{"id":696,"date":"2012-08-24T09:06:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T13:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/?p=696"},"modified":"2012-10-29T18:00:20","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T22:00:20","slug":"lets-meet-the-previous-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/archives\/696","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Meet the Previous Residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

(or, Diary of a Groundhog Trapper<\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n

OK, my last post was about bandwidth hogs<\/strong>. This one is about groundhogs<\/strong>. I’ve just moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take a new job at the University of Michigan. Here is a quick episodic diary of my first few days with our new house.<\/p>\n

Episode #1<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Our home inspector reports that when he arrived at our new house there were two groundhogs “frolicking”<\/strong> on the lawn. We don’t have groundhogs where we are from. We’re not sure what to make of this news.<\/p>\n

Episode #2<\/span>.<\/strong> Our home inspector shows us a large hole that has been chewed through the front porch<\/strong> with bits of fur caught on the edge. There are a lot of little footprints leading up to the hole. We are concerned.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nEpisode #2-a<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. It turns out that\u00a0groundhog, woodchuck, whistle-pig<\/strong>, and land-beaver<\/a>\u00a0are all synonyms.<\/p>\n

Episode #3<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. The home inspector’s report is finished. It includes a photo that shows something has been in our crawlspace, chewing on the underside of our floor. \u00a0In addition, there is a groundhog-sized tunnel leading through our stone (!) foundation wall<\/strong> nearby, undermining our foundation. The inspector comments that this area looks like a “critter dining room.” We are concerned. Something should be done, but what?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Episode #3-a<\/em><\/strong><\/span>. An Internet search reveals a variety of improbable folk remedies<\/strong>, like filling groundhog holes with cat poop. We are dubious. Where would we get enough cat poop?<\/p>\n

Episode #3-b<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Having big holes full of cat poop<\/strong> all around your house seems worse than having a groundhog.<\/p>\n

Episode #4<\/strong><\/em><\/span>. After moving in, we found two medium-sized\u00a0Havahart<\/a> traps already in the house. One came with a squirrel’s corpse<\/strong> still inside it… so we know they work. \u00a0Spouse reads on the Web that groundhogs love\u00a0cantaloupe<\/strong>. A quick run to the grocery store and the two traps are baited and set.<\/p>\n

Episode #4-a<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. I found myself removing the seeds<\/strong> from the cantaloupe until I realize that this is silly.<\/p>\n

Episode #5<\/strong><\/em><\/span>. Both traps are triggered, but the\u00a0cantaloupe\u00a0is still inside them. Chipmunks?<\/strong> A lead-footed groundhog? We are not sure.<\/p>\n

Episode #6<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Arriving home in the early morning a groundhog is seen sunning himself on the driveway. He runs when we approach and we can’t help noticing that he is obese<\/strong>. He is also fairly slow. Will he even fit inside the trap opening? This is debated. He runs into the bushes.<\/p>\n

Episode #6-a<\/strong><\/em><\/span>. We decide that our obvious next step should be to research cute animal pictures<\/strong> and funny videos on the Internet<\/a>. We discover that certain dog breeds are very good at killing groundhogs. Terriers are excellent but reportedly they are hard to live with. We discover that the Blackmouth Cur<\/a>\u00a0(pictured below)\u00a0is both an excellent pet and also a great groundhog chaser. Coincidentally, we meet a neighbor with a Mountain Cur<\/a>\u00a0(a related breed). The neighbor confirms that his dog really likes to catch and kill\u00a0raccoons,\u00a0 groundhogs, and even squirrels (!). We leap into action and look at a lot more cute animal pictures on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Episode #7<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Rustling<\/strong> in the bushes near one trap. Spouse hears sound outside like someone “knocked something big over.”<\/p>\n

Episode #8<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. One trap is triggered and cantaloupe is gone. Victory groundhog<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Episode #9<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. The cantaloupe in the second trap lures a swarm of angry yellow-jackets<\/strong>, which we discover when they sting the radon guy. He says he “doesn’t mind.” We doubt this.<\/p>\n

Episode #10<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. The first trap is triggered a few more times but the cantaloupe is not removed. \u00a0So close<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

Episode #11<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. The second trap’s cantaloupe\u00a0is now covered in swarming ants<\/strong>. They fight the yellow jackets. We decide to never touch this trap again.<\/p>\n

Episode #12<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. We call Critter Control<\/a>\u00a0and the very nice man comes out and agrees with our overall strategy. He puts down two larger traps in addition to our two traps. He baits his with apples<\/strong> and he puts them directly adjacent to the groundhog hole.<\/p>\n

Episode #13<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Finally! Just a few hours later, we meet the previous resident of our property<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Episode #13-a<\/strong><\/em><\/span>. For reasons unknown, our daughter names him “Thomasson<\/strong>.” (Is she a fan of Sweet Home Alabama or Free Bird<\/a>?)<\/p>\n

Episode #13-b<\/strong><\/span><\/em>. Thomasson has a lot of B.O.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Continue to part 2 of this series<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(or, Diary of a Groundhog Trapper) OK, my last post was about bandwidth hogs. This one is about groundhogs. I’ve just moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take a new job at the University of Michigan. Here is a quick episodic diary of my first few days with our new house. Episode #1. Our home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[48407,6386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-groundhog-saga","category-living"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4M7Bm-be","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/niftyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}