got a young groundhog under a porch that needs removed.
Using a cage trap, whats the best course of action as far as bait goes? never caputred groundhogs in cages before, only bodygrippers.

Thanks

2 door cage trap works like a body gripper. Put it infront of the hole and block it down. Or put your body gripper in front of the hole and put some hardware cloth over it to keep out the dogs and kids

I've done a couple of the same jobs this week, put a trap dead center where the holes at, then a trap on each side of the main trap facing the opposite direction. I've caught them coming out of the hole and also in the side traps trying to re enter. I've never actually used bait as to avoid non target animals. I don't have the experience alot of these guys have, but this method has been very successful for me.

They seem to be wanting the peaches the best if I can keep my kids out them . Earlier they wanted apples . Ground hog urine and or droppings makes things.go quickly

Considering the amount of gravel this bugger has pulled from under the foundation, i had thought about using a double-door as a blind set in his hole(only got 1 hole, found that odd), but i dont think i can get it to work right considering its location.

I had guessed fruit, but didnt know if there was something better. Only non-target im concerned with is skunk, that could be awkward...lol.
Appears he's either settled in for winter, or has relocated, no recent activity.

Don't know about the normal workings of Indiana but in Wisconsin, one hole is normal. Now I'm just talking about connected holes. Most 'chucks have at least a half a dozen separate holes.

round here, established groundhogs always have at least 2 holes, most of the times more like 4-5.
you start digging out one hole, ground hog will pop out the other. This is especially true in pasture situations. Thats why once i found only one hole, with visual confirmation of critter, i came to conclusion of a young one who hadnt quite set up camp yet.

Yeah, you may be right about established 'chucks in pastures. We don't get many of those. As soon as someone sees a hole being dug the telephone rings. They don't get a chance to set up housekeeping. Nearly all our calls are residences.

I have trapped or snared quite a few G-hogs at a lot of different jobs and have found in my experience, males and females do not co-habitate, males or juvenile hogs only have one or two entrances, females have multiples, this is due in part to the juveniles instinct to dig,digging holes just to add holes. The female digs multiple entrances for escape and fleeing predator purposes. Males dig only enough holes for living and do not spend much time in burrows.
Everytime I find (in my area) one hole it is usually one male that are solitary animals, multiple holes, female and or young.

Try this,

Cover your cage trap on both sides and top leaving the end so that you can see all the way through. It should give the appearance of a tunnel. You can use sticks, leaves, pine straw, grasses or what ever you have to dress the trap up with. Even cardboard will help. I've even seen shingles used for this. Just what ever to help darken the trap and give the tunnel effect.

Then hang some bait in the back behind the pan. Use a good chunk of bait in the trap and cut up small pieces and place a couple just inside the trap a piece or two just outside the trap and string a few small pieces from his hole or trail up to the trap.

The small pieces of bait near the trap will help him to be comfortable around it and when he sees the large piece hanging inside he will likely be more tempted to enter.

Cantaloupe makes a good bait for this. Apples, orange slices, peaches or most any sweet smelling fruit. Some will say lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, potato of any number of vegetables or green leafy veggies, but I like the baits with stronger smells.

I never use body grip traps where catching a pet is a possibility. If the cage trap isn't working, I prefer a soft catch foot hold trap set right in his trail or near the mouth of his den.

Good luck.

I had a chuck job at the begining of the year.This chuck was digging wholes in a backyard.One hole was deep ,the others seemed to be attempts at other burrows and one hole just went stright down into a tunnel.I tried every thing from apples to strawberries .Caught squirrels, coons but could not get this chuck. Set up trail camera and had pics and all of it .Had three box traps .covered and all .Even did the body gripper in the entrance with hardware cloth covering it .I also found trails dug out under fence to neighbors yards.set up a funnel attached to fence right to trap ...still nothing .Did this for a month.Then i ordered some lure from a local supplier.Reset the traps with the lure trailing to them and a quarter head of cabbage in for bait .trailed the lure to each set.did this at 6 am one day ,went back at 7 pm and there it was in the trap next to the fence behind a shed.
The typical chuck burrow has a number of holes . In this case the main entrance was in the neighbors yard.This is why the body gripper didn't work . The wholes in the yard that I was trapping were all exscape holes. Even when the elderly man would see it from his door and come out the chuck ran back behind the shed .Never did it enter an excape hole .From what I have researched, The chuck can burrow up to 60 ft. with the main entrance the hole that has the pile of dirt in front of it.Exscape holes usually do not have a pile of dirt in front. this is because they pull the dirt through the tunnel to the main entrance .They also have one entrance hole that is called the plunge hole.this whole is just a hole ,looking into it you see its like its in the middle of a tunnel.The plunge hole was also in the back yard of thr place I was tring to trap. Being that it was close to the house ,and the chuck was spooked when it was father away from that hole it always ran for the fence.The chuck does not want a preditor to know where its exscape holes are. So they will not enter them ,only exit them when something fallows them into the main entrance.
To tell if a burrow is active ,fies are usually present around the main entrance as chucks smell.
ever since I use a trailing lure to the trap ,and now get my chucks in a day or two.

Ever since I started using Comstock traps, I get my 'chuck in an hour or two.