I'm still at war with the groundhogs

[Fjold]

Got this young, very dark, groundhog about 15 minutes ago. It was 100 yards from the basement door with the 22.250AI. I had to move him to take the picture as the it looked like a red firehose pattern in the grass where I shot him.

[AirCav]

For their size they are heavy critters and pretty solid as well ....... I have one that frequents my front yard in a direction / angle that i really don't want to shoot, pretty populated road in background... I have harvested a few in other directions...... One day i am about 250ft from the house holy hell breaks out with my 2 Dobermans close to house my G/F hollers I think they got something, I could tell by their audibles that they did, They had one treed i shot it with my .22 ... Another time hell broke loose in the woods next to my pole barn i couldnt see what they were after and couldn't get to it due to brush finally the noise subsided and one of my dogs came walking up to me with a groundhog in her mouth...... The indoor pic is my crack security team off duty LOL

[Fjold]

I have too many critters in my yard (70 acres) to let the dogs run loose. They're city dogs and don't know how to handle a coyote, a big boar coon or groundhog, possums, minks, otters, skunks, bobcats, etc. About the only animals that we don't have here are bears, wolves, lions and pigs. Actually, there was one bear spotted in our county in the last 10 years, and it was on my property.

[hermosabeach]

Can you collapse their tunnels?

[AirCav]

My dogs circle a snake and the bark has a distinct rhythm and depth to it then i grab up the rake while its coiled .... They love to deer hunt / chase they get close sometimes this particular deer was sick and died that night..... Squirrels are always a treat missing legs or not ........ about 5 am the brown dog was barking hard at the door that had trash cans a few feet away , it was a opossum she bagged it right off the porch, .... I am only on 10 acres but border miles of uninhabited property except the front has a busy road about 300 feet away ... Bear sightings in the area, I saw the back end of a large cat grey color the tail came out of the body straight down then along ground crossing my driveway disappearing into the brush

[Fjold]

Can you collapse their tunnels?

They always have another exit hidden under rocks or in thick brush. I filled in one hole in 2023 and it took 1 1/2 pickup bed loads of dirt and a couple of rainstorms to fill it.

[hermosabeach]

When it's not too dry, you can fill the tunnel with propane and use a spark to set it off.

small boom and most of the tunnels collapses they sell a kit but 2 alligator clips on steel wool and a 12v battery work.

the 12v makes the steel wool burn and that detonates the propane.


had problems decades ago with ground squirrels eating fruit tree roots.

kill them and others use their old burrows

so flatten out the tunnels when you don't have fire danger.