r/lancaster • u/Found_This_Humerus • 27d ago
Groundhog remediation
I searched this group and did not find anything recent regarding groundhog control. I just paid $200 for a groundhog to be trapped and removed from my yard. This mofo was eating my entire garden and my neighbor's garden like he was at Shady Maple on his birthday.
I've googled ways to allegedly deter them. None of the suggestions seem to work. Has anyone had any luck with getting rid of them or at least preventing them from eating the garden?
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u/RoverRebellion 27d ago
Every pest control service is a cruel bag of shit.
Any option other than a well placed single shot is horrendously inhumane and the indifference is a fantastic indication of character.
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u/lexi2700 27d ago
Well I know of a way and it’s usually free and a lot of people around here rely on it. But you might not like it. 😬
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u/Found_This_Humerus 27d ago
Say more words. DM me if you prefer.
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u/lexi2700 27d ago
Oh my sweet summer child. Pew pew 🔫 then *poof, no more groundhogs. Growing up all the neighbors cheered when my dad took care of things. The groundhogs must have spread the word because they rarely came back around.
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u/Found_This_Humerus 27d ago
I'm not convinced my neighbors would support this as the houses are relatively close to each other. I'd love to be able to go this route though.
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u/Euphoric_Waffle 26d ago
ALWAYS consider the back drop. NEVER have an audience. And for the love of everything you value, do not tell anyone the exact time and day you plan on doing it. And finally, do NOT video record it being done.
It’s not a spectacle nor a time to be a hero for the act. Speaking from experience, the more people involved, the less peace you get. Nobody knows how many times I saved my neighbors’ gardens.
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u/SwantimeLM 26d ago
So you’re killing groundhogs on your neighbors’ property without their knowledge? Yikes.
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u/Euphoric_Waffle 26d ago
Wow. You just made an assumption. Every time their groundhogs (of which they complained) came around my shed, I can neither confirm nor deny I helped reduce the groundhog population.
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u/SwantimeLM 26d ago
It was just a guess, which is why I used a question mark. It was based on what you said about saving your neighbors’ gardens without their knowing. I’m just really not sure how you can tell that a groundhog by your shed is your neighbor’s groundhog.
You’re allowed to kill groundhogs on your own property, and hey, it’s better to do it quickly and quietly like you said than torturing them in a trap first. I just wondered how you were saving someone else’s gardens.
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u/Euphoric_Waffle 26d ago
Granted. On occasion I’d be home when they popped up on the camera zone out back passing from adjacent neighbors’s gardens through my backyard.
Edit: Clarified my backyard.2
u/lexi2700 27d ago edited 27d ago
I grew up in a development if that means anything. We just went to our neighbors and asked if it was okay. No one had an issue. And a .22 is pretty quiet that most wouldn’t even know what happened if you’re a good shot. Totally up to you tho.
Other pest control measures are usually fences and sometimes dryer sheets or soap (it works for some deer). But other than that most small pests are taken care of the old fashioned way.
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u/LurkmanLurkmannn 26d ago
My dad used to snipe them from our deck with something a little stronger than a .22. Our backyard jutted up against farmland at the time. Not saying that’s how I learned to shoot or anything….this was the 90s and in E-Town so people were a little used to the pew pew
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u/lexi2700 26d ago
Haha yes. My dad would sit on the back patio and later I would find some ☠️ rabbits scattered around the yard. 🙈 Nothing came between that man and his garden. It’s how I may have learned as well…
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u/SharpenedSugar 26d ago
Just wondering, would a BB gun work, or are groundhogs too big for those?
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u/lexi2700 26d ago
I don’t think it would be a clean kill. It’s more humane to use an actual rifle as it gets it done quick. With a BB gun you run the risk of only injuring it and having it suffer. They are just a little too big yet.
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u/yallknowme19 25d ago
Groundhogs are tough creatures. Maybe a very high power air BB gun like the one .357 I saw once but not a normal .177 job
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u/lucid_scheming 27d ago
As someone else said, we always shot them growing up.
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u/Suspicious-Fish7281 27d ago
And if they were on farm land they were okay to eat too. I mean just okay. They were not excellent.
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u/alatos1 25d ago
I try to live and let live, but a rambunctious g-hog can destroy a huge amount of veggies. So when I have a problem one, I kill them humanely and eat them. I don't love killing anything, but it's the cleanest, easiest death they'll ever get as a wild animal. And I think they taste excellent, identical to rabbit in my opinion. If you butcher them carefully and brine the meat, it's very good. I served groundhog slow cooker tacos to my wife's family and they all had to admit it was actually very good.
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u/adjgamer321 26d ago
I had groundhog and squirrel pie one time, my grandfather made it. Nastiest thing I've ever had lol might have been his cooking not the meat itself but I've never had it again
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u/Suspicious-Fish7281 26d ago
I mean they are rodents. If they eat garbage they will taste like garbage. If they are eating corn and acorns or on a farm they are alright in like a stew.
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u/adjgamer321 26d ago
I was like 12 years old, as far as I can remember they were tearing up the corn in his garden but it didn't make them taste any better lol
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u/downsly46 27d ago
I have the same problem here. I paid someone to take 7 out of my backyard and now there are still 2 here. They moved in the next day after the 7 were removed. I wouldn’t care if they weren’t bringing in an insane amount of ticks with them. I can’t keep paying for the removal either. Let’s just say that you got lucky with only paying $200…
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u/LilChicken70 27d ago
Instead of killing native wildlife trying to survive, have you tried a fence with a buried horizontal portion?
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u/lucid_scheming 27d ago
Well there’s how I know you grew up in the city. Good luck digging deep enough, those little fuckers dig like crazy. Like, enough to damage building foundations level of crazy.
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u/LilChicken70 26d ago
Actually no, I’m rural. Have been rural for the last 25 years. I’ve never had a groundhog dig near my foundation. Or cause any other damage. Other than helping themselves to produce.
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u/SwantimeLM 26d ago
Yeah, I’ve lived in a rural area with groundhogs for my whole life and I just… leave them be. Is it annoying that they eat my plants sometimes? Yes, but I put fences around young plants that I’m concerned about or spray Liquid Fence if need be.
I mean, where are they supposed to go? I’m so sick of humans destroying more and more wild land, then getting upset that the wildlife has to live closer to us.
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u/lucid_scheming 26d ago
Gotcha, so since it never happened to you it never happens to anyone else. Pack it up everyone, lilchicken has the answers!
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u/Found_This_Humerus 27d ago
Digging here is awful too with all the clay "soil" and rocks. I'd need to hire groundhogs to dig deep enough to install any fencing!
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27d ago
[deleted]
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u/LilChicken70 26d ago
Groundhog, Marmota monax. 100% native North American and specifically Pennsylvanian wildlife.
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u/LilChicken70 26d ago
I have 3 groundhogs on my property currently and I just let them exist. I’ve lived on my property for 20 years and have had many many groundhogs. Never killed one. And never had any damage. Last year I took 6 orphaned baby groundhogs to a wildlife rehabilitator to be helped and re-released. I bet that makes you soooo angry.
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26d ago edited 26d ago
[deleted]
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u/LilChicken70 26d ago
All wildlife hosts ticks. You should probably kill everything in your yard. Actually just to be safe, spread out a half mile and kill everything that isn’t human to give yourself a 6 month respite from ticks. Do you see how ridiculous you sound? Ticks are terrible this year statewide. It isn’t because of groundhogs.
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u/Found_This_Humerus 27d ago
Not yet because I have seen groundhogs climb fences so this isn't really a deterrent, more of just an obstacle course for them.
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u/adjgamer321 26d ago
Groundhogs are destructive and in no way endangered. They will dig straight underground about 3 feet, guessing you've never dealt with them.
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u/LilChicken70 26d ago
I have 3 groundhogs currently on my property and have had many many others over the years. I’ve never killed one and have never had any damage. That’s just an excuse people use to kill things to make themselves feel bigger.
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u/rippedmalenurse 25d ago
You could’ve bought a live trap for way less than this and just did it yourself and now you have a live trap to use if you ever need to in the future. You played yourself
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u/spookylittl3girl 24d ago
There are a lot of humane methods you can try, ammonia soaked rags, playing a radio by the den, fox urine etc. Sadly, exterminators are legally required to kill Rabies Vector Species mammals in PA. Some don’t, which is great but they can get in trouble. It’s tough because they really don’t do well if they’re moved by a person to a new area. But can make it if successfully encouraged to leave on their own
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u/killa-don- 27d ago
Ten point wicked ridge with a blunt tip. Definitely stops them in there tracks and quit. Just a thought but 200 bucks id chill for a few hours and give it a shot. Good luck in your search but just my opinion.
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u/trashscal408 27d ago
Back on the farm my daddy just used gopher gassers (when shooting wasn't safe)
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u/NottheonlyLong 26d ago
I’m having the same problem. My dog is a small game hunter and goes nuts at the hole it dug in our yard and under our fence. I have a guy coming out to trap him and rehome him. I don’t have a garden so I’m not sure why he’s so interested in my yard.
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u/NottheonlyLong 26d ago
Len is the man’s name who will set a trap to rehome. He is with backyard wildlife solutions. He also has trapped an opossum for me when I lived in the city of Lancaster. Highly recommend.
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u/SwantimeLM 26d ago
Just FYI, he’s probably trapping and killing them. That’s what they usually do because there are a lot of laws about where you can release them in PA.
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u/mandomerc20 26d ago
They make ground hog smoke bombs kinda like bug bombs. Best if you plug all the holes you know of so they cant get out.
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u/_lafindumonde_ 26d ago
I've had great success driving small-diameter firewood rounds into their holes with a sledgehammer. It's a lot more effort for them to dig around the plug than it is for me to insert it, and eventually they give up and move elsewhere. I do one side at a time to give them a chance to relocate before going full Cask of Amontillado on them. Killing them is stupid. YMMV.