Need help (ground hog)

Trying to catch a couple of ground hogs, in town at the local sheriff department. Using live traps only .

What do you need help with? Traps? Bait? Location? Steely determination?

What bait would be best or just try to funnel him in the trap?

If you can funnel it (lay out of earth, buildings, foliage) then By all means you should get it day 1 or 2

I caught 2 at the same time once this year in a single trap by funneling


If you have to bait. I've had a lot of luck using alfalfa rabbit food from pet store along with twizzlers strawberry licorice

Oink oink......

Sorry...couldnt help it...catchin pigs at the cop shop

muskmelon

I like cantaloupe, but funneling works best when it can be done.

How do you present the bait?

I buy the alfalfa that looks like it's from a bail of hay (not pellets)

Put two pieces of twizzlers in broke into thirds or so. I put them In first and put the alfalfa on top. All in the back of cage

Red delicious apple slices never hurt either with one ground all over the top of cage to spread the smell

Both ways have worked

But by far if you can fence/ tunnel them to trap it is the best way caught them in just hours doing it. The time I got the two together I had caught one in there in the morning and picked it up around noon, set another trap and had the two In It together that evening

Also use a clean trap, very clean of all animal smells, unless it is ground hog odor. Makes it better

I used to keep my traps strapped to the top of my cap. The sun and wind cleaned them. Trapping has just started to really boom so I haven't been carrying so many traps at 1 time this year... Yet

The best bait is none at all, because it is not necessary 98% of the time. I don't even have any. You will save money, save time setting, no rebating and catch just about no non targets while the jobs will sometimes be completed in hours or even minutes. Have caught hundreds of chucks over the past 12 years without bait of any kind, using double door cages with nose cones. It's like using conibears without the worry. I made the switch from bait and single door cages and never looked back.

Frequently clients have tried with bait and failed before we get there. This week a lady tried for a week with single door and bait to catch a chuck. She got 2 squirrels and a possum, no chuck. I set the den in the evening, double door with nose cone. She called at 8 a.m. very pleased that the job was over. I never promise it will go this quickly but just tell them it very often does. Skunks, coon, squirrels, its all the same, just different traps. Traps as short as 18 inches long will do it, which is great because space is sometimes in short supply. In this case the set trap just fit between two fences.

In the past 6 years of sharing what we do, for those who have tried it, none have returned to what they had been doing with bait. One remarked last week, "I didn't have much luck with chucks before, but now they call me the chuck king."

I would have to say those that haven't had success with baits or lures haven't used good products. Consumers usually have been throwing in what is handy or what they think is adequate at the time. Allowing some success some of the time with household items. Big difference in results compared to good lures and baits. Not factoring the trap may have been last used to catch a cat, or raccoon. Some chucks are reluctant to enter some traps due to odor refusals or crowding a den.

I have caught thousands of groundhogs over the years with bait and lure presentations with success coming in mins. or a few hours according to customers paying attention and calling at times before our techs get back to the home base. We can catch chucks with single door cages on demand with lure, bait and a touch of chuck gland in a day if they are living or visiting that den site daily.

If they are nomadic, as they can be at certain times of the year or those using several different dens in an area it may take a few days to a couple of weeks to catch that animal. One just must understand what an animals behavior is in some cases.

I use both methods, positive and baited setups. When gang setting for a family unit I always used baited set ups. For single animals during those times of the year nose cone positive sets are effective as well.

What if you can't find holes? But they swear they are seeing them on the property? I'm dealing with that right now lol

Any decks or sheds? Neighbors property?


And they climb trees!

There is decks, buildings and lots of brushy woody area. I walked around and found no holes. I felt they were just nomad chucks but I certainly can be wrong though

Sometimes they will follow a wall or fence line without going under. Perhaps there are some subtile trails to set. Imagine you could drift fence them too if there were some more open areas.

Still no signs of them. As I suspected, they aren't there and there have been no sightings since I set. That is good news too them so it worked out I guess lol

They might be back at some point as they can sometimes go a few weeks before returning. Had one the other day that looked like chuck, but I got a skunk under the house and another under the fence. Told them to watch for chuck activity. First sign, I will return quickly and reset.

I guess I don't see the problem if a rockchuck comes around every few weeks. If they make residence the I can see trying to do something. But I do what the customer wants

I ran out of double door traps and had to use a single door. I was also short of anything traditional for bait, but I remembered this thread and zip tied some red Swedish fish to the top, back of the cage. An adult chuck was in the trap fairly quickly! Thanks for the tip!

X2 on Bob J

I hope my local "competition" doesn't learn about good bait. The crew I just followed took months at one location in 3 attempts with different baits before they were able to coral 4 chucks in baited traps. They had to lose their butt even though they charged quite a bit overall as they had a ton of time in it. Went in after as they had left some behind, followup, with only a couple of chucks remaining it would seem. Set at 6 p.m., got two by noon the following day, 18 hours, maybe the last two??? No sightings since. After trail setting
'cats in the west and 'coon on creeks and in the woods, I would have a hard time doing anything else.

Being a good trapper trumps the best lure or bait about every time.

However, that being said, a good trapper will make any lure and bait look better. You just cant compare a man with your experience with some local competitions ability. Just not a fair fight Jim.

Men with our backgrounds kind of have the decked stacked in our favor just because of our history.

So, good for you for in showing them "Whose the Man". Kind of makes a fella smile every now and then.

It's a guaranteed referral too! Make a customer feel like they were treated right and they'll tell all their friends.

When I got the referral they seemed desparate, not really happy about the expense as you would expect, but especially the lack of closure, still chucks running around. We all feel that way after shelling out good bucks and not getting the results we hoped we were paying for. Anyone can take the test, pass, get a license and go to it, but they can't get experience over night and often don't know where or how to find what they need in equipment and methods to make it work. When people talk about hard work, that's just hard. I like to think of working smarter. Have to when you realize that 65 is not middle age. There has to be some benefit to this high mileage.

Yes, benefits do come with high mileage. Its that darn body work that you need to keep up with that wears on a man.

If we can keep our catalytic converter from getting plugged up at our ages its all good.

Talking to DEC, there are lots of guys that have to take the test multiple times... if I remember right, it's open book too!

Estimated only 50 percent of my whistlepigs are snared. 40 % are baited cages and 10 percent are going to be positive sets. That's me. My son and daughter when doing hog work is pretty close to what I do with daughter reversed with the snares and cages. My wife about 2 weeks ago came out of the office to help with our ground work with coon and hogs. My wife has run the office work for well over 35 years but never set a trap in her life. she knows the business well just never set traps. I gave her a crash course in cages and how to with baits and lures. well She is cleaning house with hogs and coon. and I have to listen to her every day tell me how good she is LOL, all baited sets she catches skunks also but I have to go pick them up LOL My point is if the set is on location and the cage is baited and lured right they work. but as Bob has been saying the person has to understand what is there. If I go in and I sense the ground hog is a spooky critter and I can force in a few mins of course I am going to do that. If the hog is coming in from a field to eat in the flower beds in a open yard I am setting a baited cage. If I have a family unit of 4 to 6 hogs I am keying on mom with a baited cage and then work on the little ones.

Jonesie hit on a good point. Key on mom and the rest fall pretty easily. Same thing for coon, skunks etc. Set for momma critters, take her first then you may be able to take all or most of the little guys the following day, sometimes by hand. Just had fun nabbing 6 baby skunks by hand and best yet, they were all very polite and well mannered, which was appreciated.