Homeowner explained that a groundhog was living in the crawlspace. He said he's only ever seen one of them. I caught one with a positive set and left the traps for a few more days just in case. I pulled out...all was well. He now says something is clawing through his screen and forcing entry again -- not even a week later. Obviously there was more than one evidently. My question is, how long would you expect to leave your traps before you could conclude that you had likely caught all that were living there?

Herbivores need to eat a lot, often. They aren’t going to be doing well after a week.

Check for scat and tracks to verify what is down there. Is there a chimney clean out something new could have come through?

This sounds all to familiar. Three customers have called me back. When a customer says "I've only ever seen one of them," it means they have only seen one at a time. I had one place set a few weeks ago, the traps set there for eight days and on the ninth morning the customer calls and says we have a groundhog, which was the first one. She called me back at 6:45 PM that same day, and said we had another one.

Wow...I truly appreciate you guys sharing your expertise. This forum is super helpful to guys like me who are newer at this stuff. I've trapped fur since about 1984, but this nuisance trapping is different, no doubt.

With groundhogs it could be just minutes, to over a week, for first catch. I like to keep traps set for at least a few days after last catch is made. I like to use single door cages so I know from which direction the animal was caught. I'll gang set with traps facing in and out. Winter time female skunks are the only animals that seem to take forever to exit their den. Other animals can take a few days if they just gave birth. It sounds like you got the one that was still underneath, and another came later and tried to get back in. Sometimes you get called back, just how it is.

My longest wait on a chuck was 18 days, blocked second exit hole & set one way on first, almost pulled that to early. like said above, could make a catch while their or take a few days.

Day 7 I caught another groundhog. Leaving traps there for a few more days. I don't want to leave the traps there longer than necessary, obviously, but I certainly don't want to pull out and leave another critter there. I'm hoping another 5 days or so will be enough? After that I'm hoping it's safe to assume the den is empty and exclusion can be installed.

trapped for a church, they said theres only one small one. caught two. moral of the story, keep multiple traps set

UPDATE:

Day 8...caught another groudhog

Day 9...caught a very large female groundhog

pulling traps on day 11 per homeowner request...hopefully we got 'em all....I think they want to keep cost down, I just hope there's not a straggler


So much for "we have one groundhog living here"

You’re cleaning out the neighborhood. The ones that were living there are long gone, lol.

You will learn that Ghog's are den hoppers and can cover some ground investigating potential den sites, looking for receptive / mates / females or basically doing some recon of their home range. Seeing who is there if not vacant and their age or sex. The time of year determines which one of the mentioned reasons they are doing what they do.

Prime groundhog burrow locations can be cleaned out but they will not stay empty very long. Looks like you left the traps there long enough to start catching back fill.

Bob's post is spot on!

As others have said, the customer is not always correct, when they've seen one, that's literally what they mean. they've only seen one. I usually tell the customer upfront that we are likely to capture 3-4 woodchucks possibly more. that way they aren't surprised at the cost at the end. that being said from what ive read and experienced if the traps are empty for 3 consecutive days with good weather I make the call that we've gotten all that we can. new ones can always move into the area, and the customer acknowledges that in the agreement.