We recently discovered that we had a groundhog living under the corner of our garage. At least, that's where the hole we found was. A hydrangea bush covers that particular area so we may never have noticed it until fall if my neighbour had not happened to see a groundhog in our back yard. Once he was spotted, we all watched it for a couple of days. I even saw it chasing a baby rabbit out of the clover patch at one point. As cute as he was, we really didn't want him tunneling under things on our property so we went out and purchased a live trap. The very idea of that must have let him know he wasn't welcome as we had not seen him for over a week after that.
My hubby decided it was time to fill in the hole, figuring if the groundhog was still around he would try to dig it out again. Well, hey, that's what the nuisance chipmunk did a few years ago. Upon exploring the hole it was discovered that it not only went under the garage but under the patio stones as well. One patio stone was removed and I guess he discovered that wasn't going to be a good way to go for an escape route as it didn't go very far in that direction. It was found that he went from digging horizontally to vertically. After a little probing, we found the hole went down quite a distance. Checking on line I learned that the average burrow depth is five feet! I guess this was the pipe down to that and the patio stone was just a protective roof.
When the chipmunk dug its hole under the garage it made this big pile of dirt. The groundhog made no such pile. I was curious as to where he put all that dirt so I looked online for the answer. Apparently, there are a lot of smart asses on the internet. I asked the simple question, "Where does the dirt from a groundhog hole go?" What I got from answers.com was "Traditionally the answer to this question is that since the object in question is a hole, there is no dirt in it."
And the next answer I got was from Joan Morris of the Bay Area News Group when she answered the same question from someone else. She said, "This isn't widely known, but gophers finance their lavish underground lifestyle by selling all that excavated soil to garden centers, which then sell it to us to use in our gardens."
Well, to be fair, she later explained that the ground beneath our feet here is not as solid as we think and that it is actually filled with air pockets due to all our digging and tilling in our gardens and lawns. The groundhogs collapse and compact these air pockets while building their tunnels. They use the excess dirt to fill in abandoned tunnels and some of it might even make it to be mounded around the entrance. We certainly saw no evidence of that, which is why I went searching for an answer.
The hole did not fill entirely with the dirt available and I still have no idea where the rest went. I will have to dig some out of the garden to fill the hole the rest of the way. But not yet, I guess, as the little devil is back and he's trying to reestablish the hole under the garage. The trap will now be bated with cantaloupe as I have been assured by a couple of people, and the internet that they just love that stuff. Wish us luck before the garage disappears into a sinkhole.
My hubby decided it was time to fill in the hole, figuring if the groundhog was still around he would try to dig it out again. Well, hey, that's what the nuisance chipmunk did a few years ago. Upon exploring the hole it was discovered that it not only went under the garage but under the patio stones as well. One patio stone was removed and I guess he discovered that wasn't going to be a good way to go for an escape route as it didn't go very far in that direction. It was found that he went from digging horizontally to vertically. After a little probing, we found the hole went down quite a distance. Checking on line I learned that the average burrow depth is five feet! I guess this was the pipe down to that and the patio stone was just a protective roof.
When the chipmunk dug its hole under the garage it made this big pile of dirt. The groundhog made no such pile. I was curious as to where he put all that dirt so I looked online for the answer. Apparently, there are a lot of smart asses on the internet. I asked the simple question, "Where does the dirt from a groundhog hole go?" What I got from answers.com was "Traditionally the answer to this question is that since the object in question is a hole, there is no dirt in it."
And the next answer I got was from Joan Morris of the Bay Area News Group when she answered the same question from someone else. She said, "This isn't widely known, but gophers finance their lavish underground lifestyle by selling all that excavated soil to garden centers, which then sell it to us to use in our gardens."
Well, to be fair, she later explained that the ground beneath our feet here is not as solid as we think and that it is actually filled with air pockets due to all our digging and tilling in our gardens and lawns. The groundhogs collapse and compact these air pockets while building their tunnels. They use the excess dirt to fill in abandoned tunnels and some of it might even make it to be mounded around the entrance. We certainly saw no evidence of that, which is why I went searching for an answer.
The hole did not fill entirely with the dirt available and I still have no idea where the rest went. I will have to dig some out of the garden to fill the hole the rest of the way. But not yet, I guess, as the little devil is back and he's trying to reestablish the hole under the garage. The trap will now be bated with cantaloupe as I have been assured by a couple of people, and the internet that they just love that stuff. Wish us luck before the garage disappears into a sinkhole.
