How To Set Groundhog Trap

i Choose a Groundhog Trap

The almost important criteria when choosing a live groundhog trap is size: select one that is 32-42 inches in length. This gives your groundhog enough room to fully enter the trap. Cull from either 1 or 2-door models:

1-Door	easier for larger animals to fully enter trap favored by professionals; improve allurement protection
2-Door	dual entry provides college catch rate power to encounter through trap calms cautious animals may be set up with either i or 2 doors open

Shop Traps »

2 Determine Trap Placement

• Identify any groundhog burrows on your holding. A groundhog rarely strays far from its dwelling, so the best place to set your trap is five-10 feet from the entrance.
• If you aren't able to locate a burrow, place the trap in an area where your groundhog frequents or where you've seen the nigh groundhog impairment.
• Place your trap on an even, level surface to ensure stability.

3 Cover-up Your Trap

Groundhogs are wary creatures and may be reluctant to enter an unnaturally shiny cage trap. Camouflage your trap to make it more inviting by using natural cover elements like:

• twigs
• brush
• branches
• leaves
• clay
• grass

TIP: Spray your trap with water and roll it in clay or mud before placement to give it a conditioned look. Keep whatsoever camouflaging elements out from underneath the trigger plate to ensure proper trap part.

iv Add together Bait

• Cantaloupe is a groundhog favorite. Another nifty allurement would be anything your groundhog regularly steals from your garden.
• It is crucial that y'all properly position your allurement. Place it in a way that forces the groundhog to fully enter the trap - see diagram to the right.
• Groundhogs are skittish, but ane should exist confident when inbound your trap. Familiarize your groundhog with the trap past tying it open up and leaving bait inside for a few days before yous set it.

For more bait options and practiced tips, read How To: Groundhog Baits »

5 Set Your Trap

Set up the door or doors open up by following your trap's unique setting instructions.

In one case your trap is set, examination the trigger and close machinery by applying force per unit area to the trigger plate.

TIP: Prepare your trap perfectly every time with Easy Fix® engineering science.

6 Monitor Your Trap

A groundhog may speedily become anxious one time it'southward trapped within the muzzle. It is important to check your trap regularly to forestall it from trying to escape and injuring itself. It can take a few minutes or a couple of days to grab a groundhog, but you lot should never go out one trapped for a long period of time.

vii You lot've Defenseless a Groundhog!

• Wear heavy gloves when treatment the trap, and hold it away from your trunk.
• Cover the cage with a cloth or tarp to keep the groundhog calm.
• pulling weeds
• If relocating your groundhog, exercise so at least 5 miles away from your holding. Cull an surface area that provides encompass so that your groundhog will not desire to travel far to make a new home.
• Though groundhogs are not by and large ambitious, one might attack if it feels threatened. For your safety, stand dorsum from the groundhog every bit it exits the trap.

eight Remove Groundhog Attractants

After removing the groundhog, keep information technology away by reducing attractants like food and shelter. Havahart^® suggests:

• harvesting crops like beans, peas and melons as early as possible
• trimming back plants that groundhogs may eat or apply for encompass
• removing piles of debris, rocks and/or forest
• filling abased burrows with gravel, or covering them with wire mesh or fencing

Expert Tips

• Get to know the laws in your area before trapping and relocating a groundhog.
• Groundhogs are diurnal creatures and about agile during the morning and late afternoon. Undo a set trap during evening hours to preclude catching an unwanted critter.
• Groundhogs avoid humans and will avert a trap if it carries human aroma. Clean your trap each time before you utilize it, and ever article of clothing gloves when y'all handle the trap - fifty-fifty when it's empty.
• Ballast your trap by placing a brick on top of information technology so that it doesn't rattle and startle the groundhog when it enters.
• Lead your groundhog into the trap past placing logs in a "V" or funnel shape exterior of the entrance.
• Subsequently using a live trap to remove your groundhog, keep it out with Safer® Brand Critter Ridder® Animal Repellent Granulars.

Related Articles:

• Groundhog Baits »
• How to Repel Groundhogs »
• How to Get Rid of Groundhogs »

Source: https://www.havahart.com/how-to-trap-groundhogs

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