Groundhogs and Woodpeckers

[Mattemma]

It has been a year since I visited my mom,and yesterday she was showing me all around her yard.She already has some tomatoes while my plants are still quite small.Last night she called to tell me the groundhog has ripped down her tomatoes and tore up the zukes.

Anyone gotten rid of them successfully? I have come across the following:ammonia,epsom salt,fox urine,live trap,moth balls,bowls of watered blood meal. I know her local animal control will be no help,because when I called about raccoons they told me to not have a garden so the raccoons would not come into the yard.

What has worked for you?

Now to the woodpecker.Issues with it making nice size holes in her wood siding.There is a wooded area right behind the house,but the bird keeps pecking away at one side of her home.No idea how to stop it other than hanging bird netting from the roof,so the WP can not get at the siding.Vinly siding is not an option for her.

Thank you for your time!

 

[digitS']

When I first saw the title of your post, I read: "Groundhogs and Woodchucks." So, I thought, "Why not 'Groundhogs, Woodchucks and Marmots?'"

Actually, they are all in the marmot family but the Marmots of the Intermountain West deserve the capital "M!" They weigh up to 20 pounds.

Most gardeners don't have to contend with Marmots. They live above 6,500 feet in Colorado, if I remember right. So, people in "mile-high" cities don't have to contend with them. They live down to 2,000 feet here and I understand they are at sea-level in Alaska but we are getting out of the prime gardening country with some of these elevations and latitudes.

I've had Marmot problems. The best I can suggest is a "floppy" fence. I think it would help with groundhogs.

They are heavy ground squirrels. They can climb, and I've seen them on TOP of building roofs, but a fence that "dumps" them back on the ground works until they can find another way in.

The easiest way to build such a fence is with chicken fencing and don't attach the wire to the top of the posts. They will climb the first few feet and then get dumped on the ground as they try to get over the top. The corner posts can be a problem because the wire wraps tight there. I've used spikes driven in a few inches on the outside of the corner posts - kind of like that pigeon guard that you see on some buildings. The Marmots can't get around the spikes.

They can dig. So, the lower part of the fencing has to be buried.

None of this will work very long. After a few months they may find a way in. I have had little tolerance and killed 2 with a stick. That garden bordered a city park. It was illegal to even harass the wildlife, so I couldn't even throw rocks at them, legally.

My gardens now aren't of small enuf size to be fenced with chicken wire. At least, that's what I tell myself. I'm also allowed to "harass" the dang things. The most recent 2, I shot. They are now pushing up mint plants in the "Marmot Memorial Planter" beside my greenhouse.

I tried the Epsom salts thing before I caught the invasive pest in that other garden, long ago. My soil is high pH and sprinkling Epsom salts on a bed of lettuce turned out to be a big mistake - the plants were stunted. I don't know if it repelled anything but it made the lettuce unusable to me.

Something intended to "offend" a vegetarian like a Marmot, like blood, is likely to attract another pest - the skunk. At least, it seems so to me. I've had a few problems with skunks over the years and don't want a repeat of that.

The woodpecker problem is something I don't have experience with - maybe a plastic owl . . . ?

Steve

 

[boggybranch]

A .22 and a strong spot light works pretty good.

 

[lesa]

A friend was just telling me he had the same problem with groundhogs and the moth balls worked. He was discussing flowers, though, not edibles. Don't know about moth balls and food?? I have cedar shakes on my house and every spring the woodpeckers make more holes. In the woods behind my house there are plenty of dead and live trees... I read it is something about mating season? Seems we are always battling something!