Top 3 Best Groundhog Poisons
9 minutes to read | Updated for 2018
Groundhogs may look innocent, but they can cause quite a bit of damage to your property if you do not control where they can go.
If you have a garden, they burrow underneath it and pull all of your vegetables down into their tunnels. Groundhogs can also be trouble to your homes foundation or a pool if you have one.
If you think you are dealing with a groundhog problem, let us provide you with a few high-quality solutions. In this article, we are taking a look at the best three poisons on the market to take out groundhogs for good.
Last update on 2018-08-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
What’s In This Guide
Best Overall
JT Eaton Answer Pocket Gopher Bait
Last update on 2018-08-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
This bait is designed to kill gophers, groundhogs, and other rodents. The bait comes in the shape of a brick, and the ingredients are an anticoagulant that takes care of any rodent. The pail comes with 40 blocks, so you get a lot for your money and once you locate the burrows and place the cubes around those areas-the groundhogs are attracted to the ingredients. This poison is highly effective but can take a little while to start working.
Product Features
- 40 bricks in each pail
- 10.5 x 10.5 x 10.25 inches
- Contains Diphacinone 0.005%
- 10-pound pail
PRO
- Effectively kills large rodents like groundhogs
- Comes with a one year warranty
- Comes with 40 bricks in one bucket
- Simple and easy to use
- Set it and forget it
CON
- Can take a little while to be effective
Best Runner Up
Bonide Mole And Gopher Killer
Last update on 2018-08-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
This mole and gopher killer contains 2% Zinc Phosphide which works to get rid of large rodents that dig up your garden. For this product to work effectively, it needs to be used directly on the burrow, so that does require you to do a little digging. If you locate the tunnel and sprinkle a teaspoon of this powder, it is highly effective at killing burrowing rodents.
When compared to something like a gas bomb or smoker this is much more effective, affordable, and a lot simpler to use as well.
Product Features
- One pound container of powder
- Contains 2% Zinc Phosphide
- Use directly on the burrows
- Packaging may vary
PRO
- Simple and easy to use
- Effective at killing groundhogs
- Does not require follow-up
- Cheap and economical
- Can destroy entire burrow of rodents
- Easier than gas bombs or smokers
CON
- Requires you to locate the burrow yourself
Best Peanuts
Sweeney’s Mole And Gopher Poison Peanuts
Last update on 2018-08-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
This pack of four peanuts contains attractants that moles and gophers cannot resist. They are highly attracted to peanuts, and the pellets include Zinc Phosphate, so they do not survive once they eat some of the bait.
Each cone contains 6 ounces of peanut bait, and the box comes with four cones, so you get a good amount of bait for your money and it does not take a lot of feed to take out a groundhog. The amount they need to eat depends on their size. We recommend locating the burrow and placing the bait there.
Product Features
- 13.2 x 3.5 x 11 inches
- Comes with four cones
- Contains Zinc Phosphate
- Bait is small pellets
- Keep away from pets
PRO
- Simple and easy to use
- Effective at killing yard pests
- The poison works quickly
- Can be reused
- No powders or sprays
CON
- Requires you to bait an active tunnel
- Could be eaten by pets and other animals
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read moreOther Tips And Tricks For Getting Groundhogs
- If you are baiting the groundhog-whether it is to eat some form of poison or enter into a trap, make sure you bait them away from home. Wherever their burrow is, place the bait away from the house because they tend to move in the direction of the home.
- To scare them away without poison or traps, use vibrations in the ground to scare them away.
- To get groundhogs out of their burrow-use smokescreens to get them out of the tunnels.
- Use ammonia in the tunnels to get them out
- Groundhogs do not like garlic or pepper so if you can incorporate that into your garden you could deter them from pulling your crops underground.
- Groundhogs do not like dog or cat urine.
- Cover your crops with baby powder.
Use Dog Or Cat Urine
Groundhogs feel they are prey to dogs and cats so if they do not feel safe they will not build their home in your yard. If you don’t have a dog or a cat or can’t get one, try and get some dog or cat urine from someone and sprinkle it around your yard. If you can locate their tunnel system-pour dog urine or cat litter in and around their tunnels. This will get them to move out. You can stop them from coming back by putting more urine around the perimeter or your property and placing dog hair all around it as well.
Smoking Them Out
Smoke kills the groundhog while it is inside the burrow. The easiest way is to buy gas bombs and fill the burrow up. They get sold at garden centers and online. Make sure they are inside the hole before fumigating. This may take a bit of time for your to guarantee the groundhog is home. Once you’re sure the groundhog is inside, fill all of the entrances except one. Then light the gas cartridge, throw it into the open access, and quickly fill it up with dirt to trap the groundhog and the carbon monoxide inside.
Another popular method of smoking them out is to run a hose from your car’s exhaust into the burrow and cover up all the other holes except the one. The carbon monoxide suffocates them and causes them to die inside the burrow.
Using Ammonia
One of our favorite strategies for getting rid of groundhogs is to pour ammonia down their tunnel; this does not always kill them, but it ensures that they will no longer use that tunnel. This guarantees you get rid of every single groundhog in that tunnel and that they do not come back.
We have used this method many times and have had nothing but success with it. The groundhogs typically leave the yard immediately, and we do not find any holes in the yard again for years. Make sure you see all of the holes because there are almost always six or seven of them. You may need to do this for as long as seven days to effectively scare them away for good.
Use Fencing and Chicken Wire as Prevention
To keep groundhogs from entering your yard once you scare them away or get rid of them, build fencing that runs two feet deep into the ground and three feet high, so they cannot burrow or jump over it.
If the primary issue is protecting a garden build a fence out of chicken wire into the shape of an L. When you plant the chicken wire, the L should point away from your garden. Doing this forces the burrowing groundhog to follow the chicken wire away from the garden.
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