From: pintiha@jhmi.edu   
      
   On Saturday, June 22, 2019 at 9:31:43 AM UTC-4, songbird wrote:   
   > Pavel314 wrote:   
   > ...   
   > > We've had a problem recently with a woodchuck (ground hog) eating my   
   wife's hot pepper plants and the hostas she planted around the oak out front.   
   I bought a gopher bomb and threw it down the burrow this afternoon. We'll see   
   if it works. I have some    
   fox urine spray to put out there tomorrow; I bought it to put around the traps   
   when I had coyote problems last year. Didn't work.   
   >    
   >   hostas are edible so any herbivore will enjoy them.   
   > groundhogs only eat the tender tops off most plants    
   > here.  i can tolerate their damage as usually the plant   
   > can survive and still produce something.   
   >    
   >   the smoke bomb may have got them out of the burrow   
   > but if you don't plug the hole up well they'll be back.     
   > i have a persistent problem with them because of the    
   > many large ditches here.  in order to keep them from    
   > redigging their burrow out i had to pound metal and    
   > wood stakes in the ground after i filled the burrow    
   > back in.  this would take them long enough to try to    
   > dig back out that i finally could hunt the adults so    
   > they were removed ( :( ).  that does not mean a new    
   > family won't try to move in.   
   >    
   >   to keep the new ones from making new burrows i would   
   > have to fence the entire edge of the ditch, which is    
   > not easy to do with my legs the past year so i keep the   
   > air rifle handy and have kept them on the run any time   
   > they show up in the yard on this side of the fence.  if   
   > you can get rid of the young ones (they're not too    
   > smart when young) when they show up you can keep them   
   > mostly in check.   
   >    
   >   in a live trap for bait the black oil sunflower seeds   
   > work pretty well.  i close up the trap near dusk because   
   > otherwise i'd have a new raccoon in the trap each morning.   
   > i've given up on trapping and relocating anything.  if i   
   > trap a groundhog it's dead.  i tried using the trap a few   
   > weeks ago and ended up trapping a semi-feral or feral    
   > kitty.  it was pretty healthy so i just let it go again.   
   > i haven't reset the trap.  i think the adult groundhogs   
   > are too smart, but we'll see how this season goes.   
   >    
   >    
   >   songbird   
      
   I put a second gopher bomb down the hole this morning; couldn't find any other   
   openings so maybe it's a new hole. I filled it with rocks and dirt. Also put   
   two large have-a-heart traps out by my wife's pepper plants, which have had   
   the top leaves eaten    
   off in the last few days. I'll take the .22 or 2 gauge with me when I sit out   
   in the evening.    
      
   Paul   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)