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The Terrorist Groundhog is Back!

OH NO! HE'S BACK! Every year, my husband, Tommy, and I battle the groundhog in our garden. This year, we were starting to think maybe we got lucky because we saw no sign of him -- up until mid-July. (Usually, he starts ravaging our garden in late May.) He loves to eat our phlox, coneflowers, bellflowers, marigolds, rudbeckias, pole beans, cucumbers and lots of other things. Fences do not stop him -- he easily digs his way under them or climbs over them.

When he first started chowing down on the plants in our backyard, we didn't know what was causing the damage because it would happen during the day while we were at work. Then, we bought a wildlife (motion sensor) camera. We focused it on the plants being eaten and discovered who the culprit was.

Khadafi, as we "affectionately" named him, has an especially ravenous appetite for pole beans. Since there is nothing I like more than fresh, homegrown pole beans and because I was getting very upset to find them chewed to the ground, two years ago, Tommy built a fully enclosed 10 foot tall cage around them, complete with a door that swings open.

We really enjoyed viewing the pictures from the wildlife camera when we saw that Khadafi was thwarted by the cage! After that, we made it a habit to set up the wildlife camera anywhere we saw damage in the garden. While we have not been happy about the damage he was causing to the garden, at least we could confirm who was doing it and, at times, actually be amused by the pictures.

Here is another picture of him trying to get at the pole beans after Tommy built a more sturdy cage around them. Thwarted again! YAHOO!

After the sturdy cage for the pole beans was built and he realized he couldn't get at them any more, Khadafi started chomping on our cucumber vines. So, of course, we set up the wildlife camera to catch him in action.

Here is a picture of him eating the cucumbers. Check out that fat belly he has from eating all of our stuff!

Here is a funny picture we got of him when we first set up the camera and he apparently went close to it to check it out.

A few years ago, we noticed a lot of damage on our delphiniums in late spring, so we set up the camera on them. The next day, we found the delphiniums were totally decimated. And on the camera, we found these pictures of him going to town on them.

...........................................And here is Khadafi taunting us by showing us how easily he can climb over the gate around the vegetable beds.

Here are a some pictures from a few years ago when Khadafi used to eat the flowers in the planters on our lower deck, just under the kitchen window.

Tags: groundhog, pest

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Contributing Gardener Comment by Clare Oliva on August 21, 2011 at 2:33pm: Margaret, I'm right there with you. As "cute" as groundhogs may be in pictures or when you see them on the side of the parkway, they are definitely NOT cute when they live in or are visiting my garden. Our groundhog came back this spring, so we tried something new. We poured a 97 cent bottle of ammonia into the entrance of his burrow and then filled in the entrance with dirt and packed it down. I think that might have done the job because we haven't seen him all summer!

Comment by margaret woodford on August 21, 2011 at 12:45pm: okay....don't hate me....i think i'd get the "gun" if that was my garden and this brazen fellow came that close.....i have datura here aslo..maybe i'll try that idea....where on earth did you come up with this idea...it's great...maybe the groundhog ate the datura and went into a psychedelic coma!...i know you're thinking i'm soo mean, but i can't stand these little creatures...seeing them on the parkway, i think, "ohhh, how cute"..in my garden...now that's declaring war!

Contributing Gardener Comment by Clare Oliva on September 27, 2010 at 7:20am: We've been successful in getting the groundhog to abandon his burrow between our house and our next door neighbor. For the past two years in the summer time, we collect the seedballs from datura plants and throw them into the opening of his burrow. All parts of datura plants, including (especially) the seeds are poisonous. I think our throwing the seedballs in there forced him to find another home on someone else's property!

Comment by Lydia on September 26, 2010 at 8:57pm: Hi Lindsay! Somehow I never was notified of your note, sorry and just saw your comment. I cannot thank you enough for sharing your fabulous picture of this menacing groundhog. I appreciate your suggestion of using dried corn and vanilla soaked towels. Thank you. I know groundhogs can be aggresive as I did not see one when I was picking berries and he growled at me and it was the most frightening sound I ever heard. I got out of there in a heartbeat. I gues they can attack. I sprayed deer off on the rocks where they sun and sit and it has kept them away - for a while. My neighbor put ashes from a campfire down the hole and covered it up with dirt. It kept them away so far. Who would have thought?? Pleased to meet you and Clare -and appreciate the great advise and Clare's funny story.

Contributing Gardener Comment by Clare Oliva on September 21, 2010 at 7:16am: Wow, what a picture, Lindsay! This one looks MEAN! (or maybe he's just aggravated). Amazing that this one is the EIGHTH one you've captured. They must breed like rabbits! Very interesting regarding the vanilla extract!

Comment by Lindsay Wegert Zone 7a VA on September 21, 2010 at 1:24am: Hi Lydia!
I greatly sympathize with you over your problem. I just captured my eighth groundhog. I have two large dogs in our fenced yard and they still feel "welcome"!! One was a just finshed lactationg mom and one cub left in the litter I was priveledged to relocate. My Have-a-hart trap has paid for itself. The best bait is a dried corn cob and a paper towel saturated with vanilla extract. They cannot resist that vanilla! They can be aggressive. Found one trying to get through the sliding glass door to attack my dog. When I went to release him, I found him circling around behind me as I gathered up the cage. I think I made him angry from taking him so far away!

Contributing Gardener Comment by Clare Oliva on September 3, 2010 at 8:56am: Lydia, it sounds like you have a much bigger groundhog problem than I do! Funny thing is that our groundhog does not touch the tomatoes (although the chipmunks eat the ones that hang low on the plants). I guess that's because he is so obsessed with the pole beans and other good "eats" in our garden. Thanks for sharing the picture -- and good luck with Rockyhog!

Comment by Lydia on September 2, 2010 at 10:44pm: I can really appreciate this and it gave me a good laugh. We have a farm behind our home and have many groundhogs. I named one groundhog, who for years would lounge on the rocks in the back of our home "Rockyhog". He stayed behind our home. We did not have any problems until this year when Rockyhog alias octomom's offspring ventured up to our garden and devoured my red tomato's, bit into every green one, and ate 1/2 of the semi- ripe ones. We did not know what happened until my husband caught him in the act. The farmer behind our home disposed of 26 in one day . Unfortunately he missed this one : ( This is an old picture of Rockyhog and his buddy - sorry the quality is not good.