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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Controlling groundhogs

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  • From: "breck" <bcarden AT breckinridgegroup.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Controlling groundhogs
  • Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:28:10 -0400


This is something my dad used to do.
Backup a vehicle near the hole then shove a hose up it's tailpipe (wrap wet
burlap bag around coupling if you can), stuff newspapers tightly into all
holes, then start your engine. Don’t know how long you should run engine,
but probably not more than 10 min.. Check the next day to see if newspaper
has been pushed out. Other groundhogs will eventually move into the den, so
repeat as necessary.

As a child I saw a guy send two wiener dogs (they were bred for this sort of
thing) down the hole after a groundhog. One got stuck and he had to dig it
out, but they eventually got the groundhog. At 10 years of age I thought
that was pretty cool.

________________________________________
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Shawnee
Flowerfarmer
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 11:19 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Controlling groundhogs

Well, I will certainly try this idea.  I think that I have tried everything
else.  Never had such a problem with groundhogs until the last two seasons. 
I have always objected to their knee-crunching holes, but in 2006, the
family gnawed every gourd in the patch.  In 2007, they chewed each precious
marketable pumpkin and watermelon. A good dog would help of course, but this
acreage is located in a forest preserve, and all the dogs are on leashes
attached to people running by.  The garden must be historically accurate to
1840-50 which would include using a gun, but I don't own one.  I have
threatened laser beams to save the harvest, but other people think that I
lack perspective. (Plus, I don't actually have a laser beam either.) 
 
So, at the start of 2008, I am fraught.  The groundhogs are costing us a lot
of money and never mind the way my knee wrenches if I stumble into one of
their holes.  Ex-lax is cheap compared to the profit the rodents are
munching......
 
Shawnee, zone 5 and losing contact with  government nonsense while the
natural world starts to bedevil me. 

________________________________________

Hi Shawnee.....Not too scientific but, have you tried ex-lax for your
groundhog troubles? Put a couple of squares by the hole and they "think"
somethings wrong with the food in the area and move on... That's the theory
I heard and I know someone who has had success with it. Only one, but it's
the only person I know who tried it.
 
Have Fun
Dave z6a
 

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