Hi Lynn! Not to disagree with a fellow gardener BUT I would highly recommend that you consider fencing your garden plot. If you live trap and remove the groundhog it is very likely that another one will move into the open territory and take over where the last one left off. Your only permanent solution would be a fence. To keep the little guy out you will want to bury the edge of the fence (if you google "fencing to keep our groundhogs" you will see that the gold standard is to bend your fencing, in an "L" shape and bury it with the foot of the "L" facing out away from the garden...and bury about 8 inches deep. The fence does not need to be very tall.
Trapping and relocating the animal is very stressful to the animal, may cause a mother groundhog to be separated from her babies and will not likely yield a long term solution to your problem. Some repellents are effective though it can become expensive and time consuming to continually apply them. You do not want to fence the groundhog into your garden...not sure by your description if he is actually living IN your garden or just visiting for a snack. If he is living in the garden I can provide further suggestions to get him to move out before you do your fence project. Our garden is a suburban garden in an area with many resident groundhogs and our fence has kept our garden safe and secure while not disrupting the lives of the wildlife that we share our space with. Sue -----Original Message----- From: Community_garden [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jama Crawford Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 11:07 AM To: Lynn Gregor; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Community_garden] groundhog Hi Lynn I might be branded as the tough guy on this list. Earlier this week I suggested how to expel an overly friendly fellow gardener. Now I'm on the subject of expelling overly active furry brown-eyed rodents. I really do love my fellow gardeners and the wild animals we live with. But, diving in once again ... For a groundhog problem, it would be best to contact a Wildlife Control or Wildlife Rescue agency in your city. If you can't locate one, start with the Humane Society. A County Extension Office could provide guidance too. They will offer good advice for your specific situation or will identify a better agency to help you. There are surely pest control businesses in your community too, and you might end up there, but I would ask an information provider first since you have some very specific parameters (children, organic garden, and a public image to deal with regarding wildlife management). For a large animal like a groundhog or raccoon, we use a Havaheart live trap. We used to borrow one from our local Humane Society for $5 a day but finally purchased one for $54. Havaheart has animal control strategies for lots of different garden pests. http://www.havahart.com/advice/critter-library/groundhog-control The next issue is how to bait the trap to lure the animal inside. Our problem was raccoons. For years we used pet food as we knew raccoons love to raid pet food bowls, but in the morning we often found a miserable captured cat. We switched to marshmallows and this proved to be a perfect bait as cats aren't interested and raccoons cannot turn down marshmallows. For a groundhog, Havaheart recommends ripe canteloupe, strawberries, fresh lettuce, cucumbers, and vanilla extract (among others) as aromatic foods to lure a groundhog. You might catch birds and smaller rodents with such bait. Be sure to show up early in the morning so the creature (groundhog or other) is not trapped out in the sun for hours. Once you trap the animal you have to take it to an appropriate habitat to release it. This can be tricky in both urban and rural environments. My husband was once fined for letting a raccoon go on an uninhabited section of river on an exceedingly large parcel of rural government property. It seemed like a safe bet but it wasn't. Again, ask the Wildlife Control or Wildlife Rescue agency in your community for release instructions so that your release doesn't cause you or the property owner additional problems. It often happens that you are dealing with more than one animal, and thus must run the trap several nights in a row until the entire family is removed. There are a variety of chemical and mechanical repellants for groundhogs and other garden rodents. I am not sure if the chemical repellants would be safe inside an organic garden. We have never used them. The mechanical repellants (typically a high spray sprinkler or loud noises/flashing lights) wouldn't be appropriate in a small garden either. Finally, there are dog clubs that specialize in urban rodent defense. None of these sound better than a live trap to me. Hope this helps. Best wishes for your wildlife management. Jama Crawford Durango CO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynn Gregor" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:49 PM Subject: [Community_garden] groundhog > Hello, > > Being more of an urban gardener, I have not had much experience with > groundhogs. But I am working with a pre-school program that has 2 raised > beds (3'x8') that definitely has a groundhog living in the area the garden > is located. > > Any suggestions as to how to keep it from eating the plants in the garden? > Low-cost ways are preferred, but all suggestions are welcome! > > Thank you, > Lynn Gregor > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communityga rden.org/attachments/20130521/bc8d79bf/attachment.html> > _______________________________________________ > The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of > ACGA's services to community gardeners. 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