Tenants under the wood stacks

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jj3500

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Oct 7, 2008
228
Orange County, N.Y. Southeast corner.
I've got a family of about 3-4 ground hogs living underneath my stack. They've been there undisturbed for two or so years. They're tunnel system is way out of control now. Holes here, over there, back over there etc etc. I need to get them evicted. I heard that moth balls irritates them also a bar of deodorant soap.(recently found this info or is it just old wives tales). They are smarter than "hav a heart" traps. I've have those and they don't work. Tried very large old style mouse traps(babies). Again, very clever lil guys. They get in and eat but they don't trip the lever.

Help!

Thanks!
 
It's pretty tough to outsmart a have-a-heart. I've killed many moles with them. Do you think they's drink antifreeze? Rat poison? Surprised they eat your bait really.
 
Shooting 'em with a pellet gun or .22 only pisses 'em off.

Car exhaust supposedly works, never tried it.

I've irritated them with smoke bombs.
Enough that they went away.
(or I killed 'em, I'll never know)


I had a young one have the audacity to burrow right inside my garden fence between two rows of grapes.
I stabbed the ground around the hole with a big 4 foot long pinch bar. It's either fertilizer or gone.

We've got coyotes now.
There's almost no game around here any more.
Not even skunks.

Fill in any holes
Those holes are like apartments with neon 'free rent' signs on 'em.
 
Go get about a 2 lb jar of cayenne pepper. Sprinkle it in all the holes & under your wood pile. Then use your leaf blower to really blow it around under the stacks. It also helps to mix it in with some dirt & shovel
it back into the holes. I guess they get it into their eyes & all through their fur. It worked for me.
Al
 
lobsta1 said:
Go get about a 2 lb jar of cayenne pepper. Sprinkle it in all the holes & under your wood pile. Then use your leaf blower to really blow it around under the stacks. It also helps to mix it in with some dirt & shovel
it back into the holes. I guess they get it into their eyes & all through their fur. It worked for me.
Al
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Just thinking, put the leave blower in one of the holes, and then have a friend pour the pepper into the intake on the blower....then you got a cayenne tunnel :)
 
I had a redneck moment last fall before my have-a-heart enlightenment and rigged up a pipe to pump diesel exhaust from my truck into the mole tunnel system. I set up the truck, started the engine and then sat on the tailgate with a loaded shotgun (plus 3 more shells in the magazine) and waited for them to come running out. Well they never did come out but the molehills went away for about a week and then they slowly came back.

I bought three have-a-hearts which are illegal to use in my state. I of course didn't use them since I would never want to break a law but had I used them I would tell you about my 100% success rate and that you need to set up three at a time with a proper choke point to force the buggers into the trap's trigger.

Nothing else will work.
 
Are these wood chucks or moles? Wood chucks are about 7 to 10 pounds. If it is a woodchuck just shoot it with a 22. They taste like corn-beef.We get lots of wood chucks around here. Shot three in one day last year at the house.
 
Disclaimer: My experience with "ground hogs" is actually what we call moles, a critter with smooth dark fur, a pointy pig nose, apparently no eyes, short tail, about the size of a standard brick. Evidence of presence is mounds of soil pushed up.
 
Yeah HB - thats a mole. Woodchuck (or ground hog) is what I was thinking the OP was talking about. They are tough buggers but a properly placed, high speed, lead projectile will do the job.
 

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My grandpa told us that if you shake salt on their tails, it'll kill them. Never got close enough to find out
if it works, but my grandpa got lots of laughs watching his grandkids try.
 
northwinds said:
My grandpa told us that if you shake salt on their tails, it'll kill them. Never got close enough to find out
if it works, but my grandpa got lots of laughs watching his grandkids try.
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Hmmm . . . I told my co-worker about being pooped on by a seagull yesterday and he said it was good luck . . . at least according to his mother. You don't suppose his mother and your grandfather were related? :) ;)
 
Jags said:
Yeah HB - thats a mole. Woodchuck (or ground hog) is what I was thinking the OP was talking about. They are tough buggers but a properly placed, high speed, lead projectile will do the job.
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We don't get those big guys here. If we did, I would have a use for a 17 HMR, or maybe this neat little HK 22 that I shot over M-day weekend.
 

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Wood chucks (ground hogs) protected spieces here in Wisconsin..... go figure. Unless causing a problem on farm pasture. Cow steps in hole breaks leg ect.
 
Highbeam said:
We don't get those big guys here. If we did, I would have a use for a 17 HMR, or maybe this neat little HK 22 that I shot over M-day weekend.
Click to expand...

I like the 17, but I consider it a high power pellet gun. If I shoot at a critter, I don't want it to go hobbling off. I want it to drop, so personally, I tend to oversize my rounds.

We better get off the lead poisoning, or were gonna end up canned. :coolmad: <<--Craig. :lol:
 
Well you have nothing to lose trying the moth crystals, gasoline, soap, human hair, etc. Once they get established they can quickly become a nuisance.
 
Why would the morons make a havaheart trap illegal? Must be some real Einsteins over your way. In real terms who gives a good damn just use em and take them a couple miles where there are no cow or horse pastures around and cut them loose. The secret of a Havaheart is when dealing with the smart ones is tying the bait to the pan or the back of the cage. That makes them dance on the pan and WILL get results. I only have 1 but it's 4' long and the pan is big and hard to trip. You can usually set them with a hair trigger if you are careful.. Us em, they probably mean illegal to use for trapping rather than household nuisance removal. Personally I prefer woodchucks to neighbors....................
 
Oops, I meant to say the "Out O'site" traps which are made by Victor. The traps are cast iron scissor traps that are extremely deadly and humane in that they are a quick kill. Our state outlawed leg hold traps in a general way which included all squeeze stype traps. The unintended victim is the outosite mole trap which is so similar to the rather cruel leghold trap that it met the illegal criteria. The only real difference is that the outosite pinches much much harder.

Looking at this creature that you have, a groundhog, it seems much too large to fit into the outosite mole traps.
 
Try a product called " Critter Ridder". Ace Hardware stores and Home Depot should have it... Its a Hav-a- Heart product. It's loaded with black pepper. Ive had issues with chipmunks. So far so good with it...........looks like they packed up and moved on

MR
 
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