Asheville Farm Photos
How to Get Rid of a Woodchuck (Groundhog) WITHOUT poisons or traps!
Above: Woodchuck filmed with security camera at the hole under our barn.
I'd been filling-in this woodchuck's hole (against and under the barn) and covering it with boulders for weeks. But he kept digging new holes farther and farther out.
Finally, I dumped an entire container of human, pet and pest-safe, granulated rosemary, cinnamon and mint oil, Ortho animal-b-gon in and around his hole. (You may see the bluish-gray pellets scattered.) To leave him no doubt about my intentions, I then stuffed the empty container down deep into his hole!
One of the animals featured on the label is a woodchuck -- and this stuff seems to work! This was our very last sighting of him. I recommend ortho animal-b-gon highly!
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WOODCHUCK REMOVAL UPDATE:
At the time of this post last fall, I assumed that the woodchuck had evacuated.
It turns out, he had merely hibernated.
First thing come spring, the empty plastic container of Ortho animal-b-gon mint granules was lying 4-foot outside the hole and there were signs of a lot of activity.
Woodchuck Removal Option 2:
I called the county extension office for advice. They'd heard of people placing 1960-type disco lights and music and motion-detecting lawn sprinklers and other tricks to make the area less hospitable to a woodchuck. But, since woodchucks learn pretty quickly, the only 'effective but non-lethal' solution is to get a dog.
Instead, I unrolled about 15-feet of 4-foot wide woven-wire farm fencing over top the hole and along the a good length of the barn. That worked!
But a few weeks later, he had dug a new hole on the exact opposite side of the barn to apparently meet up with his first hole. (These two holes were 40-foot away from each other but on exact opposite sides of the barn!)
So, I unrolled another 40-feet of fencing along that side of the barn, and another 40-feet on each of the other sides.
It's been several months now with no sign of activity. Hooray! Now, I just have to stay mindful of all this weed-covered fencing that's lying on the ground when mowing!
PS: I see this year that ortho has removed the woodchuck image from the label of animal-b-gon.
