Critters!

Jacie · ‎01-09-2011

Any suggestions out there to rid my yard of the woodchuck and voles that are messing up my gardens and retaining walls?

"Cats are poetry in motion. Dogs are gibberish in neutral." -Garfield

gonnab · ‎03-10-2010

I have no experience with voles, but last year, my little senior community was infested with groundhogs and skunks! They were everywhere and it wasn't safe to be outside from dusk on. Our property manager spent the summer setting traps, catching them, and then taking them to be released - (where I don't know and don't care just as long as they weren't here!!!) A slow tedious job but we don't have any such pests this summer!! Yah!!!!

Shogirl · ‎12-06-2010

Get a cat. We have one that goes outside sometimes and he seems to scare off (or kill) any critters that come into the yard. I don't like him to kill them, but sometimes you can't get rid of them any other way.

Jacie · ‎01-09-2011

@Shogirl wrote:
Get a cat. We have one that goes outside sometimes and he seems to scare off (or kill) any critters that come into the yard. I don't like him to kill them, but sometimes you can't get rid of them any other way.

LOL! I have 2 cats, but they are strictly indoor cats! I think we are currently missing the neighborhood predators, which are usually a fox and a coyote. Haven't seen them in ages. Should either move into my area again, I think we might be OK!

"Cats are poetry in motion. Dogs are gibberish in neutral." -Garfield

2blonde · ‎03-10-2010

@Shogirl wrote:
Get a cat. We have one that goes outside sometimes and he seems to scare off (or kill) any critters that come into the yard. I don't like him to kill them, but sometimes you can't get rid of them any other way.

@Shogirl Ha! I was going to ask if she wanted me to bring over my very fiesty cat, Al. He would just love chasing those critters out of the yard, but alas, he's an indoor cat, so he only get to chase the mice!

Laura loves cats!

Mom2Dogs · ‎03-09-2010

We don't have a problem with critters but we have a problem with squirrels and birds....my neighbor put up 3 feeders in her front yard....which attracted a ton of birds and squirrels to their yard....

Now I don't mind feeders, I have one in the back yard away from the house....but now I must remember NEVER to leave my garage door up. I have already had an episode with a squirrel getting into the garage and into a trash bag, which has never happened until this summer.

If I could only get this neighbor to take care of their yard....like mowing and trimming on a regular basis, and getting rid of garden waste like weeds etc....but no they just throw it behind their shed and let it build up.

RedTop · ‎09-01-2010

If you have voles, you must have grubs in your lawn for them to feed on. Get rid of the grubs and the voles will leave.

If you want the groundhog gone, you will have to be aggressive. They are aggressive and stubborn animals; you will not scare him away. If that groundhog has found shelter and a food source, it is there to stay. Groundhogs are very solid, heavy animals; they will kill cats and small dogs. You will either have to trap and relocate the animal, or kill it.

jlkz · ‎12-02-2013

GROUNDHOGS: dangerous and are considered rabid in PA. They must be put down. To release them is illegal.

Be careful: they can climb trees !

i have one, now with youngsters, living under my new neighbor's shed. The mother groundhog has probably been there for at least 3 years. I spent several hundred dollars prior to that to have my exterminator trap earlier groundhogs as they exited the nest.

The neighbor has cleared out a lot of tree trimmings back there, taken out the old inground pool, and taken down very old, spindly evergreen trees on the property line behind her inherited privacy fence. Once the trees were gone, so was the stink bug infestation.

hopefully next April I won't see the groundhog (s) !!!!

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill