animals in the garden

I'm very frustrated!
I have groundhog(s) that lives under my shed. its doing damage to my garden, eating some of the plants. it's very frustrating! I've lost an entire row of pees because of it among other things. I have tried putting a chicken wire fence all around, but it just goes right under the fence. I was out there trying to dig a little trench to have the chicken wire fence sunk into the ground a couple of inches, but this is to much work! so I've come up with a new plan, I will cut up some metal coat hangers and bend them into U shapes and "stable down" the fence to the ground so that it cant simply squeeze under. but I'm sure the damn thing is just going to start digging under the fence! so I plan to trap it and set it free in the woods and keep the fencing. then get some kind of ultrasonic /light/sound thingy to scare critters away.

post your story of critters eating your garden, and how you dealt with it,

 

That is SO frustrating Adam! Groundhogs are notoriously difficult to get rid of. We'd get them in our sheep pasture when I was a kid. They can be a hazard to sheep, a sheep can break it's leg in their burrow. We had to shoot them (the groundhogs)

At our community garden, we folded the fencing in an 'L' shape, laying about a 8-12"of fencing flat on the ground. Then tacked it down with ground staples. Ground hogs (&rabbits) don't know to dig 12" away from the fence. It has worked well.

Hope this helps

 

this is a gr8 solution, I'm going to do that asap!

 

They have sensitive smell. 2 cycle gas is hated. Use its nose against itself.

 

I had a ground hog that burrowed a hole in the garden. I had read that (used) kitty litter would scare it away, so I dumped a bin full in there and it moved asap!

 

I was reading that apples are one recommended groundhog bait.

 

Adam, Live trap and removal was our solution last year. This year they wouldn't enter the trap no matter what bait we used. We used the U shaped wires and it worked. The unfenced areas just suffered until the
GHs moved away, for whatever reason. I think Squirrels have eaten every Sunflower I managed to grow.

 

i set out a trap last night, nothing so far.

 

Adam, I hesitated to click "Like". What did you use for bait? If you know the entrance to the tunnel, the trap should be placed near and in his path if possible. Even so, they are Wiley creatures.

 

lettuce and pieces of carrots, I should probably sweeten the deal. its placed close to his hole, like 2 feet away.

 

I read that apple is good bait.

 

Adam, I hope shortly to read here that your groundhog has
been transported.

 

Lets agree that this is a most practical link. They are very edible but I admit I find rodentia more akin to dark meat. Sometimes, like beaver, its in a preserved or pickled state, even smoked like beaver hams might be treated. I remember a snowmobile trip from my youth across Lake Illianmna in Alaska where we carried the smoked beaver hams. It was appropriate in our environment and tasty for our encampment dinner.

LINK

 

Very interesting, Dirtmechanic. We like to think we would never eat them, but in dire circumstances, we never know.

 

I know they would taste better than black bear. But that is not saying much.