WOODCHUCK (AKA GROUNDHOG)
The woodchuck, a member of the squirrel family, is common throughout the South. It can be found in open pastures, woodlots, cultivated and fallow fields, and along railroad embankments, ditch banks, roadsides, fence rows, and levees. In cropping areas, woodchucks consume soybeans, corn and alfalfa. The extensive burrowing activities of woodchucks in fields can interfere with farm operations, cause damage to equipment, injury to livestock, and create significant erosion problems in levees, pond dams and railroad embankments. Around private homes, one or two woodchucks are capable of destroying a small garden almost overnight.
The woodchuck is a vegetarian. Various grasses, clover, alfalfa, plantain, and other types of tender green succulents make up its diet. In crop areas, it is especially fond of the soybean plant, but it will also feed on young corn plants and even ears in the milk stage. An adult woodchuck consumes between 1 and 1-1/2 pounds of vegetation daily.
An understanding of burrow construction and of the movement of woodchucks within and around crop fields is important for effective control programs. Too often, only temporary control is achieved because the number of active burrows and/or the number of woodchucks within a field and its surrounding area is underestimated.
Woodchucks are most practically controlled in crop fields via fumigation of their dens or by shooting. Around buildings or high fire hazard areas, or where it is desirable to control the woodchucks with a nonlethal approach, live-trapping is the safest and most appropriate means.
