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what to bait a livetrap with that a woodchuck would like better than sweet potato vines?

 
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What do you suppose they might like better than sweet potato vines that we could bait the live trap with?
carrots?
potatoes?
We don't have anything in the refrigerator that's not in the garden already except carrots and potatoes.
They are vegetarian, correct?

This is the downside to a neighborhood with no dogs...the first time in ten years there have not been a neighbor's dogs barking night and day and running loose....they kept most of the critters away from our gardens.

 
Judith Browning
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going to try a nice organic carrot...sliced maybe.
 
Judith Browning
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog

  Mostly herbivorous, groundhogs eat primarily wild grasses and other vegetation, including berries, bark, leaves, and agricultural crops, when available.[32][29] In early spring, dandelion and coltsfoot are important groundhog food items. Some additional foods include sheep sorrel, timothy-grass, buttercup, persicaria, agrimony, red and black raspberries, mulberries, buckwheat, plantain, wild lettuce, alfalfa, and all varieties of clover. Groundhogs also occasionally eat small animals, such as grubs, grasshoppers, snails, and even bird eggs and baby birds, but are not as omnivorous as many other Sciuridae.[29][35]

 
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ripe cantaloupe. they love it. their noses are very good though - it pays to make sure you don’t actually touch the trap with bare skin, since they seem to be able to pick out the smell of human skin oils.
 
pollinator
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Peanut butter was recommended to me by a pest control guy. It worked well in my experience
 
Judith Browning
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thanks both of you!

have not gone out to look this morning.
Both cats are here so we know we did not catch one of them as has occasionally happened in the past.

my cantalope was a failed crop this year but we have peanut butter!
 
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Last time I went to visit my mother I had the privilege of getting to know the local pest control guy, who was called for skunks in the yard. (I'll confess I went out there because I saw this little guy with a big beard and the biggest pistol I've ever seen strapped to his belt cruising around my mother's backyard and figured I should go investigate. Glad I did, he turned out to be a real character.)

He didn't mind me watching as he picked up the animals he caught (got possums in the traps instead of skunks, but took them too), and told me his go-to was grape jelly from wherever he could get it cheapest for pretty much every critter he trapped.

Just to be safe, if I were you I'd try that AND peanut butter!
 
Judith Browning
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Tereza, that's something I would not have thought to try!

I have a reputation for not buying stuff like that so will have to go incogneto or something to get a jar😏
 
Tereza Okava
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Judith Browning wrote:
I have a reputation for not buying stuff like that so will have to go incogneto or something to get a jar😏


You know you'll run into everyone you know at the Walmart as soon as you have it in your hand!! (I think he might have said he got it from the dollar store)
 
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If they like sweet potato vines maybe they would like sweet potatoes.

Greg mentioned ripe cantaloupe, so I thought, what kind of fruit do you have available (still on the tree)?

 
Judith Browning
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good ideas Anne!

No fruit at the moment but I bet it would like pears and probably would just climb the tree for some.

I'll have to peak at the sweet potato roots and see what size they are...and maybe peanuts are ready?
 
Anne Miller
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What about acorns?  Do you have any oak trees?
 
Judith Browning
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Anne Miller wrote:What about acorns?  Do you have any oak trees?



We do have a lot of oaks and a lot of acorns ....they might like them but can get all they want without entering the live trap so I don't think it would tempt them?

That reminds me that I was going to collect some for us if they're not too wormy!
 
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If my backyard is any indication of the preferences of the general population of groundhogs, it would indicate that groundhogs enjoy their apples. Year after year, they flock to a couple of older apple trees that drop apples into the yard.

Maybe there are a few publicly/wild located apple trees you could peruse?
 
Judith Browning
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I wish there were apples near by but none that I know of and ours have not survived for various reasons.

With that many ground hogs do they bother your gardens also?
 
Timothy Norton
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I have two gardens, one is fenced and the other is unfenced.

With a little preplanning, I grow especially delicious (to a groundhog) things in the fenced in area while my bigger crops grow in the unfenced area. I generally grow large quantities in the unfenced area so even with wildlife damage, I get good yields.

Surprisingly enough, I have had less animal pressure this year while growing MORE. Not sure what is happening there.
 
Judith Browning
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Timothy, your apples must keep them satisfied because the can easily climb fences...and dig if necessary!
 
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they absolutely cannot resist cantaloupe/ musk melon rind. I relocated 4 monsters so far this summer
 
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Dry catfood.  We have a box in the basement that must be 10 years old.  No woodchucks in this part of Maine but it worked very well back in NY.  Just trapped a racoon.  Works with skunks, porcupines and oppossums.
 
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Back when I worked as an animal control officer in Wisconsin we used canned catfood. No need to use the whole can. Live traps that are boxes are safer to use than the wire Have-a Heart style - if you catch a skunk instead of the woodchuck they won't spray in the trap (you'll have to peek inside to see what you trapped - any domestic cats should be released). A tarp over a wire trap can help in this regard. A covered trap helps to keep the animal calm while you relocate it.
 
pollinator
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First suggested by a pest control guy, but we have tried and can attest that they love them.   Oatmeal cream pies!!!  They don't even have to be unwrapped and they will go for it.   Unfortunately,  our live trap was not up to snuff and they escaped...multiple times.  We gave up and put chicken runs around my veggies which has been fairly effective, unless I forget to close the door...
 
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My  question is why do you want to live trap a woodchuck?  If you see one there's more. I read somewhere that an empty woodchuck den is repopulated in 10 days or less in areas with a healthy population.  I shoot and bury them in the burrow to keep others out. Anything you eat, they'll eat, a descending order of preference of course but they don't go hungry.
 
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I had a resident groundhogs with a tunnel that ran adjacent to my house foundation. Multigenerational, over 50 years. What made them finally leave was excavation work nearby. Anyway, I had a young peach tree with one peach on it and I caught the groundhog trying to climb the little tree to reach it in the muffle of the day. So, I’d say peaches attract them.
 
Judith Browning
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thanks for all the ideas folks.

We did try peanut butter with no luck.
cat food would definitely catch wandering cats in this neighborhood and I know we have skunks that would like it so not trying that....

I think we'll pick up some fruit, maybe a melon and give that a try.
 
Judith Browning
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Scott Leonard wrote:My  question is why do you want to live trap a woodchuck?  If you see one there's more. I read somewhere that an empty woodchuck den is repopulated in 10 days or less in areas with a healthy population.  I shoot and bury them in the burrow to keep others out. Anything you eat, they'll eat, a descending order of preference of course but they don't go hungry.



Scott, In the past, before we moved to town, your suggestion might have been the solution although we had a dog then (and no gun) who kept most critters chased off.
Although she killed a wood chuck for me once...a little beagle mutt who got dumped on our dead end road....best dog ever.  She even learned the difference between copperheads and other snakes...she would 'surround' a copperhead and had a special bark just for them until one of us checked on her.

In town now, no dog, still no gun....live trap is our choice at the moment.
 
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Another option to baiting: set the trap in a known pathway, for us it's under the fence from the neighbor's abandoned and overrun backyard. Leave the trap for a week without being set to catch but simply open on both ends., so the groundhog gets used to it being there. Then, set it to spring shut after a week or so. Works very well if you have the time to give it. We've caught groundhogs, raccoons, possums, even our pet cat fell for it once. Only once. My husband thought it was funny, she did not. But she knows better now.
 
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I baited a hav-a-hart with canned sardine to catch a feral cat that I suspected of getting my ducks. Weeks go by, no cat, the sardine starts smelling strong, then I catch a woodchuck. I have previously (intentionally) caught woodchucks with apple.
 
pollinator
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Saluti tutti frutti

Can t help it, just have to add my tuppence worth.
The list of what the critters eat sounds like the words for a pilot s alphabet,
a is for apple, b is for beet  or banana, c is for carrot, sliced as suggested......z  is for zucchini
 
I admit to having chuckled at the exchanges, then I looked up ground hog as not sure of its morphology and they are cute.
Apparently they do appear in France but in higher altitude thank God, in the serious mountains.

My neighbours used to tease me about having the best nourished rivals in the garden, big garden.
Today, they just get on with it, I talk with or at or to them to leave me some.

Thank you for the suggestions and yes big men with serious tools.
When I lived in town doing serious academic work, my cat thought it wise to offer distraction by bringing in sewer rats through the cat flap.
Great.
Pest control arrived, a seriously charming chap, with a very big holdall.
Do you need help shifting the book shelves?
No he said, I ll  just be a moment if you don t mind waiting outside. He took out his baseball bat .
There were some squeaks, job done.

Would that he were here to assist with the creative creatures but I have an aversion to obliteration.
I appreciate you all for catching and moving your visitors, not residents.

Grape juice production before the birds snack it all up
Thank you and blessings
MH
 
Judith Browning
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thanks everyone!
We tried and even bought a delicious cantaloupe just for the trap.
No luck...and there is a neighborhood skunk that we really don't want to deal with in a live trap.

We have caged some plants and the vines recovered quickly within the cages...other places I'm dusting with wood ash...it's working although I'm sure there's a limit to how much the plants can take?
IMG_20260910_065449_153-2.jpg
caged purple sweet potatoes
caged purple sweet potatoes
 
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