I swear by my husband "marking his territory" for deer. I just found out that for groundhogs, we call them woodchucks, they cannot digest chewing gum.You just leave it near they burroughs or in it and it takes care of them. A fellow local gardener used it and did not see a woodchuck last year.No other animals are affected. I used a lot of the poison 2 years ago, down into their hole. That definitely worked. If you cannot stomach killing them then you are stuck. A tall strong fence is a must. Our is burried about 18 inches deep. That is a mere deterrent for the woodchucks.There are lots of very inexpensive nettings that you can use. But a dog and cat's presence goes a long way.
My groundhogs DO NO CLIMB! But they can dig under my fence which is 18" buried. But the fence is a great deterrent.
your groundhogs may not, but ours surely do as i've sat here and watched them do it.
i have marked my territory here in many ways using many types of urine including my own fresh in the morning after eating a lot of venison - you'd think they'd really get the hint from that? no...
i've sprayed fresh urine combined with cayenne pepper juice and habinero juice, human hair, soaps, etc. on the cedar trees to protect them. i've had the trees eaten back within 1hr of application. when deer are hungry they will eat.
the fence should be not only buried down but angled backwards out into the area so that rabbits and groundhogs will not have such an easy attempt. that seems to work the best for that aspect.
we've not had groundhogs burrow under the fences as of yet nor the rabbits because we have gravel and rocks around the bottom and they don't seem to like to dig through the crushed limestone gravel - under the gravel is a few layers of black plastic or landscape fabric to keep weeds down. at least that part seems to work right.
it was just the poor part of fence selection that made it possible for the rabbits and groundhogs to climb through. you want at least a 2inchx6inch mesh to keep the adults out. youngsters can squeeze through.
i have shot groundhogs with the air rifle. i hate doing it, but they have dug a burrow in the large drainage ditch edge that is a real mess. last year i think i finally killed all of that family off, but i'm sure others will come along eventually.
to secure that area against further digging i ended up pounding a lot of metal stakes in there and then putting down thorn bush branches and then rocks. they tried several times after that to reopen the den, but i kept after burying it back up and also shooting any that came into the yard. they are by far the most voracious of the small animals when it comes down to eating greens. they really can mow a garden down. the only trait about them that i like is that they don't eat the entire plant down to the ground like rabbits can do so you might get regrowth from nibbled on beans.
at the moment we have a lot of rabbit tracks in the snow so i'm sure i'll be discouraging some of them this coming spring.
