bjames, you may have chosen the wrong forum. This is about cooking, so although some member may have an answer to your question, you're more likely to get an answer on one of the gardening forums, I think.

Annie

I'm waiting for recipes for cooking for groundhogs, or for cooking groundhogs....

;-)

I think they will form more buds but you might try planting some marigolds about, most animals do not like the smell of them so the groundhogs -(and are you sure it's a groundhog?)-will move elsewhere. Another option is sprinkling milorganite around, again, another animal deterrent.

sounds painful ;)

Here is the recipe I use for making homemade Liquid Fence. The groundhogs in my yard ( and rabbits and deer) leave my perennials and veggies alone when it is applied regularly.

Alexa

Deer Off
(makes 1 gallon)
4 eggs
1 ��" 2 tbsp cayenne
1 ��" 2 tbsp garlic powder
ü cup Wilt-Pruf (as a sticker spreader)
Water
Put 4 raw eggs in a blender. Add cayenne and garlic powder. Blend on high until completely mixed. Pour into an empty gallon container. Add Wilt-Pruf and enough water to make a gallon. Mix well. Store in the sun (or any warm place) for a week or more to rot the eggs.
Spray frequently on plants, especially after rain. And, don't use the Wllt Pruf on heavy glaucous blue hostas... it strips the blue off

The perennials will most likely come back, but not until next year.

Use a Hav-a-heart trap to get rid of the groundhogs. We trap them and relocate them to a local area where our township stores mulch and stuff. Lots of green stuff for them to munch on there.

Alexa, do you keep that in a tank type sprayer? It doesn't clog?

Beez - I strain out any eggy bits (chalaza, etc) before I put it in the sprayer. The only time it clogged was when I left it in there for a week or two, the eggs coagulated. Now I just put fresh in when I am spraying and am careful to clean it between applications.

Alexa

And to keep this somewhat food related, the best bait for groundhogs is cantaloupe. There seem to be more of them this year than ever.

Thanks!

Here is some info from the pest forum that might be useful. I've never seen a groundhog, except in the zoo, and so I assume they are a more northern animal, since they hibernate.

Lars

ETA: I fixed the link - there was a quote mark out of place!

This post was edited by publickman on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 17:15

Lars, that post seems to have been deleted. After many years of attempted groundhog pest control, we finally threw in the towel and learned to live in relative harmony with them.

We are waiting to see how they react to losing their main recreational food source in Hurricane Sandy - a very large Lodi and productive apple tree.

Here's a young one and the adults are a larger and longer version.

I make basically the same mix as posted above but not the wilt-prof. (i add a bit of dr. Bronners peppermint soap). I need to run out and re-apply after a long rainy night. When the deer get my hostas they are gone for the year but all come back. The sprayers do clog very easily but try putting a knee-high panty hose right over the opening. Makes a nice fine mesh and reusable if you can stand the stench.

I have a batch that got a bit funky so i just dump it at the property line where the deer path is.

Sleevendog - try the Wilt-Pruf (but not on blue hostas) it does keep it working even after a light rain... drenching downpours I reapply no matter what, so I have no idea of the Wilt-Pruf holds up to that or not.

Alexa

Y'all are too nice. Groundhog stew, that's the solution!! Where is Granny Clampett when you need her?!

And for something perhaps helpful and relevant, I have tried and tried to grow coneflower/echinacea and it is the favorite food of just about every imaginable form of wildlife--from bunnies to bugs, so it is a constant battle to keep it growing. And my groundhog stew recipe was only half joking, live-trap and "relocate" one groundhog and another will move in from surrounding areas (where your neighbors trapped and released them) to fill the gaps. If your suburban situation is really bad, an electric fence on top and underneath buried to two feet may be your only long term protection. And even then, they have their ways . . .

This is the most useful post on CF I've seen in a long time! I've been battling rabbits and quail who have eaten plants right down to the soil line. They will eat annual lobelia which I chose because all parts are poisonous (not enough, it seems). Even the sedums which were labelled deer-proof are just another food group.

I'm going to try Alexa's homemade liquid fence. I was considering the commercial product, but the cost was a big high.

To make this a bit food related, I wonder about trapping the quail. I've never eaten a freshly killed quail. DH would be horrified. He thinks they are so cute, diving off the garden wall in swarms to eat anything green.

Cheryl

Groundhogs are a problem here too.....

Good to see you back Pinkie!

Di

Caliloo/Alexa - I have a couple of questions about your liquid fence mix. How long can you keep it in storage? I imagine it must smell to high heaven which may be the main reason not to keep it too long.

Second question - will the garden smell like rotten eggs? Do you reapply when the smell wears off, or is there another way to tell? I live in the arid Southwest where it almost never rains, so once it's applied it's going to stay there a long time.

Thanks,
Cheryl

Hey Cheryl

Once it dries, I can't smell anything and neither do my kids who would tell me in a heartbeat if it smelled funky in the backyard.

And storage? Well, I think it gets "better" with age! LOLOL! Seriously, I kept a partial batch over the winter in the shed and it was "ripe" when I used it this spring. That particular batch had gotten quite chunky, so I put it in a watering can instead of the sprayer, but it sure kept everything out of the garden until it rained again.

Give it a try without the Wilt-Pruf, if it isn't for you, hit everything with the hose and wash it off.... it is all natural and biodegradable.

Alexa

This post was edited by caliloo on Tue, Jun 4, 13 at 14:31

Hi Alexa,

Thank you! I'm going to give this a try. I replanted the annuals yesterday for the THIRD time. My sedums and echinacea are eaten down to bare stems. Last year, they chewed up the tomato plants and pulled apples right off the tree. DH has put up plastic mesh around some of the plants. The rabbits chewed right through it and kept on going. I suggested that we could give them a good dose of lead poisoning, but DH is too soft hearted. I keep looking up rabbit recipes, in hopes he will change his mind.

Cheryl

I had a big hot pepper flake container get some moth bug larva funk, so i used it for my mix and a couple heads of garlic that were not so pretty. Started a 'marinade' a few months ago then made some batches with that. It smells pretty good, like food. Another full batch is getting a bit 'ripe' but not at all like a full garbage can sitting out in the hot sun.
My sprayer clogged and it was getting dark last night so i just shook it all over my hostas to use it up, and doused myself a bit. I did smell like a Zesty Italian salad bar, DH noted, but not a bag of garbage. (showered)
Pruning this morning the smell had dissipated.