They are a rabies vector animal. They live & eat RIGHT NEXT to the entrance to the house. If either my kid or the groundhog panicked, both of their “retreat” locations would’ve been at the same spot. That’s just begging for confrontation. I’ve got a 3 year old and a 6 month old. When we play on the swing set, it’s always supervised. But it’s impossible to stop the 3 year old when the 6 month old needs your immediate attention (and arms for holding).
The kids don’t go outside when I cut the lawn, so that’s not an issue.
I’m not so sure it was humane and it definitely wasn’t manly… thought I didn’t care if it were manly or not.
Look, I’m not saying it was right. I will say that as an observer (when I was 8) the following method worked:
There used to be a Dr down the street from my parents house who would catch squirrels in humane traps. They were infesting his attic and he hated them. He’d lower full traps into a hefty bag and cinch the bag to his cars tail pipe. Then he’d idle the engine for an hour. It was effective, but it left a melted plastic ring around the tail pipe.
I guess technically you could just tie off the bag air tight, go to bed, and empty the trap in the morning and save a gallon of gas. The thing is, if the bag isn’t air tight it either won’t work or it will lead to a really slow suffocation.
I have no idea what alcoholic beverage goes best with these two dishes. I suspect the important thing is to drink much of it before and during the meal.
Have a medium Hav-A-Hart. Live in a reasonably suburban area. My tally so far is 22 ground squirrels, 12 skunks, 3 opossums, and a rat. The neighborhood cats seem to be too smart to get into it. The local raccoon also seems pretty smart. We did have rabbits, but we actually caught those by hand.
The skunks seem to move territories. As soon as I’ve cleaned out one family, a new litter moves in within a couple of months.
With the exception of the first skunk (animal control) all were drowned in a large 50 gallon tub (we have horses). No guilt at all. I’ve seem animals that have died in much worse, and natural, ways.
Caught 2 more this season. One when I was away on business; the wife had to have the neighbor relocate the 'hog.
And I caught another one last night. This one had to be active last year because she had blue paint/stain on her tail that matched the color of the shed I painted last year. Is it just me or does it seem odd that there would still be paint in her fur?
I was also amazed at how much smaller/thinner this one was compared to the one I caught last year. They really must bulk up for hibernation.
I found this post morbidly hilarious. Submerging the thing in water and holding it down until it drowns sounds a bit… ah, well, I just don’t think I’d have the heart to do it. I think I could kill it in some other fashion, though.
They do, but nowhere anywhere close to east of the Mississippi. You can only really get the plague if A) you’re out here in ye olde wilde weste and B) you try, by going out and playing with rodents without the benefit of gloves or anything. I don’t know if groundhogs can carry it, but marmots do and they’re is the same genus, so, maybe. My advice on that would not to cuddle with the groundhog and you’ll be fine.
Really? That sounds pretty horrible. My understanding, which could be mistaken, is that CO2 buildup triggers the “oh crap, I can’t breath” sensation, at least in humans.
If you wanted to try something similar, I imagine putting the raccoon in a trash can with an open container of liquid nitogen would work - nitrogen asphyxiation won’t trigger the feeling of strangulation, so it should be fairly painless.
How expensive is a vat of liquid nitrogen, though? And its thrashing could be dangerous so you’d have to have a container that you could lock it into. Maybe a crate with a hole and funnel on the top and you can just pour it in.
