Little Woodchucks Wandering

We get a spike in service calls for groundhog / woodchuck removal at the beginning of the summer as young groundhogs born this year are starting to venture out on their own.

A typical groundhog/woodchuck family in Ohio consists of the mother and 4 or 5 little ones usually born in April-May.

As we reach late June and July, the little ones are venturing out on their own, growing rapidly, and eating a lot!

As the summer progresses, these young of the year will no longer be cared for by their mother and have to find territories/dens of their own.

As this growth, eating, and venturing occur, woodchucks get noticed a lot more and some create problems for our customers.

Ryan recently found this woodchuck outside his own house. It didn’t stay but is indicative of the wandering woodchuck this time of year.

Groundhog Problems: Digging, Eating, and More

Typical problems caused by growing groundhogs are eating plants and flowers people don’t want them to and, of course, digging where they’re unwelcome.

We’ve covered digging groundhogs in a quite a few of our other posts on groundhog removal as it is one of their most destructive habits.

Bu beyond digging, what kind of damage do you think a groundhog could do if it was inside a building?

If you think a groundhog stuck in a building could be bad, you are correct!

Take a look at these pictures shared with us by homeowners who woke up to find a young groundhog in their garage and some damaged drywall.

Apparently, this young groundhog was out exploring: looking for new food sources or a place to call its own when it ventured into a garage with a door left up.

No doubt this garage provided some good exploration for this juvenile woodhuck right up to the point that the garage door was closed for the night…world’s biggest groundhog trap.

Evidently, the young groundhog figured this garage wasn’t a great new home and tried very hard to get out.

It climbed up on this battery charger and was found here in the morning working hard on some drywall demolition.

As you can imagine, the drywall removal ended once the pictures were taken and the garage door was opened.

The little groundhog booked from the garage and will hopefully not become a recurring problem.

Yet, numerous homeowners have found out that young groundhogs showing up in summer often signify an animal with a long term occupancy plan; usually under a shed, deck, or patio.