How to Get Rid of Groundhogs Living in Your Yard

These pesky critters have lived in our yard for over 2 years and are driving me “nuts”! They planted their furry asses under our outdoor kitchen and refuse to vacate!

Or maybe I should call this post “how to keep groundhogs living in your yard” – because it has been a crazy 2 year process of trying to get rid of these damn critters!

When we moved into our house and I first noticed them in the yard, I wasn’t bothered too much and thought they were kinda cute. They would come out to feed in the yard during the day and go into their hole to sleep at night. They would hibernate during the Winter months and reappear in Spring. But I wasn’t aware of their destructive behavior.

At first, I just noticed one groundhog, but then noticed there were two of them in the yard…at this point I became more concerned. My son noticed them playing “tag” one day. We watched them run around the yard chasing each other. After witnessing a violent rape..I knew I had to do something or end up with dozens of babies in our yard.

I didn’t want to harm them…just wanted to relocate them out of my yard. I did some research and ordered a trap HERE.

I set the trap up with one of their favorite fruits, bananas.

The trap sat in our yard for months! I moved the trap around the yard several times trying to determine the best location. I would even change the food and try different fruits…but the trap did not work for us, those damn groundhogs would not go near it! These critters are crazy smart!! I couldn’t believe it.

The trap was successful though in trapping a bunny. Several people I know have caught numerous groundhogs using this trap..not sure why it did not work for us.

The Winter passed, they went into hibernation and I forgot about them until Spring when they reappeared.

The space dug by the groundhogs is huge and goes under our patio, near a large retaining wall and gas line.

I suspect the area dug by the groundhogs goes far back under the patio.

Next method, we poured a bottle of ammonia in and around the space and waited for the groundhogs to vacate.

No luck, the ammonia did not deter them. Next, we filled the space with dirt.

Packing it down as well as we could.

And poured another bottle of ammonia on the soil along the length of the island.

3 hours later..look who’s back!

Alright, now we are going to create an obstacle course for these bastards so they will be forced to go inside the cage! We blocked off the entrance with lawn chairs and placed the cage in front of the hole with lots of cantaloupe nearby.

EPIC fail! I talked to my landscaping company and he told me they used cantaloupe skin to trap 7 groundhogs. We created a trail up to the cage, but it didn’t work for us. Another fail! I can’t believe our luck!!!

Next, we removed the chairs from the entrance and placed the cage in front of the hole. Next day, a brand new hole was dug to the left of the cage. Another EPIC fail.

Last resort..fill the hole with concrete! Let’s see these critters try to dig through cement!!

So it’s been 3 weeks since we filled this hole with cement and it seems that the groundhogs have found another home. I still see them come into our yard to eat, but it doesn’t appear they sleep here anymore.

My preference would be to catch them in the cage and relocate them permanently miles away from our house…but for now I’m just happy they don’t live under our island anymore 🙂

Have you ever had groundhogs in your yard? Any suggestion of how to get rid of them?

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