One after another, you might have noticed more than 6 groundhogs in front of the house and all of them eat the crops like they don’t care. Getting pissed by their actions cause you to trap them using food, isn’t it?
Blackberries, apples, pears, cherries, berries, peaches, and other fruits must be in the list of best bait for groundhogs trap. Other than these, there are some veggies like lettuce, cabbage, carrot, sweet corn, plum tomatoes, clovers, alfalfa, and so on that work to bait them.
In this guide, I’ll explain all the good baits to trap the woodchucks and get rid of them through live traps. Let’s Go!
The Best Bait for Groundhogs Is Food!
As an herbivore’s creature, the woodchuck needs a fresh type of food if you want to bait them in a live trap. They are pretty fussy towards food as the groundhogs use their sensory organs to determine which food is great for them.
So, the first rule of baiting groundhogs is to place food that smells a lot in a good way. You can simply use green veggies or fruits to bait them easily. These includes:
- Apple Slices.
- Carrots With Tops.
- Fresh Lettuce Leaf.
- Cabbage.
- Cucumber.
- Fresh Peas.
- Cherries.
- Sweet Corn.
- Plum Tomatoes.
- Peaches.
- Blackberries.
- Clovers.
- Alfalfa.
- Beans.
- Plantain.
- Broccoli
You might need to place odors that what smells do groundhogs hate near their den so that they would appear and go close to the live trap with their favorite fruits or veggies.
3 Reasons Woodchucks Are Hard to Trap!
Based on your skill, trapping the annoying creature can be a difficult task. Here are a few reasons why trapping them is hard in reality:
- Takes a lot of time and patience to catch a glimpse of them.
- They run pretty fast which makes it even harder to trap them.
- If the food contains wilted pieces, the groundhogs avoid coming to the live traps.
Things Groundhogs Eat to Survive
To live in human society, woodchucks choose places where food is plentiful. They love to eat fruits and veggies that are colorful while smelling fresh. Take a look at the foods that groundhogs regularly eat to survive:
- Grasses.
- Clovers.
- Berries.
- Dandelions.
- Snails.
- Grasshoppers.
- Grubs.
- Nuts.
- Baby Birds.
- Chickens.
Rulings Of Woodchuck Bait for Live Trap (Body Grip Traps)!
There’s a strict regulation of woodchuck bait if doing live traps with body grip traps. And, you have to follow the rules otherwise the method will be illegal. The 3 rules are given below:
- With the use of bait, the body-gripping traps should be around 5.5” to 7.5” in size.
- 6” or less height of the opening.
- At least 8” spring notches.
- 4” trap recessed.
- Needs to have one entrance that is facing the ground.
- Cover the trap box with canvas and grasses to fully conceal it.
Note: In case you are looking for one, here are some recommended baits in amazon.
How Can You Catch a Woodchuck in A Live Trap?
Whether can a woodchuck chuck wood or not, they have solid teeth to destroy the garden harvests in the worst way. To get rid of them forever, you should try the given steps as it works:
Step 1: Pick a cage (10” x 10” x 24”) and insert the delicious food which the woodchuck likes a lot.
Step 2: Place the cage in the burrow, travel lanes, or near the groundhog.
Step 3: Add some grasses inside the cage or dark canvas to fully cover it.
Step 4: Insert the guide log on the left or right side of the trap. It’ll help the annoying creatures to go inside the trap to save their life.
Step 5: Do not touch it until the next morning.
Step 6: If you see no woodchuck inside the cage, change the food to fresh ones and again see the result the following morning.
Woodchucks Like Peanut Butter A Lot…
Since groundhogs are a member of big squirrel, they naturally have a good taste for peanut butter. That’s why you’ll see them eating nuts of any kind casually. Using the peanut butter can also help you bait them when doing the live traps.
Wrap Up
The best bait for groundhogs is given above which you can use to live trap. After that, you can either leave the woodchucks on an afar spot or humanly kill them.
Since both actions are allowed, you are free to decide. Good Luck on Your Task!