Set up my ADC wood chuck job today. Me and my buddy set 62 160s and we ran out of traps. So, since we were there, we flagged another 42 holes. Not all of those holes are live dens but you never kinow so we set all of them.

I will try and get pictures tommrow. The mosquitos were super bad and with 80 deg temps it was a tough morning

Good luck. The first batch of little ones are out around here. 'Chucks everywhere.

It's also eye opening how much animal activity those den holes can see.

In what type of situation do have over 100 holes for g'hogs?

I've fielded most of my calls for the year. 2 to 3 traps per locale. Usually residential. If I set 62 sets I couldn't imagine how many chucks and the by catch of skunks, rabbits, fox, coon, possum etc ...
Everything around here uses chuck holes. I've caught up to 5 species out of one hole in a week. Most headed in.

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This Is a 100-acre property with 6 lagoons that are all diked. The chucks are under minging these dikes. This is the first year that they have mowed right down to the water edge in most places. So now more chuck holes are exposed.
I have trapped this property for 15 years. And we never run out of chucks. My biggest catch was 65 chucks in 7 checks. Like I said this is 100 acres and you will never find all the den holes. I'm sure that lots of the holes we set might be inactive, but you never know.
I've caught mink grinners and snakes but have never caught a coon or a skunk out of any of these dens.
They have a new property manager, and she seems to feel the need to do a ride along.

Beav, you are in Wi,,,, in July,,,,,with 80 degrees,,,,,, do you want no skeeters? That would mean you would need a drought like we have had here on the Plains for 3 years and even then I believe you could come up with some blood seekers from peoples front yard sprinklers.......the mike

Try peppermint oil or fresh peppermint for them mosquitoes
You will enjoy a mosquito free outing and smell good

I will try that I have some peppermint oil that I use in my rat lure.
Body count 18 chucks and 1 coon. And here I said we never catch any coon. 5 sprung traps. And one trap gone. I've had this happen before where a coyote or maybe a coon will drag away the chuck and the trap. With all the rain we have had the ground is petty soft in fact you can push in the stakes by hand.
Property manager was ok had a lot of questions and followed us around until it was time to start setting traps. I think she wanted to get body count.
I got some pictures, and I will get some more tomorrow and have the wife post them.

Beav. Making bait out of chucks?

Nope.

When you set on Monday and check on Tuesday in 80deg weather the chucks double in size and are infested with ants and fly eggs. They get 86ed as soon as they are out of the trap.

Back in the day I did some work for Rich Casper and in trade he sent me 3 gallons of his bait I still have a gallon.

Still catching chucks Beav?

Got a new location to set up on Monday.

Caught 36 off the first location. Had 3 traps drug off by coyotes or maybe coon. I did find one trap with nothing left but skin and bones of a young chuck. It looked like some type of raptor worked that one over. I did say in the beginning of this post that I didn't catch any coon in these sets. Well, I caught 2 this time around.
My bad about camera work I just don't seem to have time.
The lost traps are my fault some of my T bar stakes have a short T and the trap wring can slip over the T. When I'm done, I'm removing all the trap rings and replacing them with some type of stake swivel.

I've done the single stake swivel on my 160's also. Made a whole bunch of 3/8 T-stakes of different lengths just for summer chuck trapping a few years ago.
I had a few chucks half eaten this year and that's with first light trap check. Always wondered if I shouldn't start checking right after dark. Don't think I've ever seen a chuck out after dark. But I'm an early morning guy and certainly not a night owl anymore

I get pictures of groundhogs on trail cameras at night. If there is something there they like to eat, they certainly will move at night. I have had night pictures of them in remote locations and close to dens under buildings.

My experiences are some Groundhogs move at night. Reason being, I've set late evening near dark30, next morning check at sunup. Bingo! a Groundhog going INTO hole.

That's something I've never seen in sixty some years, and we have plenty of woodchucks.
I'm constantly learning on here. Thanks guys

When I was doing commercial grubbing control work ( skunk, coon and others ) on golf courses I would see ghogs out at night many nites during those shooting times. I started rounds about 9 pm and patroled until midnight most evenings.

I didn't believe it until I saw it many times. Too many times to be an accident. My theory is the course was quite busy most days except rain days.

Due to the continuous daylight hour activity, I think many of the ghogs were interrupted so many times during the day that they evolved to become noctural feeders or at least intermittent late nite grazers.

I think that last statement is very much spot on. I believe they are more likely to be active at night if there is a lot of disturbance around them during the day. But I also have had them on trail cameras at night where there was no disturbance during the day.

Sort of like seeing them up in a tree. I will never forget the first time I saw that. Was going bow hunting early season and it was still warm bordering on hot. Packed my climbing stand in and put it on a tree at the edge of the woods. Climbed up about 20', pulled my bow up and got settled in. Looked around and there was a groundhog sitting on a limb, eye level with me, about 10 yds away.

I also remember vividly my first ghog up high in a tree. It was so high I thought it as a coon that was sleeping in the tree crotch way up high. I had to look very hard at the hair color and texture. So much in fact, I went back to my truck to get my binoculars to be sure.