the ground and trample over everything.

This means war!

Openly placing stiff wires resembling punji sticks placed around the perimeter of each bed worked until he figured out he could push them aside. I first started using “punji sticks” to deter cats from doing their business in freshly planted garden beds. It worked so well that my cat will avoid a single punji stick, but it won’t deter groundhogs.

Onions seem to help as a solo cabbage plant right next to a container of onions was yet to be touched. He had to eat any of my potato plants, but he runs right through them to get to the cabbage just as he runs right through the spearmint to get to the cantaloupe. Nether basil, catnip, sage, rosemary, thyme, or any of another dozen herbs and spices are eaten by groundhogs, but that doesn’t mean they won’t trample them to the ground.

If you wanna hang out you better check her out…

Covering my garden with enough agricultural lime to make it look like a busted cocaine lab did nothing to turn Chuck away. He just sneezed and blew it all away.

Yes, it’s true, groundhogs can swim

I had heard Chuck and his kind could swim, but didn’t know for sure until he swam out into the middle of my pond and ate all my watercress. If only I were raising gators rather than tilapia, goldfish, and catfish.

Bad to the Bone

I found an old Cool CatFish talking fish that tells jokes and plays Bad to the Bone when someone walks in front of it, but Chuck quickly got used to it. I dreamed that Chuck and the fish were performing together on stage. What a nightmare.

It’s a trap!

Again, I borrowed a no kill trap from a friend and baited it with cabbage, bananas, and more. To lure him closer I put some of the same bait about 6 inches in front of the trap and went to sprinkle garlic powder and Zatarain’s hot pepper on my kale patch less that 10 feet away. While I was doing that Chuck snuck up behind me to eat the bait in front of the trap, and ran away. I looked out the window the next morning only to see Chuck standing upright on the trap looking back at me. Later I dumped the apples, bananas, and strawberries on the ground and he ate them all.

Sweet temptations

A friend suggested I bait the trap with marshmallows so I did, being sure to leave a couple in front of the trap to lure him close. Two minutes later my cat began squalling from inside the trap. Apparently she thought the marshmallows laying on the ground were toys, batted them into the trap, then went in to retrieve them. Bananas, apples, cantaloupe, and peaches failed too.

Spicy!

The next morning I went out to discover that my groundhog apparently likes garlic and hot pepper as every plant I had sprinkled garlic and hot pepper on had been eaten. In the trap was a very confused, and scared young Racoon. I turned it lose and baited the trap with carrots leaving one small piece directly in front of the door. Chuck ate the piece laying in front of the door and left the rest.

My guard goat standing watch in my garden.

Billy goat gruff or don’t let them get your goat?

I found a goat and put it in the garden. It wasn’t a real goat but those eyes look as if they will freak anything out. I figured it would make a good scarecrow. Damned woodchuck quickly figured out it wasn’t real. Aluminum pie pans swinging in the wind, and soup cans clanging against posts and lattices don’t scare it either.

Observation

Having noticed the groundhog wasn’t disturbing any of the plants located right beside my onions I thinned my onions and transplanted the plants I pulled from the bed beside my other beds. The next morning I discovered the groundhog had eaten my sweet potato vines and cantaloupe blooms, right beside where I had transplanted onions the night before. My Squash and Zucchini were just beginning to bloom. They would be next.

Made in the shade…

Much of the garden is covered with shade netting laying lightly on top of the vegetables, and while it seems to work, shade netting doesn’t come without problems of its own. For starters, shade netting makes life easier for slugs. It slows plant growth and serves as a hiding place for other pests. Eventually the hog learned he could crawl under it and chew through it to hide while getting fat.

Road kill?

I heard somewhere, that the smell of rotting meat will drive woodchucks away so I put chicken skin, fat, and bones around the outside of my garden. Every stray Cat, Racoon, ‘Possum, and Vulture for miles around came to have lunch with the groundhog while my cat hid and watched.

Playing ruff-ruff

I tried to borrow a big mean dog, but nobody I know is willing. I seriously considered adopting a big dog, but I have an outdoor cat. Besides, groundhogs are real badasses who sometimes hurt dogs badly. I’ve also had past experience with fido digging and trampling through garden beds. We used to fence the dog out of the garden. Besides, dogs cost a lot to feed.

Where there’s smoke…

Animals don’t like to get near smoke or fire so I set a little grill in my backyard next to the garden, lit some charcoal, and put some green wood on top. The smoke rolled. Remember when I said I had used shade netting laying lightly on top of the vegetables was to deter that Marmot? He used the smoke screen to prevent being spotted while he crawled under the shade netting to wipe out my kale patch... again. I think he even brought a date as more damage was done in an hour than has been done all season. Like they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire, and the fire is me blowing my top. The kale will recover but first harvest has been pushed back months.

Smoke will drive away most pests but there are drawbacks. It takes a lot of time to safely tend a fire, smoke adds to air pollution, and smoke drives away pollinators such as bees, wasps, and others.

When you gotta go…

You’ll read all over the Internet that the smell of urine drives groundhogs away. Besides having a porta-potty in my garden I also pee on my garden, but like everything else it is gone with the next rain shower.

In reflection…

I placed mirrors all around the garden thinking Chuck might be scared of his own reflection. There might be something to the mirrors as his attacks were then concentrated on the beds I didn’t have mirrors to surround. The mirrors only seemed to work for a couple of days, and you can bet the Siffleux hit the unmirrored beds harder than ever before. Then he pushed the mirrors over forcing me to clean up the broken glass.

Grooving to the beat…

I ordered a small transistor radio to put in the garden. I tuned it to the most annoying hip-hop station I could find and placed it under a flower pot with holes drilled in its sides. I turned the volume all the way up. It worked the first day but the next afternoon I looked out my window only to discover Chuck dancing on top of the flower pot with cabbage leaves hanging out both sides of his mouth. He had hit the one cabbage plant he had always avoided before.

Splish splash, I was taking a bath…

Hundreds of articles and videos online will tell you that Irish Spring Soap repels groundhogs and a friend told me to get one of those motion activated sprayers that shoot water at anything that moves. The damned Red monk ate my young squash and took a shower. You see, when it comes to repelling Moonack they quickly figure out what is and isn’t a real threat. Besides, Land beaver don’t mind getting wet. Oh, and the Thickwood badger trampled down my Banana peppers on his way to a single cabbage plant.

Nightmare on my street.

I was beginning to get depressed. What good is a garden that doesn’t feed you? All my efforts were going south, I was failing as a gardner and a man. I dreamed a giant groundhog was coming at me to extract revenge against me for all those nights around the campfire drinking and singing Old Groundhog with my friends.

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Cucumbers too

Last year I raised my finest crop of cucumbers ever with vines reaching to the roof of my house, hundreds of fruits, and all of them good. But someone demanded I grow only lettuce in the that bed this year and rather than fight I did what I knew was a bad decision. As I made preparations for my last fight, Chuck invaded my cucumber patch. It was a sad day having lost every battle thus far. It’s crushing to have raised the best garden in my lifetime only to see it destroyed. He attacked tomatoes and tomatillos too.

It’s electric!

I started searching for electric fences….. Locally only the biggest and most expensive fence controllers are sold, and I have no need for 10 miles of electric fence so I searched for a quality product finding one made in New Zealand. As I have an outdoor cat I didn’t want to go this route, and it isn’t without drawbacks. Anything that keeps my cat out of my garden opens it up to birds and mice that can freely come and go without fear. It’s rare a week goes by that she doesn’t bring me the remains of some partially eaten, but very dead pest. Most recently she brought me the rear half of a baby rabbit. I bought an electric fence controller.

To save money I bought fiberglass driveway markers and started stringing wires, the first 4' above the ground, and the second 4" higher. The fiberglass driveway markers do away with the need for expensive insulators. If need be I can step over the fence to make my way through the garden. In a couple of places I arranged to be able to unhook the spans to allow me to push a wheelbarrow in and out. Now I only need to wait and see if electricity is the answer, and apologise to what would soon be a very pissed off cat.

But alas, even with a new 8' copper plated ground rod I couldn’t get a good ground and found my cat using the electric fence as a back scratcher. Then we had 7 days of almost continuous rain, and still he comes. I decided to string a second wire for a ground, buy by then Chuck was simply jumping the wires.

Hit me with your best shot

The folks at my local hardware store recommended I shoot the beast, but I live in the city where the sounds of gunshots start telephones ringing all over the neighborhood. It was then I learned about 22 CB rounds which are even shorter than 22 Shorts and no louder than the slam of a car door so I bought a box. Both of my .22 rifles are semi-automatics chambered for 22 Long Rifle rounds so I would have to load one round at a time. I loaded both rifles and looked for a place to hide. Days passed, but no groundhog appeared.

Eventually Chuck dared to show his face but every time I raised my rifle I saw houses, cars, and children in the background behind him — I never dared take the shot.

Splish splash I was taking a bath

I ordered one of those devices that shoot water at pests only to discover Chuck likes to shower. He simply turns his back and continues knawing away.

Triggered…

After failing to get adequate protection with an electric fence I decided to get a solar powered, motion detecting alarm. I’ve never believed the ultrasonic repellers to work but this one also has an audible setting that is almost certain to wake my neighbors. Chuck knocked it over while eating my tomatillos.

What you really need to know

Everything I’ve mentioned in this story can be found in numerous articles across the web. There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of articles written by content providers who have never seen a groundhog, all telling you these things, and all of them are wrong — just plain wrong. It’s not that these things won’t deter groundhogs once — most of them will — once, but groundhogs are smart, and quickly figure out what is and isn’t a threat. The problem will only worsen now that we have AI. Yes, I could have been successful if I’d had a big dog, but because my groundhog has been trapped before he (or she) will never be trapped again.

This is a problem that haunts the entire Internet no matter the subject matter. People post anecdotal evidence of what worked one time, or might work, as if it always works. AI and other writers spread the anecdotal evidence. This results in anecdotal fallacy and is repeated dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times. A million anecdotal fallacies does not equal one true fact.

“An informal fallacy where personal experience or a singular example is used to support an argument or position instead of compelling evidence. People often gravitate towards using their own experiences or those of people around them as evidence in arguments. It’s natural to do so as citing scientific evidence to craft a good argument takes effort and most of us are lazy thinkers and opt for the quicker and easier System’s 1 thinking versus the required metacognition of System’s 2 thinking.”

I’ve learned that groundhogs look for a safe environment in which to feed. A groundhog will graze in a big space with plenty of room to run in every direction, but a residential garden surrounded with privacy fences and beds filled with fresh vegetables is preferred to scraps of clover beside the highway. Besides, Chuck simply ignores the clover in my backyard. While groundhogs do eat clover it is not their favorite food no matter how many websites tell you it is.

Groundhogs rarely live to be over 5 years old. In order to succeed as a species they must be highly intelligent as the females only give birth to two kits a year. The fact they exist in such high numbers is also proof of their intelligence. Punxsutawney Phil was smart enough to get himself a cushy gig on TV working just one day a year, all the grubb he wants, and sleeping in 364 days a year. He’s even got his own website. Now that’s smart.

Wildlife experts note that groundhogs are “antagonistic and territorial among their own species and may skirmish to establish dominance.” Because of this, trapping and killing groundhogs only serves to open up your gardens to more groundhogs. Only if you scare them away can you control them. What scares them away? Big dogs able to survive a bloody battle and bigger groundhogs.

A different kind of trap

I’ll never forget the sight of chuck standing on top of a no kill trap filled with his favorite foods waving at me as I watched from the bathroom window. I knew something different was needed. I decided to built a deadfall trap. It had to be big, strong, fast, and deadly.

I learned how to make snares, pits, and rabbit boxes as a child to catch critters I wanted to play with, rabbits, frogs, birds, bugs, and once even my dog. I had even trapped fish. It was all in fun, but never had I made a trap with the intention to kill. This would be my first. But before I trapped a groundhog I had to teach my cat to avoid the trap at all cost.

In the end I decided against the deadfall trap. Not only would it endanger my cat but the neighbor’s cats who come over to frolic in my catnip patch would be endangered as well.

Revenge was never so… sad

I’ve decided that next year the backyard garden will only be planted with things woodchucks won’t eat — no cabbage, kale, beans, peas, carrots, cantaloupe, squash, watermelons, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes…. Next year the back garden will be planted with onions, garlic, potatoes, and the herbs he passes over. Everything else will get planted out front. Revenge was never so sad and incomplete. But would that be enough?

How my Grandpa did it

The following Spring Chuck awoke from his long winter’s nap and began munching on carrot greens and potato leaves. I knew, if left to his own they would soon all be gone. I had to do something so I asked my uncles and they said Grandpa used Sevin Dust, a nasty powered insecticide that bee lovers hate. And for good reason.

Fortunately it was still early in the season and other than a few perennial herbs nothing was blooming. You see, Sevin is toxic to everything. When Sevin is applied to blooms it kills the bees. As one who has worked to save the bees I’ve avoided the use of Sevin for my entire adult life so it really troubles me.

But as nothing was blooming I decided to take a chance by putting Sevin on the carrots, potatoes, and greens Chuck has been nibbling on. The bees were safe for now.

I also put out apples, bananas, near the places where Chuck enters the yard, all dusted with Sevin. And I waited…

Turns out Sevin no longer contains the very thing needed to kill a groundhog.

“Although toxic to insects, carbaryl is detoxified and eliminated rapidly in vertebrates. It is neither concentrated in fat nor secreted in milk, so is favored for food crops, at least in the US.[6] It is the active ingredient in Carylderm shampoo used to combat head lice until infestation is eliminated”

Well, it’s good to know Chuck won’t get lice.

A Biblical Solution

Year 5 of the struggle was against me and while covering my veggies with Zatarain’s ground pepper was discouraging Chuck, every rainy day would find Chuck chowing down on my vegetables in the rain as the hot spices covered the ground. I decided to go biblical.

I began by stoning Chuck. As I couldn’t actually hit him I tossed rocks down his hole. The next day the rocks were again on top of the ground.

Next came the flood. I pushed my garden hose as deep as it would go into his den and turned on the water full force until water was flowing out and parts of the ground above it collapsed. The next day I found a huge pile of mud in front of his hole.

Groundhog hole with pieces of charcoal pushed out.

Next would come the fire and brimstone. Making up my mind to end the war I filled a container with five pounds of charcoal, lit it, and waited until all the charcoal was burning. Then I tossed the burning charcoal into Chuck’s hole and waited. Smoke rose from the hole but nothing happened. The next day a pile of ash and a few small pieces of charcoal were pushed up at the entrance.

Smoke on the water

Next I tried to smoke him out with dozens of smoke bombs in the middle of the night. He left in a hard run as plumes of smoke rolled out of his tunnels but come the next day he wiped out my bush beans, dill, and cilantro. Surely his intent was revenge.