slo’s THURSDAY 2/2 poll - Groundhogs

[mrodgers]

I'm jealous y'all get cute wildlife! I get gators No groundhogs here in South Florida...

We have groundhogs everywhere. I suppose that's because we don't have gators in PA eating them

 

[lynxstch]

We had some under our shed years ago, but they disappeared. My neighbor had an entire family of them under hers 2 years ago, there were 2 adults, and a few babies. She had to call someone to remove them.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Don’t think I’ve ever seen one.

 

[Dan Murphy]

even badgers..

 

[Dan Murphy]

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/fred-la-marmotte-dead-groundhog-day-quebec

Quebec's beloved Fred la Marmotte dies on Groundhog Day​

A child attending the event was called in as an emergency replacement and predicted winter will continue.

 

[leebee]

I've definitely seen them. Not sure when the last time was, but the best was several years ago when one had five babies under our shed. They were super-cute!

View attachment 736894

This could be my backyard- we always have "a guy" living under our shed!

I'm jealous y'all get cute wildlife! I get gators No groundhogs here in South Florida...

Also no ice and snow for you! With the windchill it's supposed to feel like it's around -45 here tomorrow!

We always have "a little guy" living under our shed- either groundhog or woodchuck, as we use the term interchangably. He waddles around the yard and eats the tops off the dandelions, so our yard always looks well-groomed, hahaha! The guy also has a hiding-hole at the base of a very large bush/wood pile. I don't know if it's a separate burrow or if he tunneled from the shed. It's too cute to see his little face sticking out of one of the holes! The only year we didn't have a groundhog under the shed was the year a mama fox and her kits were living under there!

Darn you, Phil!

 

[mumto3girls]

We have groundhogs everywhere. I suppose that's because we don't have gators in PA eating them

Yes, also PA—the only thing more prolific than groundhogs in our yard are squirrels and deer.

 

[Princesca]

So not only did I SEE one, we more or less had a pet one for awhile. We came home one day and Stu (we named him) was basking in the sun on our deck. He was a big boy. We (stupidly) decided to feed him produce scraps because he was CUTE. He became a tenant, but we didn't keep feeding him at least.

Fast forward a year or two to when our exterminator told us that groundhogs burrow up along foundations, often, and can cause water retention problems that damage your foundation. By then, he was giant. I don't know if it was Stu or Son of Stu by that point, but man... he was a chonk.

So we had to trap him. We tried a humane trap, but he was too smart, and eventually we had to use a kill trap. I cried over the decision, but I couldn't risk the house having structural problems. Stu was never caught that we know of, but the trap was sprung and we haven't seen him since. The exterminator filled in the sizeable tunnel he had made with Quikcrete after baiting for several days to make sure he was gone.

I hope he's still out there somewhere. Just not under our deck.

 

[1420Elexismc]

I am not sure if what I saw was a groundhog or not but it was some sort of little woodland guy like that

 

[Micca]

Pretty sure I've never seen one. I used to work with a woman who hated Groundhog Day (the event, not the movie) and thought it was the stupidest thing ever. At the time I thought she was a bit of a kill-joy, but now I'm thinking she was right. Sure there's Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but you get candy & toys when they arrive. Whaddaya get on Groundhog Day? Dudes in 19th century apparel, a highly inaccurate forecast, and a wild animal that sure doesn't look like he's enjoying one bit of it!

 

[MommaKetch]

Love this thread! Yes, we live in Pennsylvania and have a groundhog that lives near the barn ruins behind our house. I often watch it from my kitchen window. We live harmoniously in the sense that it stays out of my garden beds, LOL.

 

[mrodgers]

Yes, also PA—the only thing more prolific than groundhogs in our yard are squirrels and deer.

I had to move back to town to see the squirrels. I was in the middle of nowhere and a bear walking past my 5 year old daughter on the back porch alone from 20 feet away didn't bother her (or us) one bit. Deer were every evening eating the apples on the ground brushing up against our corn they never touched. Had bear, coyote, bobcat, mountain lion in the yard all the time, but hardly a squirrel to be found. The squirrel population in the residential areas surrounding town out number the people.

 

[Kitty 34]

We see them all the time. We call them woodchucks though.

In Lansing, MI we have Woody the Woodchuck , Meteorologist of course, predicting an early spring......we'll see!!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Yeah, we get them in our yard-they burrow under our outside room to set up house in the warmer weather months, and sometimes come out to sun themselves. We also have wild turkeys, possums, and skunks. Boy, do we have skunks.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I’ve seen them and I don’t like them - or really any type of critter like that.

As far as Phil seeing his shadow, I’ll gladly take only 6 more weeks of winter here in NE Ohio. That means winter might be over by mid-March! Much better than snow in April like we usually have

 

[tvguy]

Never seen them in my yard. I just know my mom grew up in the plains of Saskatchewan and her older brother made a lot of money killing them in the wheat fields. Provincial government paid like 5 cents each for everyone he killed.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I’ve seen one in oldest ds yard but he said they haven’t seen it lately.
There have been a few at Dh work site that I have seen in the past.

 

[georgina]

We used to get them when we lived in suburban Pittsburgh. There was a small wooded ravine behind our house. They would go into our garden, pick a tomato, take one bite, throw it on the ground and pick another to repeat the process. They had no fear of humans, just sit there in the garden looking at you. DH would find their hole and put smoke bombs in to drive them away.

 

[easyas123]

We have a area on our farm we call the groundhog patch, in it's previous incarnation it was a small rubble dump, but is now a low, overgrown area at the bottom of a field near the woods.
Ground hogs (and rabbits) like to hang out in there...as do the barn cats hunting for baby groundhogs & rabbits!

We've also had them dig into one of our old barns, tunneling into a few stalls to hang out.

 

[ronandannette]

Those suckers can actually knock a small car right off the road if they're hit on the highway; like running into a short, stout brick *house. And yes, they are apparently every bit as mean as this one looks.