I have been trying to catch a resident groundhog. Just checked the trap this morning, and I have caught a skunk! It might be a young skunk, not a kitten (?) but an adolescent. I’ve seen skunks, and this one looks smaller than most. It has not sprayed yet. How can I get close enough to release it without risking getting sprayed? I have a home health aide shift this afternoon. I cannot go to my client wearing eau de skunk.
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Approach and cover with a tarp.
I’m laughing at/for you. Live traps do not discriminate! 
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Thanks, will use a tarp.
I’ve had a pretty good track record for getting what I’m after, except for one time last year that I caught Rascal. She was sitting patiently in the trap in the morning, the marshmallow raccoon bait still untouched around her, and shot me a glare as I approached, clearly saying, “This is your fault.” I pointed out that cats aren’t supposed to go after marshmallow bait, which clearly she hadn’t liked. She still thought it was my fault. She was, however, easy to release.
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I’ve heard groundhogs like cantaloupe, but we’ve never had good luck trapping them in live traps honestly. My mom resorted to a pro who uses lethal traps, and I think her count was 30-40 kills last year. I don’t know why they love her place, but they do.
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The sooner you let it out the less likely you are to get sprayed.
Many years ago we had a black cat. She had started out as a semiferal farn cat, but had converted to a house cat, and was NOT allowed out. Somehow, she got out (we have our suspcions about who let her out but no proof). We set a havahart trap.
Tim was heading out in the morning, and it was snowing. He saw something black in the trap, but realized it was a skunk, and not the missing cat. He got back in the car, leaving the skunk in the trap. He called me on his mobile phone to tell me. I insisted he go back and let the skunk out. If it was stuck in the trap all day, wet and cold, it would be REALLY upset and more likely to spray. when he later tried to let it out. So he came back, and opened the trap. The skunk just looked up at him, and ambled away.
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Me either.
And I have tried all kids of bait. Basically everything that people say - they love this.
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I am successful trapping groundhogs in the pastures with no bait. I go out really early in the AM and ride the pasture, looking for groundhog trails in the wet grass. Generally I know where the den is, and look to see where the groundhog is exiting or entering. Then I set my trap as close to the entrance as possible, right in the game trail. (Sometimes I set up a game cam to make sure I am trapping a groundhog and not something living in the same burrow.). Usually within two days I have my groundhog safely trapped. FYI I never touch my traps with a bare hand --always gloves so I don’t leave a scent. The neighbor kids let me know of any borrows on their property so I can check and see if the groundhog is coming to my place too. The kiddos lie in wait and shoot them when they come out in the evening.
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Conversely, I have heard that groundhogs don’t care about bait at all. We have caught PLENTY of them with an unbaited havahart trap (the same one) next to the entrance to their burrow.
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Exposing my naivete here - what reason[s] would you trap/relocate a groundhog? The holes they leave that can be a risk to horses? Do they present other risks?
I have one that recently took up shop under the cement slab of my house. Trying to decide if he’s going to be a nuisance or not.
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That never worked for me either. I would put the trap right outside their burrow and never catch anything.
Clearly I simply have crafty groundhogs.
I never bothered trying to catch the groundhogs that were not near my horses.
In my case it was the groundhogs that had dens very close to my pasture.
@beowulf, encourage the groundhog to exit stage left. I’ve had concrete slabs ruined by collapse due to groundhog tunnels. They were old slabs, but ruined just the same. They tunnel everywhere. We park a tractor in one shed w a slab…and it crumpled w the weight of the tractor.
As others above have said, we put a trap at the burrow door and dispatch from there.
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They dig and destroy around the foundation at my moms house.
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Groundhogs dig all over creation. This one specifically is fond of flowers, as in the ones I’ve just planted in my landscaping. He has decimated new plants and left flowers scattered right and left, not even eaten, just flung. I now have flowers sprayed with hot spice deer spray. On researching, I discovered that they also wreak havoc on foundations and can chew straight through cables and wires underground. If I catch him, he’s dead. Begone!
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The holes into their underground homes are big enough for a horse hoof to go into . I have never trapped them but my big dogs dispatch one when they happen to find them.
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I’ve trapped them; I much prefer the help
of my GSD.
Luckily this is my house, not where I keep my horse. I saw advice to dump used cat litter in the holes, so I did just that - that was on Saturday, and they have not been dug or disturbed. I’m hoping he went elsewhere.
I’m wondering if he’s the culprit for my Garden Marauder - someone ate all my tulips and decimated my huge catnip plant. Down to stalks.
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I have no idea what they actually eat. My husbands garden never seems to have a problem even though we have seen mobile groundhogs really close sometimes.
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There was a huge groundhog den in my hay field, and it had broken the haybine more than once, so I set up a rabbit-size live trap and filled in the backdoor. After three days, I caught one. I think I used lettuce and sweet feed for bait, but something else kept flipping the trap, so I didn’t have time to re-bait it that day, and that was when I caught it.
I have also used smoke bombs. I don’t like using them, but I also don’t want a horse or cow stepping in a hole and breaking something.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/the-giant-destroyer-rodent-gasser-4-pk-0590499p.html
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