We’ve been battling for the past two weeks with a groundhog in the back yard.  It’s been nibbling on Edith’s petunias and daisies, but mostly leaving the vegetable garden alone.  That is, until Friday night.

I noticed Friday evening while checking on the garden that something had managed to get inside the fence and nibble on the lettuce and broccoli; the perpetrator had chewed a hole through the plastic fencing.  On Saturday morning while walking downstairs, Edith spied the groundhog out the back window, which she chased with a broom until it scurried under the back fence and into the next yard.  This morning, I again saw signs of visitation from the groundhog, and I took the Hav-a-Hart trap out of the garage and set it up, waiting for Edith to come home with some bait.  Later, while I was in the back yard mending a garden hose, I thought I heard our little friend trying to dig into our yard from next door, but in actuality the little rodent was inside our garden fence!  I quickly grabbed the broom and placed the trap inside the garden perimeter, so that it might run inside the trap while trying to get away from me.  Edith heard the commotion from the kitchen window, and joined me in prodding and poking the groundhog as it ran and hid among our vegetables.  I could tell it was getting frustrated and scared, trying desperately to escape, and it did eventually run inside the trap.  I placed the trapped animal into the back of the car and drove it across Route 22 and up the hill about 7 miles to Berkeley Heights, where I released it into a wooded area.

I feel good that this pest has been captured and removed, but I’m really hoping that there are not more of them.