Groundhog With Plastic Bag...WHY

A previous customer called to ask a question. She was belly down on the chaise lounge by the pool, half asleep. She heard a rustling/crinkling noise and opened her eyes to see a groundhog right next to her. It was glaring at her, and had a plastic shopping bag in its mouth. She, being a female, screamed, ran into the house and called me. I had no explanation but assured her I would consult with the most august group of groundhog whisperers on this planet.

Nesting material, I've also seen them pull tarps and grill covers off of a deck and down the hole.

It is May 19th here in PA. I would think nest building should be over by now both here and where you are. Plus I have the feeling this is a male.

I would say nesting material as well.

They sometimes feel the need to change the sheets. I watched one (through a 24-power scope of course) once, make about a 500 yard round trip carrying burdock leaves to its hole in a new-mown hayfield, midsummer.
When I was a young pup, I had to perfect my survival skills with knowledge passed down by an amuzed and demented oldtimer. I spent alot of time "twisting out" groundhogs. A brutal practice involving a 12 year old and some barbed wire. One thing I do remember was finding a lot of plastic, shopping bags, tarps, and black plastic sheeting. Some of it was in places that you would have considered wilderness, plastic can blow a long way though.

I have seen them use that type of material to block the burrows to reduce draft flow into the burrow prior to winter and possibly to keep their nesting area dry.I have seem them plug their burrows with various weed block material and walmart type bags down the hole 2-4 feet.I have dug some out years ago when fox denning and recovering the pups back when I was a younger stronger stupid lad.:)

Could be a late litter as many of our hogs have birthed here with pups out of the den already, as well as fox pups. Have seen fox pups out of the den for over 3 weeks now.

Andy VA - twisting out groundhog with barbed wire ...... did you ever twist out a skunk?

Robert, I also was once younger, stronger, & stupider.

Fox jobs this year are off the wall. We are bombing, trapping, shooting, scaring and
installing barriers. The pups we see are 3/4 size now - mid May.

Mild winter here would think everything be early.

Never sucessfully got a groundhog that hadn't been shot first. Another old timer, this one not quite as sadistic as the first, told me that the twisting thing was used back in hard times, and required some shovel work to catch the live, unwounded groundhog in a dead end tunnel. Before the advent of barbed wire they used a green sapling sharpened to a point and split about six inches.
Never twisted out a skunk, did get into a two ended tunnel under a rock situation once. Buddy poked in his end with a stick. I was watching to see when the "coon" came out far enough to cut the dogs loose on my side. Saw a skunk backing out, opened my mouth to say something, saw yellowish cloud. Couldn't see anything or say anything for awhile after that. No-good buddy made me walk home.

Nesting or denning material. I think Phil is right a male who couldn't resist ogling thinking if he was only human.

I've seen both sexes pull stuff down the hole at different times of the year, changing the sheets as someone else put it. Nesting/bedding material gets soiled and matted quickly when your floor, walls, and ceiling are dirt. Actually its probably more likely he stopped in at walmart for some cabbage and apples. they were in the bag the homeowner was just too startled to notice.

Na Phil the reason for the trash bag is they use it for a moisture barrier in the den, they don't like to feel the dampness plus the plastic on the soil under the straw bedding and up the walls keeps mold from starting, you know they have had a out break of mold related heath issues lately.

seriously I have seen it done but have know idea why.

Woodchucks are extremely uncoordinated and besides that, the often get stuck with the same dang shopping cart that I usually get. Loudspeaker: CLEAN-UP in the produce aisle!

'Chuck: Girlfrien', I hear there's a sale goin' on down at Kmart. I'm ready to go!
Woman: ahhh...EEEEEK!
Woodchuck (to camera): Wass wrong with her? She don' like Kmart!?

Dave
are you OK?

maybe it was a coon dragging trashin a hole, and not even a chuck. just like how i get calls for moles climbing up the house and chewing into the attic. a mistaken identity?

This is my new set that I named after professional wildlife control expert Phil Nickols . After reading this thread I knew what kinda lure should be used

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNt1o4bHAo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thank you Ryan. Prefer you refer me as a respected elderly member of our tribe, instead of "professional wildlife control expert Phil Nickols." Oh by the way, you are also on this totem pole keem-o-sabee, along with many others.

That does not look like a chuck hole to me ? Most I see in customers lawns have huge excavation material piles outside the hole

The tailing pile is in the bushes , theres atleast three holes all connected .that hole was dug from the inside out .

I thought that might be the case.

I saw a news clip a couple or three days ago. Seems there was a cemetery, I didn't catch where, that was loosing US flags. You know, the small individual flags that they put on serviceman's graves? Anyway, they were loosing a flag or two every day and couldn't figure out why someone would just steal one or two at the time.

So what they did was put up a game camera in hopes of catching the flag thief red handed. It worked! But what they didn't expect to see was a furry little ground hog making off with a flag. When they investigated, they found his den and found the remnants of several more flags in his hole where he had reduced them to bedding materials.

When they were building the new high school in ortonville they had a problem with this culvert getting plugged up every night . This was slowing construction from flooding , they thought it was teenagers not wanting to go to school . So they hid out two to catch these kids . Yup front page of the paper beavers . I really could not beleave that not one person knew what beaver chewing looked like