Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints groundhog under my deck and basement steps

I finally got to see a groundhog under my above ground basement steps (coming out the top) and I am seeing a big hole under my deck. I think this is two different groundhogs. I want these darn things gone. I have a big hold going down below my stairs. Unfortunately I live in the suburban and cannot shoot anything. What are some ways to eliminate this varmint?? Will air rifle do this if its shot like 10 yards away? May have to buy a bow to do the deed but I do not bow hunt. My son has wanted a bow or cross bow but he will have to become proficient quickly. My wife read where you can catch one in a cage with a slice of cantaloupe but he I like cantalopes too! BTW my son said it looks well fed and fat so I guess its eating well on my expense! Any ideas?

Buy yourself a bag with individually wrapped pieces of bubble gum. Put on clean disposable rubber gloves. Open the bag of bubble gum and remove the wrapper from 6-8 pieces of gum and throw them in and around the hole(s). Then dump 10-15 pieces of wrapped buble gum in and around the holes. The groundhogs will eat the gum. It plugs up their intestines and they will die. They may stink for a bit when they die in their holes. Cover the holes for a while to stop the smell for a couple weeks.

Bow or air gun. Poison or torturing the things is not necessary

They like it under my back deck. I've trapped from one to four a year until this year. (None showed up this year) I'm in a suburban area so no guns, didn't want to risk an air rifle wounded chuck from dying under the deck, so went to live traps. And yes, cantaloupe is the best bait.

Get a decent quality trap. My first live trap was a cheap version from tractor supply. An adult groundhog was able to get its claws around the edge of the door and bend it enough to get out. Went to havahart traps after that. The groundhogs get a one way trip to the country afterwards, sometimes with a .22 pistol along so they don't become someone else's problem (sometimes a .380!)

And don't leave the traps set overnight if there are any skunks in the neighborhood!

Not in to torture either. I never use poison, it does not discriminate. Sometimes, there is no other way.

I find them tasty, fried up like squirrel.

If you have a .22 rifle that will shoot longs try some CCI CB Longs. They are silent out of my Marlin 39. Nobody will hear it, just watch your backstop.

LMFAO.

One word, carbon monoxide.

A good live trap is the way to go.

Your local Animal Control Agent will set a box-trap with bait in it, and will remove the critter to a release area in the country.

Jim

By the way, don't get caught trapping and moving one in Virginia by yourself - it's illegal to relocate them. You can kill them, but you're supposed to hire a permitted pest controller to relocate them. Go figure. So I take a gun and the woodchuck out somewhere I can shoot.

That's funny. Where I live it takes 45 minutes to get a response from law enforcement, it you get one at all. The usual response is: we can't get to you, shelter in place. There's missouri, and then there's MISSOURI.

Decon or other mouse poison is easy and gets rid of other rodents too!

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Check out Golden Malrin flybait/soda. But it is illegal to use in this way and extremely deadly.
You will find anything that drinks it within a couple feet. Again it will kill anything that gets into it.

Amish guy near us used that flybait stuff to get rid of a coon that was tearing things up. Found 18 coons dead laying in his yard the next morning lol

yes, they die right there. A co worker got rid of a bunch of chicken killing coons.
Last week, something was starting trouble again. He set out a pan of medicine,
come morning it was all gone. No victims. No idea what could drink that, and leave.

Actually, it's two. Must be some of that new common core math 🤔

That's why I rarely use poison or traps, and suggested the bubblegum. AFAIK, it doesn't kill other stuff. Your co-worker has no idea of what he killed. Like I said, the bullet is the best, but not always possible.

CB caps out of a 22 LR bolt gun will be less loud than a BB gun. Groundhogs are crepuscular. They feed at dawn and dusk. They also have lousy eyesight. Put on your turkey hunting duds and go sit in the yard, at sunrise and sunset and hunt the booger. I kept my yard clean of chipmunks for years that way.