Groundhogs are a relative to squirrels, typically weighing 4-14 pounds with long, coarse, grayish-brown coats. ![]() Sometimes referred to as woodchucks or marmots, groundhogs are a type of rodent that causes massive damage to your garden and lawn. While I do prefer groundhogs over raccoons because they won’t kill my chickens, losing your entire garden is heartbreaking. This year, my in-laws didn’t have a plan, and the local groundhogs ate all of their green beans, tomatoes, and zucchini. ![]() So maybe don't keep them near your face.ĮDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published in May 2019.Groundhogs are no joke when they find your garden, you can kiss your harvest goodbye unless you have a solid plan to protect yourself from them. Even worse, groundhogs have been known to carry rabies, which can make them even more aggressive and dangerous. But even then, when her coworkers came to help her, the groundhog forced them to retreat back inside. For example, in 2018, a groundhog chased a woman in the parking lot of her office building. Worst comes to worst, you definitely don't want to try and handle them on your own since some groundhogs can be pretty aggressive animals. And removing a groundhog from your property? Getting a wildlife control professional to help could cost about $400 per groundhog! And just about the only way to keep them out is an electric fence, which can cost between $100 and $350 depending on the size of your yard. For example, during floods, they've been known to climb chain-link fences to escape rising water. Yeah, that's right, groundhogs can climb too. So that pretty little garden or that freshly mowed lawn, that is a free-for-all for groundhogs.Īnd a fence won't keep them out either because they could just burrow underneath it or climb over. Groundhogs like grassy open areas because they don't have big obstacles like tree roots and giant rocks. But even if you don't have a lot of land, your home could still be a target. In one case, it's been said they dug up bones in a cemetery. Their burrows can harm crops, weaken foundations of buildings, and damage farm equipment that may fall in. Their tunnels can be anywhere from half a meter deep to 1 1/2 meters deep, and they can be up to 18 meters long. But before they can do that, they have to dig, and dig, and dig, and dig, and dig, and dig. They live, breed, and hibernate underground. One groundhog reportedly chewed the wires inside of a car in Nebraska, costing $1,800 in damage repairs.īut they don't just wreak havoc aboveground. Similar to beavers, groundhogs have rapidly growing incisors, which they keep from growing too long by chewing and gnawing on just about anything they can get their teeth on, including cables, hoses, and other rubbery materials. That's about one groundhog for every 45 humans.Īnd wherever they are, they make their presence known. In Arkansas, for example, there's an estimated 67,000. You can find groundhogs all over the central and eastern US. They're actually the largest species in the squirrel family, and they are equally ubiquitous. They might be called ground.hogs, but they're not related to hogs at all. ![]() Narrator: Imagine finding this at your front door.
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