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this is my first time with a veggie garden, and I've been told numerous times to get my lettuce in early, so I did. I have 8 plants in and they have been doing quite well until I went out one day and noticed I only had 7 plants and a stub of what was once a lettuce plant. After looking into it I realized it was definitely the work of one of the many groundhogs that live on my property. In the past I've tried trapping them and they are seemingly endless. I'd estimate I have at least 20 or 30 living on my 8 acres. I don't have a gun nor would I like to shoot them, and like I said the trapping doesn't seem to work. I apologize if theres already a post about this but what do you think of one of those motion activates sprinklers? a little pricy but if it's going to keep out the groundhogs it might be worth it in the long run so I can enjoy my lettuce.
Oh and by the way, I'm tom and live in NJ, hoping to yield a pretty good tomato crop this year long as I can find a fix for these darn groundhogs!... and this one of the groundhogs I trapped and relocated last year vv
Hey Tom! Welcome to our forum!
I'd suggest that you enclose your veggie garden with fencing to help keep the ground hogs out!
You will need the bury the fece a good foot underground because the hogs will burrow under the fence if they are determined to get into the garden!
Thanks a lot for the reply, I've been considering a deep fence for a while but just can't seem to find the time to put in to do it. I have a large area probably close to an acre that I plan on planting this year so It's going to take a while, I guess time and commitment comes along with having a big garden. Im over the motion sprinklers idea, I think they'll be a pain and I'd probably need to buy 5 or 6 of them and just don't feel like shelling out the cash. the only other thing I've seen on the market for this other than traps and fence, is one of those Aircro's I don't know if im allowed to post links here but it seems like an interesting Idea, wondering if anyone here ever had any success with one?
Thanks again! and it's good to be a member here, I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road a little ways
The Aircro looks interesting but pricey!
Here's something someone posted years ago about backing his pickup to the gopher hole and ran a flexible pipe to the exhaust system and the hole. He filled around the hole to prevent the exhaust gas from escaping from the tunnel!
You might have to run the motor for a good half hour for the gas to permeate the tunnels
The gophers usually have more then one exist hole so you will need to do this to all the holes!
Hopefully this method will be to your liking!
Hi Tom,
Welcome to Gardenforums.com
Oh I feel your pain. Here it is armadillos!I have trapped them and it seems like 5 more come and replace them! I relocate, like you I don't want to kill them , at least not when I am not furious over the damage. I finally had to fence it in. Although mine is much smaller than yours. I like the metal post with the hooks on them, you just unroll the fence and hang it on the post. We recently acquired a lot of round wooden fence post so I used some when we expanded the garden. Too much labor , I would rather be in the garden I use a 1" mesh wire called Chicken netting, much easier to deal with than chicken wire. I turn just enough under that they can't figure out how to get under it. Been working pretty good. Cheap too!
First off the carbon monoxide choke out method is definitely an interesting one... Don't know if I have the stomach for it though. On the same hand however i get what crabbergirls saying, as ugly as these groundhogs are I don't want to kill them... until they eat my lettuce, then for a few moments, I would like to kill them but i usually cool down and realize they're only eating to survive and if I were a groundhog I'd be doing the same thing. Anyway, I guess I'll have to take the fence route and tough it out for a day or so and hopefully not miss any spots. Thanks alot for all the input I really appreciate it. and I agree those metal posts are definitely the easiest, easy to drive in the ground, and easy to hook fence on, maybe it won't be so bad. I'll post back monday and let you guys know how it goes.
well it's tuesday, and a couple of weeks past when i said I'd post back but i didn't want to make a fool of myself. After giving up on fencing in my whole garden, I decided to put 270 bucks on the table and get an aircro, i figured if it works like it says it works i shouldn't have to worry every again. Now i wouldn't go as far as to say that just yet but it's been oh.. 3 weeks or so and i still have all my lettuce, untouched, and i've since planted tomatoes and cucumbers and they're both doing wonderfully and remain untouched by natures critters. I figured out the details and to run the aircro for me it costs around 36 cents a day so i can deal with that. so far i gotta give this neat little invention an A+ now i know these things have been around for a while but i looked into buying other generic air puppets or whatever they call em and the cheapest one i could find was 230 or something and i figured I'd be getting the lowest quality i could find, with none of the advantages that the aircro has like the reflective fabric so i just went with it. I usually don't shell out this kinda money, especially considering i don't know if my veggies will be a bust this year, but so far it seems like money well spent, hopefully an investment that will last for a while, the fabric seems thick and durable and the fan and motor look to be strong and of good quality. here's some pics, anyone else try it yet?
P.S. weathers been pretty crappy and against the manual i've been leaving it out in the rain (still working just fine) so it's gotten a little dirty.
Hi Tommy,
Thanks for posting the update. For some reason I can't see your pictures but I will go google the aircro so I can see it. Yes, fence is a pain, I am having issues with access , I only left 2 openings( gates) and I now must drag stuff through the plants from one side to the other. I will redesign come this fall when there are not as many plants growing. My idea was to leave a nice + in the middle of the garden for access but I got very zealous and planted like a crazy woman and covered my +. I am having issues with squirrels as they can climb the fence. Hope to get a chance to see your pictures. Have a great garden day!
sorry about the pictures let's try this again. It's unfortunate how it's so hard to achieve something that's so simple to conceive. That brings up another good point, while squirrels haven't been an issue for me thus far, I haven't seen any near my garden since this has been up.
Good Picture too! That's pretty intimidating for sure. Not sure I am ready to go that route, but I have a neighbor who would. I just stopped and talked with him this morning and the raccoons did a number on his corn last night. He has 6' fence around his garden and they went right over and in to the corn I felt so bad for him, he was throwing the cobs out of the garden. It was really sad.
Trust me Randy theres been a few times where i almost fell down cause it snuck up on my and next thing you know it's upside down hovering in front of my face, but hey it was good for a laugh. and yeah it's a shame, Corn can be so rewarding if it's untouched by animals and insects but unfortunately i guess it doesn't always work out well. Raccoons can be tough, mostly they just tear apart my garbage so I came up with the idea to put a trap in one of the cans facing upward so when it climbed down it set it off and it worked wonders, I successfully relocated about a dozen of these pesky little creatures. Oh and that reminds me I got a pamphlet with my aircro saying they were coming out with an 8' one this summer or something, I wonder if that would be better for some people with lower trees or smaller gardens, not to mention the price would surely be more appealing. this 20 foot one seems to be doing the trick for me in the mean time
My son-in-law leaves for work very early in the mornings. I bet something like that would give him a fright getting to his car in a half-stupor. I bought some crow decoys about 40 years ago and I still have them. One time I put one of those black decoys on his outside mirror on the driver's side and it got the desired reaction. Then it showed up somewhere where I would run across it, so I put it someplace else where he would. I have an owl that hoots when it senses body heat and I have to figure a place to hang that so it will hoot at him some dark morning. David is a baker at CostCo so he often leaves for work about 4:00 in the morning.
He goes to bed early since he has to get up so early. That would give me some time in the evening to set it up. It's pretty dark on that side of the house too especially in the winter months.
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I use a 1" mesh wire called Chicken netting, much easier to deal with than chicken wire. I turn just enough under that they can't figure out how to get under it. Been working pretty good. Cheap too!
