Woodchucks & Groundhogs - The Wildlife Whisperer

Solutions To Groundhog Problems

Groundhogs (marmota monax), like so many other animals, are typically just killed or trapped and relocated by homeowners and wildlife professionals. The most popular method for groundhog control is to use fumigants which kill them in their dens. Live cage trapping groundhogs and relocating woodchucks is popular, as well as the use of body crushing conibear style kill traps and foothold traps. Snares are not typically used on whistle pigs because of the resulting tug-of-war to pull them back out of their den once in a snare.

The above methods are not only inhumane, but they are unnecessary.

Groundhogs, also called woodchucks and whistle pigs, are one of the easiest animals for us to humanely get rid of in most cases.

We know exactly how to manipulate mothers into moving their young elsewhere so the denning area can be destroyed and the necessary repairs set in motion.

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Ground Exclusion

How do you remove groundhogs and control for them in the future?

One of our favorite methods for making a dirt denning animal move on is to totally destroy the den, including the walls, forcing the animal to move on. The problem with destroying a groundhog den is that it can be an incredible amount of work without a backhoe.

Some Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators (NWCOs) report destroying a groundhog denning area and having the animal make another 20' away from the destroyed tunnels, but they have also admitted to not being positive that they destroyed the entire system.

Fences are good at keeping woodchucks out of a particular area, but groundhogs are great climbers so a low voltage line at the bottom and/or top of the fence is sometimes needed. To prevent digging right under a fence, a hardware cloth bury may be needed.

If you do not feel like digging all day long to do a hardware cloth bury, the Dig Defence Animal Control Commercial Grade will work, but you still must dig a 3" wide by 12" deep trench in order to install two sections of the product to give you 30" deep protection for more aggressive diggers.

If your wildlife control problem involves woodchucks eating the plants in your flower bed or garden, a low voltage wire 4"-6" above the ground may keep them from causing damage. In some instances, an electric wire alone, placed 4-5" (10 to 13 cm) above the ground, has deterred woodchucks from entering gardens.

When woodchucks have started living under a shed, a hardware cloth bury and/or Dig Defence® will be needed for a long term solution.

The HardwareCloth Bury