Don’t be fooled. He might be cute, but he’s a nuisance.
Let me back up.
We’ve always had a groundhog on our property. They’re very common in Virginia. The year we moved in, he was living under one of our outbuildings, and we’d see him poking around the yard and eating grass and just generally doing groundhog things. We didn’t think much of it.
That, apparently, was a mistake.
Six years later, he’s invited his friends to move in. Now we have three groundhogs. And one of them can climb trees. Did you know groundhogs could climb trees? Because I didn’t.
I did some Googling to see just how urgent an issue this is, since I generally don’t like to intervene with nature when I don’t have to.
The good news: Groundhogs are typically not aggressive or violent.
The bad news: They can wreak havoc on a property, and they’ve been known to carry fleas, ticks, sometimes rabies, and various diseases, though they’re more likely to cause property damage than to make people sick.
So, I think we need to make some phone calls. I don’t know if the situation we have here warrants their removal or not – they’ve stayed away from the main house, and from us and our dog. But, I think we’ve reached our groundhog limit, and I know there are ways to remove them humanely, if that’s necessary.
After all, you know what they say: Three’s a crowd.
A Virginia Writer's Diary 
I loved reading this!!! 🤩 I’ve never seen a groundhog before or known anything about them!
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They’re super cute and fun to watch! I wasn’t worried when it was just one, but I feel like three could do a lot of damage.
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Remember the copious amount of tunnels under the magnolia tree? I only saw one groundhog, two times. One, two, or more, they are wreaking havoc. There is so much empty woods and meadow around here, I have no idea why they have suddenly taken a preference for under the magnolia tree.
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I remember! I actually thought about you writing this post today. We’re in a similar situation – there are acres and acres of forest behind us, and I’m honestly stumped as to why they’d want to take up residence in our outbuildings, where they’re constantly close to humans. I can’t imagine the tunnels they’ve dug under our yard.
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they are, afterall, rodants.
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Yep.
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We don’t have groundhogs
But we have something worse.
Mouse, big ones!!
They make giant holes in the garden. Destroy the roots of the plants and if they enter the house, then it’s difficult to hunt them.
The major problem is, if you seal one pit, they dig up another.
They have their whole family living here and these days cats are not doing their jobs sincerely.
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Oh, man, that sounds awful. We deal with mice, too, but just little field mice. Rodents can just cause so much damage.
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Are you sure their not woodchucks which is similiar…lol but they are cute and adorable. Wait til theres babies! You can have them removed but are they causing any damage to anything?
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From what I can find, woodchuck is just another name for groundhog. At least, that seems to be the case here in Virginia. They’ve caused some significant damage to our outbuildings, but luckily, so far nothing to the main house. They’ve also eaten some of the fruit we’ve been growing. They are adorable and fun to watch, though. Hoping we can get some good advice on what our possible (humane) next steps are.
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Hopefully you can find a safe solution that makes everyone happy!
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Yes! I hope so, too.
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Groundhog might be the most adorable destructive vermin we have going
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Yep. Very true.
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