Interview with the groundhog:
GH: If you come near this cage, Im gonna chew you up.
Twit: Why so tough? I'm inclined to mercy.
GH: I ates your garden stuff and I'm proud a it.
Twit: So it was you and you admit it?
GH: The broccoli was good and the peas were in da way, so I ate them too.
I was on my ways back for more when I found dis corn and cantaloupe.
Twit: But why the dahlias?
GH: Day's tasty too.
Twit: But all of them. Isn't that greedy?
GH: If I can eat em, den days mine to eat.
Twit: I see.
GH: Come near dis cage and I'll eat you too.
Twit: Really?
GH: You bet I will. Come closer....
Twit: Perhaps I will, but first let me prepare a few things...
Mr GH was unrepentant and has permanently left the area. I had baited the trap with a little left over cantaloupe and some canned corn, leaving a trail of kernels to the front of the trap, and a small pile of kernels in the trap. GH are strong, much stronger than I thought. This guy almost made it out of the trap. You can see if you look closely at the bottom of the pic that he managed to break off and remove one of the bars of the trap. The trip plate that he's standing on was bent 90 degrees up on the corner behind him. One corner of the trap had a broken steel fastener holding two side together. A little more intelligence or effort might have seen him make is way through the trap.
I wanted to rebait again, but now I have a damaged trap to repair. I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live guy, but GH's are nasty. Seeing one up close and how it behaved when I approached confirms I don't want to share my yard or garden with them. Even though they run away and hide, you never know for sure.
Anybody know if a pellet gun is powerful enough to dispose of them when used close up?
