Sleepy Woodchuck

On March 17th a customer had me set up a woodchuck cage for an animal that she was sure was under her concrete slab. There was no

hole but there was signs of past digging, so I fenced off the area and set a 2-door Comstock. I caught the woodchuck today. ( 26

days later ) He had come from under the slab and the hole was right where the customer said it would be. Just goes to show you that

some customer are not nuts. Glad I believed her and stuck with it!

Or it came in the back door somewhere and out the front door into your trap.

Hogs do a lot of den hopping in our area of the country. Particularly this time of year. Caught one yesterday ready to give birth.

We haven't had a job for one yet.

Brian, it's a small concrete patio and I checked it thoroughly. I had the same idea but I was wrong and the client was right.

Bob is right, chucks do a lot of den hopping. We have had the same thing happen with chucks, skunks etc., long periods to catch, but at least you are not changing bait or wondering if the animal likes your bait with a den set. Nice part, no maintenance and you know if you are set over the den and you don't catch, the animal is not there, roaming. Have set for chucks, caught one first night and then sometimes its a couple of weeks for the second male to come back.

On a bit different but related subject, I do like closure, catching, not just "trying" or going through the motions if I can help it, providing results for a client rather than excuses. One local company here offers 5 days of trapping, M-F, one set, 4 checks no matter what, results or not, not the hot set up. Sometimes, like Paul, it takes many days and some patience. The set is good, just have to match it to the critter when he returns. I mentioned a coon set on a roof, not my job, but it was there frozen in ice and snow for 2 months, thawed out and got the coon on the first warm day, hard to beat. Patience, one of the toughest parts of all this, has surprised me many times. A client will ask, after a time has passed, do you need the trap? I tell them I will hang in there if they will. Certainly not every job ends with a catch, but the client knows you have been more than fair. At times, depending on circumstance, after receiving payment for the long effort, I offer to return, set the den another time free of charge because it takes but seconds to do and to try again if the animal has been spotted. They just pay for the catch or catches.

One of our new guys caught a woodchuck, followed by an opossum, but he was having trouble catching the second woodchuck. So I went to

his job this morning to see if I could help. He had an 18 inch Comstock set correctly at the hole. The only problem was that the

woodchuck had filled the entire cage with gravel right to the top. I had never seen anything quite like that! The whole cage

completely full and it was still set! And once again I forgot the darn camera. I redid the set and also set another Comstock at a new

hole he had dug on the other side of the garage. The new set nailed him a couple hours later. He must have run out of gravel.

I have had brown rats fill poison boxes with pebbles too...

Roe, what stuffs our bait boxes most often is voles.

I wonder why they do it....

I'm pretty sure it's to screw with us.

Yep, I agree with Eaten. Every time I open one of those stuffed boxes, I always feel that hiding somewhere is a vole, who is watching

the ticked off expression on my face, and laughing his butt off!