This week I spotted the resident groundhog in the backyard. I don't want to trap him or otherwise harm him. I also don't want him eating my tomatoes, beans, and squash. I have raised beds and wonder if sprinkling human hair around will deter him. Appreciate anyone's advice/experience in dealing with these rascals.

I'm afraid that without his physical removal, he will continue to be a pest. You can try and appease him with bait plants, but he'll end up making a family there. You can introduce a predator, but that will lead to the same outcome as if you'd done the deed yourself. Hair, or other scents can deter them for a while, or taking up residency to begin with, but it doesn't work forever and if he had already made it his home, he won't leave willingly.

My suggestion is to find a friend willing to do nature's part, or live with him and enjoy his company.

I had a groundhog living under our woodpile. I was about to play wack-a-mole and stopped myself just as his head poked out. I decided to enjoy watching him each morning. And yelling at him when i found another hole

They can be a super mess if left alone and allowed to proliferate! The summer we became desperate enough to trap we got 13 groundhogs. I’m for sharing but they want it all plus can create chaos with digging holes everywhere and chewing through wood to get what they want. They chewed out the bottom part of our one garden gate. They made so many tunnels under the ground floor in the shed where I kept my VWBeetle that the whole backend collapsed into the hole when I tried to drive out of the shed. A relative had to pull me out using a heavy chain! That was when we had had enough and called in some help!

Okies, so you can export the hummingbirds but keep the groundhogs. I'm not sure they would get on with our badgers.

Can you catch them live, and transplant them at the edge of a forest (far away)?

Shule wrote: ↑Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:42 pm Can you catch them live, and transplant them at the edge of a forest (far away)?

Shule most states do not allow you to relocate groundhogs. If you are caught releasing them you get a major fine.

Get a dog. Had a dog who declared war on them and regularly brought them home to lay on the front step.

A friend caught 5 last summer in a Hav-a-Hart trap using melons as bait. Where she carted them off to I don’t know but not sure what the regs are here in PA. for moving them elsewhere.

We don't have groundhogs here, but I would venture the usual advice for tolerating/co-existing with wild animals. Grow lots of herbs especially perennials. The animals don't bother them or the amount taken is not damaging to the plants nor to your own needs. If you have a lot of space, plant some extras of your animals' favorite things in a 'less protected' space close to their dwellings, and ramp up the defenses around your personal patch. Keep your protected areas tight so if necessary you may go to extremes - like installing underground barriers which keep them from digging into your beds - while allowing easy 'habitat' foods and unbothered herbs to grow in between the Jailhouses of My Food. This worked much better for me than trying to fence the whole garden area. The animals go for what is easy and available instead. IDK if that will work but it may be worth a try if you really don't want to harm or remove the animal.

Groundhogs Texas style=Armadillos.
Some people hate them I enjoy having them around.
They eat mostly grubs that eat roots.

I hate to admit this but when I was young, I found an orphaned groundhog and raised it in my bedroom until it was too large to keep.

Ground hogs in the area will eat everything. Baby ground hogs fit everywhere. Trap and release only works for a short time until a new ground hog moves in, plus it's illegal lots of places. A dog large enough to frighten off a ground hog but not vicious enough to kill it might work. My solution is this: a wire fence (don't skimp on height; I wouldn't put it past these boogers to climb), with small hole chicken wire across the bottom 2' to keep the babies from sneaking through, and a trench fence made of the chicken wire going down 6" into the dirt to keep them from digging under the fence.

Years ago I read this suggestion and it works! I surrounded the remnants of an old chicken shed bed with 100ft of 5 ft wire but a ground hog climbed up and over. So per suggestion I used wire cutters all along to cut wires and bend them to make a sharp jagged top. Some wires stayed straight up and sharp, others I bent sideways so the would scratch anything trying to get over. Never had another critter climb over again! Use Nan’s method to protect the bottom!

I know this will work on skunks but not sure about groundhogs, try red fox urine - They sell it at sporting goods stores as a scent cover for hunting.

Good Luck

+100 what Nan6b said. The ONLY things that work are building exactly those fortifications, or removing the critters. I have a ton of fox urine, cougar urine, etc. that I tried against the groundhogs in the community garden I used to use. Utterly ineffective. I finally persuaded the people running it to trap & release (through the Township authorities) and that was much more effective. They are cute, but they are destructo maniacs, and they do climb.