How to trap a groundhog?

J

jazzball

New member
My neighbor has a groundhog eating her flowers, and she wants the critter removed. However, we live in the city limits, and shooting is out of the question. I'm looking for any tips on how to trap this animal using my cage trap (preferred baits etc.) Any advice is welcome. Thanks! Jazzball
 
Put your covered trap close to the burrow, just a few feet away in the travel lane. You can use logs to guide the critter into the trap if there's not a well defined "main" travel lane. Bait it with fresh vegetables and fruit, sweet corn, peas, melons, string beans, strawberries, lettuce, peaches, etc., and there's some stuff you should be able to buy at a feed store (groundhog lure?) too.

I've also heard you can use vanilla extract (or the lure?) to make a drop by drop trail into the trap.

This time of year you may have 4 or 5 of the critters, not 1.
 
worked for me, just like nmleon said, i live in western kansas, i have pics of mine in the live trap, will post once i read up on how to do it,
 
th_000_0158.jpg


caught this in my back yard[in town
] june 7th , my wife saw another yesterday while i was gone in the in-laws yard next door, game warden says these are not normaly around here, but when i offered to send them pictures via e-mail, i have gotten no response from them
 
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Caught a possum this morning...no luck with the whistle-pig yet. I did see the offender Sunday afternoon, standing 6 feet from the trap. Gotta go release Mr. Smiley before it gets hot here.
 
I tried to catch a ground hog in my cage trap with apple slices, NO LUCK, I also live in the city limits & I finally Killed Three of them with my 1000Ft. per second .17 pellet rifle,I have read that the cage will catch them but it takes lots of patience & I didnt have the time to mess with it. Good luck
 
Success!!!!!!!The little fellow is now gone. It seems that covering the trap with branches, and putting dirt on the floor of the trap worked. I suspect that there are more close by because he was so small. How many babys will a mother groundhog have? Maybe I'll get to catch a few more this summer.
 
i read that a single male can have up to 3 to 4 females in a den with him, cant remember how many babies they have, but even 2 a piece would be enough to keep you busy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
If you are just wanting to get rid of him then get some of the Sulfur Smoke Bombs and put them in the den or hole and then stop up the entrance to his den and this will end your problem . /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
i got my response from KDWP today. here it is, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


yes, that's a woodchuck/groundhog. I haven't heard of many of them in your area, and they didn't exist there historically, but their range seems to be expanding North and West, possibly the result of tree invasion on the prairie.
Thanks for the neat photos. I'll pass on to the people at Fort Hays State Univ who are trying to document ranges of various mammals in KS.

Matt Peek
furbearer biologist
 
You better be careful, Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd had a heck of a time trying to get that little SOB on the golf course.

Sorry, couldn't help but say that. We are starting to get ground hogs in south central NE too.
 
They usually have between 3-6 young each year. If you caught a small one, there are probably more in the area. Keep the trap set, and see what else shows up.
 


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