I Caught a Groundhog and Other Weekend Highlights

Ahh, it's April. April, no matter the weather, never feels like winter. It seems weird not be celebrating Easter in April this year though...it was really early this year. Did you have a nice Easter weekend? Ours was great, mostly because Chad was off for a couple days and the weather was beautiful so we were able to do a lot of things outside.

On Friday we went to Lake Farmpark. It's part of the Lake Metroparks, about a 45 minute drive from our house. There are several barns and stables with animals: horses, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, even a few alpacas. You can walk right up to the animals and pet them (or get traumatized by a loud sheep, like Charlotte did). There's a facility you can tour where they do maple sugaring, they have cow milking demonstrations where you can actually milk a cow yourself (no thanks), and a cafe on site to eat lunch. It's a fun place to take kids to for an afternoon, especially if you're looking for something on a smaller and less crowded scale than the zoo.

The next day we went to the zoo (because why stop at scaring her with sheep, right? Go all in!). It was a gorgeous day and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. Her favorite parts of the zoo? The playground, the large ball in the monkey cage (which she ran to saying "oooh, a ball!" as there's a giant gorilla sitting next to it that she totally didn't care about), and trying popcorn for the first time. That's my girl :)

And in keeping with the whole animal theme of this post, let's talk about this little troublemaker:

See the look on her face? It is of shame and guilt. At least it should be, considering all of the headaches she has caused for the past year and a half. Oh yeah, this is the same groundhog we were dealing with last year. Well, the second one since the first one (lovingly named "Gilbert") disappeared, but a couple months later the lovely lady pictured above, AKA "Gladys" took up residence. She left for awhile and went to live across the street, then we didn't see her at all so we thought she was gone. Then in the fall she was back, so we called a pest control company. For the sake of anonymity, I'll refer to them as "Schmorkin." So "Schmorkin" comes out and charges $125 just to set the trap. And the trap they used was the exact same one you see above that I purchased on Amazon for $45. This amount only covered the trap--had the groundhog been caught, it would've been an additional $80 for it to be removed and disposed of. Oh, and this was only for a one month contract. And the bait they used was an old apple, which we ended up replacing every few days since Schmorkin only did it once a week.

Needless to say, no groundhog. So after getting kind of "schcrewed" by Schmorkin, the groundhog disappeared again then resurfaced this winter with an enormous new hole. This time we consulted with a guy Chad works with who does this kind of thing regularly. If you have a groundhog causing you trouble, here a few things we've learned along the way that might help:

• Groundhogs are notoriously hard to catch. They are leery of traps (unlike squirrels which bound right in like total fools and skip around until you free them, only to do it again the next day). It helps to scuff up your trap so the light reflecting off the metal doesn't deter them completely.
• They can be serious divas about their food--no old produce for these gals, no sir. I've read and fresh green beans are one of their faves, but we used fresh cantaloupe (seeded and cut into 2 inch chunks). We put several pieces in the back of the cage, then rubbed the metal with cantaloupe juice. We also squeezed juice onto the dirt all around the hole and set several more chunks outside of the cage and near the hole entrance. Replace with fresh food every day if possible, or at least every other.
• They breed around this time of year and start having babies in the spring. This is a big reason why we knew we needed to catch her, and thankfully we did because she was hugely pregnant.
• Do NOT plug up their holes until you're sure they are gone. If you plug before, you won't block them in. They will dig a new tunnel around and find a new exit--and they totally will. These suckers can dig, and they are fast.
• Feel free to try any of the various items on the market that promise to deter groundhogs, such as stakes that emit a noise that is supposed to drive them away, or lights around their hole that are supposed to keep them out because they hate it, or moth balls, or ammonia soaked rags. None of these worked for us at all. We wasted a lot of time and money on them and dealt with moth ball/ammonia smells for months for no real reason. 

As for the fate of one Ms. Gladys?

She is now living where she belongs: the woods. Chad drove her to a her new home and set her free where she can live among other woodland friends and out from underneath my porch. We still have the trap set just in case she had a boyfriend shacking up with her, but we are cautiously optimistic that we are groundhog free.

More tomorrow about Easter Sunday and a baby in a cute dress :)

~Stacy