Putting an end to Groundhog Day

So, for a while our dog has been acting like there is something under our back deck- and yesterday I finally saw exactly what it is: a reasonably large groundhog. Given they can carry rabies and we don't exactly want it (and any others, don't know for certain there's just one...) around and our dog chasing after it (for the moment he's confined to going out on a leash/harness anyway because of his surgery) we want to get it out of our yard.

Neither of us are particularly inclined to call a pest control company to take care of it both because of the cost (it was a few hundred dollars when they came out and sealed up and tried to trap the squirrels that were getting into our attic) and because we know that anything they trap they're required to kill. Heck, for that matter we don't know for certain that if we were to manage to trap it ourselves that we could legally relocate it outside of the city.

Has anyone had experience getting rid of the things before? I've read that if you spread ammonia solution or used cat litter (which I have a pretty solid supply of anyway) around their burrows that it will discourage them from sticking around...

Unfortunately, the fastest and most cost effective solution is to kill it.

If you don't want to do that, let us know how the cat litter works. You might also try coyote urine, which apparently they are stocking at Home Depot now.

My sister had one in her yard recently, and her 2 year old golden just loved "playing" with it. However they had my BIL's cousin over last weekend, and their dog got a hold of the groundhog, and tore it up. From what my sister says it was pretty gruesome. Groundhogs suck though, so probably not a bad thing.  

Kitty litter in their home hole will work until they dig a new one somewhere more inconvenient for you, like under a pool, or foundation, or your garden. 

Even if its legal, relocating it will just make it someone else's problem.

Get a cat. They are little murder-fiends and will gladly rid you of your pest problem.

I'm pretty sure mine got into a fight with a hawk the other day...

When i read the title, i figured it was the latest Social Justice Warrior cause. Or 4chan trolling the Social Justice Warriors into thinking that eliminating Groundhog day was the latest cause. 

Why do I feel like I keep seeing this thread over and over?

Javelin said:

Get a cat. They are little murder-fiends and will gladly rid you of your pest problem.

I'm pretty sure mine got into a fight with a hawk the other day...

We actually have a cat, but she's 15 and isn't allowed outside because she's stone deaf. And she's TINY and the groundhog would likely die of laughter far sooner than she'd manage to even injure it.

However there are a LOT of semi-feral cats around- one overly friendly one likes hanging out in our front yard and under our vehicles. This groundhog though is at least the size of most of the cats around- it is NOT small.

We had ground hogs, and a Akita. The Akita won. Then I got a pellet gun (I live in city limits and all) and I just pop em. 

If you relocate them, they can and will travel for miles to come back home. 

Or others will move in. 

They will destroy your foundation. 

RevRico said:

Even if its legal, relocating it will just make it someone else's problem.

I've caught "city folk" dumping coons in my yard.

Robert, if you live in the city, then the answer is a 22 CB Long in a rifle.  If you're outside of city limits, hey, 44 mag should do the trick. Or, go with my newest toy, the 429 Desert Eagle, which is kinda like a 44 Magnum Magnum.  Umm... wear hearing protection.  A lot of it.

Meh, possibility of rabies. I'd just let a pro come handle it and kill it. 

I'm pretty sure the rabies thing isn't as common as internet lore would have you believe.  Over here at the hospital we have a LOT of groundhogs and they are routinely trapped and removed by a local company under contract (I haven't asked where they go, a farm upstate I'd suspect).  Since you probably don't want to set up a sniper blind and wait the fat bastard out to plug him with a .22 I'd suggest getting over to Rural King and buying a "Have-A-Heart" trap.    Then pop him and drop the body off at the lab on Newtown for testing and disposal.  The lab actually wants to get the bodies to track where various diseases in the animal world are traveling.

Definetely kill it. Here in PA it is open season to kill them, they are the enemy.

Dr. Hess said:

t, if you live in the city, then the answer is a 22 CB Long in a rifle.  If you're outside of city limits, hey, 44 mag should do the trick. Or, go with my newest toy, the 429 Desert Eagle, which is kinda like a 44 Magnum Magnum.  Umm... wear hearing protection.  A lot of it.

I live in a semi-rural area and have been dealing with a woodchuck for most of the summer. Something seems to be wrong with my pellet gun since I don't seem to be able to hit anything with it lately. It can't be me. 

My 10/22 is staying in the cabinet, though. I'm not comfortable firing anything with that much range and velocity in my yard unless it's something truly dangerous like a coyote. I don't think my neighbors would appreciate it, either.

Javelin said:

Get a cat. They are little murder-fiends and will gladly rid you of your pest problem.

I'm pretty sure mine got into a fight with a hawk the other day...

I know what groundhogs did to my full-grown boxer dog.  A groundhog would rip a cat to shreds in a fight.

[edit]  She won, both times, but it was not an easy fight and not without injury on her part.  One of 'em bit a triangular flap right through her tongue.  That had to hurt.

My dog killed two of them. I haven't seen any others since. 

Farmers hate ground hogs,  they dig holes and livestock could step in it and break a leg , needing to be put down.

They would freely give permission to eliminate them.    22LR were the answer.    You had to be patient.

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

I'm pretty certain she'd quite freak out if I were sitting out on top of the hot tub with my .22 waiting to shoot a groundhog- not to mention that I imagine firing a gun as close as we are to two schools would NOT go over well.

Unfortunately I think there's a good chance we'll just have to end up calling the pest control company- with as much as we have going on with the cabin right now it's one more thing that we don't need to be dealing with directly and we need to get it taken care of before we start letting Marley run around unrestrained in the yard again...

In reply to Tom_Spangler :

My great grandfather used to chase them down and jump on their heads, from the stories I heard all through my youth. You could always try that, or a bigger pellet gun. My .177 break barrel won't kill a ground hog, but my CO2 powered 22 caliber pellet pistol will if I'm close enough. 

I use whatever is handy here, sometimes a 22, sometimes the 357, but I have hills on in most sides of me for a back stop, and there usually in a trap when I dispatch them. One year on sight in day we had one show up at the rifle range. A 30-06 will tear one in half at 96 yards, I'm kinda curious what Dr. Hess desert eagle would do at close enough range. 

I had one push its way into my chicken pen via a chain link gate.  I had neglected to latch it, but he had to push pretty hard to get it open.  He went in, and my chickens went out.  When I looked out the window and saw my chickens loose in the yard, I went to investigate.  There he was, checking out the pen.  I invited him to leave, which he did.  I'd shoot them, but the kids have taken to giving them names.  The very large old grey one is "Goober." I think this might have been one of Goober's offspring.

FWIW, a .22 Subsonic sounds a little like striking a flat piece of wood with a hammer.  I suspect the CB's might be even quieter.  Not likely to get anyone upset.  Just be sure of what's behind your target.

I shoot on sight and live trap them the rest of the time. Then shoot them. They leave big holes and we have two small kids and I dont want broken legs.

In reply to Dr. Hess :

Great I looked at some cool BB guns on AMZ including a Sig Sauer and a Gamo swarm.  We're not allowed to own/ship them.  Unless you can go to a Bass Pro and buy one with a DC license which I doubt. 

Groundhogs, woodchucks, we call them beasts.  Little,  make that big,  berkeleyers aren't scared of anything and don't care about humans.  Our village will lend you a live trap, then you call when you catch something and the animal control will come and take it away.  The local pet show will also lend traps so you can do it yourself which we've done in the past.  Our neighbours actually paid a company to come, set the traps which sent out a signal when they caught something, then would come and remove it.  They got six critters in a couple of weeks.  After that we didn't see any beasts (or skunks) for about six weeks, then last week there was another beast brazenly walking accross our yard to snack on our veggie garden.  

You can get suppressed .22 air rifles that'll do 1100+ fps.

If you don't want to camp out and risk shooting them in the field get a couple traps from tractor supply and dispose of the animal once you catch it inside the trap. It's a a lot cleaner that way.

I shot 6 of them last year with a .243 and it made a freaking mess. Got the big male this past spring with a .223 but I had to go out from the other side of the house and shoot across the property. The thing was that skittish.

I really want a big bore internally suppressed air rifle to deal with them and the feral cats after what happened yesterday.

oh yeah I remembered it's illegal to trap in DC without a license.  Just wish the neighbor would stop feeding the racoons but they're like pets now.

I've seen a possum too and it wasn't afraid of us either.  Groundhogs I've only seen at a suburban metro station.  Fortunately we don't have the rat problem in SE that NW definitely has like really badly so.  Matter of fact I'm not sure if I've seen a rat around these parts but that might be because of  the same neighbors 20 cats.