How to Get Rid of Groundhogs Under a Shed

A groundhog under your shed is removed in three moves. Prove the burrow is empty, get the animal out through eviction or a legal live trap, then bolt a buried L-shaped mesh apron around the shed so the next groundhog cannot move in. Shed dens deserve this order because sealing an occupied tunnel traps animals underneath. Trapping without exclusion just hands a finished burrow to the next tenant.

Rutgers Cooperative Extension puts the humane baseline plainly. In most cases a groundhog burrow is not a problem and should be left alone. Removal without blocking re-entry will not stop new animals from moving in from surrounding areas (Rutgers NJAES). This guide follows that logic. Identify first, evict second, exclude third.

How do you know the den under your shed is a groundhog burrow?

A groundhog entrance grows with its digger until it is about a foot wide, ringed by a fan of excavated soil. Expect more than one opening. Tunnel networks run 8 to 66 feet and stay in use for years, with chambers as deep as five feet, according to the University of Maryland Extension. Rutgers researchers describe similar systems up to 30 feet long and 4 to 5 feet deep, with separate chambers for hibernation (Rutgers NJAES).

Watch the traffic at dawn or late afternoon. The tenant is a heavy rodent in the squirrel family, 16 to 26 inches long and 5 to 15 pounds, with brown fur frosted by white-tipped guard hairs. It travels rarely more than 150 feet from the den to feed, so stripped tomatoes, beans and clover near the shed point straight at the suspect.

Rule out the look-alikes before you buy anything. Burrow system means the full network of tunnels, chambers and entrances belonging to one den, and each digger signs its own version. Moles raise lawn ridges and volcano mounds but never open foot-wide holes, as our mole removal guide shows. Gophers plug crescent mounds and eat roots. Voles run surface runways and gnaw stems without big dens. Cottontail rabbits often squat in abandoned groundhog holes without fresh diggings, which is one more reason to test before you act.

A burrow mouth in grass. Fresh digging plus a wide opening points to groundhog.

Run the vacancy test that Maine extension staff recommend: press crumpled newspaper or a small pile of leaves loosely into every entrance and check over several days. Undisturbed plugs mean the den is idle and safe to fill with soil and rocks. Disturbed plugs mean a resident is still commuting, so leave the holes open and move to eviction. Groundhogs rotate among several burrows from year to year, which creates ideal chances to close a genuinely empty one.

Mind the calendar too. Groundhogs breed in March with a single litter of two to six young, and Rutgers notes kits stay in the burrow until fully furred after about two months of care. Sealing a spring den can orphan young underground. Late summer, after juveniles disperse and before the October hibernation, is the kindest and most practical window.

How do you get a groundhog out from under a shed?

Start gentle and work in this order: evict, trap, exclude. Never seal first.

One-way doors are the cleanest eviction. Secure the full shed perimeter with mesh, leaving only the burrow mouths fitted with one-way devices that let animals exit but not re-enter. Rutgers advises keeping those devices in place for at least two weeks so every animal leaves, then sealing the holes, and it warns against eviction during hibernation or breeding seasons when animals can get trapped inside (Rutgers NJAES). Because a shed hides the full tunnel layout, Rutgers recommends consulting a nuisance wildlife control professional if an eviction is desired. That consult is money well spent when kits may be present.

The vacancy rule: removal means nothing without same-week exclusion

Here is the pattern behind most repeat shed invasions. A proven den under a shed is premium shelter: roof, drainage, cover, food within 150 feet. Maine wildlife operator Randy Canarr sums it up as nature refusing a vacuum, and Rutgers confirms that cleared ground is quickly recolonized from surrounding areas. So treat trapping day and fencing day as one job. Every day a finished burrow sits open and unguarded, it advertises to the next groundhog. Evict on week one, trench the apron on week two, never months apart.

Live-trapping that stays legal and humane

When eviction alone is too slow, a live cage trap at least 10 by 10 by 24 inches is the standard Rutgers cites. Bait with cabbage, lettuce, apple slices or carrots and change the bait daily. Set the trap in the trail directly in front of the main burrow entrance, lay logs or stones on both sides to funnel the animal in, and push the trap base into the soil so the footing feels natural.

Maryland adds the patience step most trappers skip: pre-bait with the trap unset for several days until the groundhog treats it as a feeding station (University of Maryland Extension. Set near the entrance just before daylight and pull the trap before dark, since groundhogs sleep in their burrows at night and darkness only risks catching skunks or raccoons. Check every set trap at least twice a day so captures are removed fast, and close traps whenever you cannot monitor them. A caged animal in contact with hot sun, rain or dogs suffers quickly, so set in shade and keep pets and kids away from the trap line.

Then comes the part that surprises homeowners: you often cannot drive the animal elsewhere. In New Jersey groundhogs are classed as a rabies vector species, so off-site relocation is strongly discouraged and restricted to a 5-mile radius inside the original township with the landowner’s permission, never on public land without approval. Maine fish and wildlife officials discourage moves entirely over disease and conflict risk. Maryland requires no permit to trap but demands landowner permission before any release, and warns against spring moves that strand young or autumn moves ahead of hibernation. Read that as a national caution flag. Your state has its own version, so call the wildlife agency before the trap is even baited.

Skip the rest of the arsenal. Rutgers advises against poisons because pets and wild scavengers eat them, notes lethal traps are illegal in New Jersey except for licensed trappers working water species, and flags steel-jaw leg-hold traps as illegal. Mothballs fail twice over: groundhogs shrug them off, and as Maine extension specialist Griffin Dill notes, they are registered pesticides not labeled as wildlife repellents. Fumigants and fire near a wooden shed risk exactly the structure you are trying to save.

A resident groundhog watching from its burrow mouth. Traps and one-way doors go in the travel path at this entrance, never inside the hole.

What keeps the next groundhog from moving in?

Exclusion, plus a yard that stops feeding the problem. Rutgers calls fencing the most effective way to protect any specific area, and the shed apron is simply a fence laid around a building instead of a garden (Rutgers NJAES).

Hardware cloth is stiff welded wire mesh, usually galvanized steel, that groundhogs cannot chew through the way they defeat chicken wire. For the shed, screw it to the lower edge of the structure, trench at least 12 inches down, and run the mesh 1 to 2 feet outward underground. Maine practice bends that buried section into an L with the foot pointing away from the building: a digger at the wall hits the horizontal shelf and quits instead of tunneling deeper.

Garden beds need the same geometry standing upright. Bury mesh 12 inches with another 12 inches bent horizontal underground, rise 3 to 4 feet above grade, and leave the top 12 inches bent outward at 45 degrees or unattached so it wobbles under a climbing animal. Maine extension puts the garden burial depth at 12 to 18 inches where digging pressure is heavy. Electric strands add a second layer: Rutgers places wires near 4 and 8 inches off the ground, while Maryland sets one strand 4 to 5 inches up and the same distance outside the fence to block climbers.

Habitat work decides whether newcomers even bother testing your fence. Groundhogs can eat up to 1.5 pounds of vegetation a day in summer, favor spring clover, then shift to berries, corn, tomatoes, alfalfa and apples. Pick produce promptly, clear fallen fruit, switch open compost to an enclosed bin, and level brush piles and tall grass that shelter burrow mouths. These are the exact steps Maine extension pairs with every barrier job.

Repellents sit at the bottom of the reliability ladder. Predator urine or dried blood around perimeters, and capsicum, garlic or mustard sprayed on plants, can nudge an animal that is only passing through. Rutgers is blunt about the limit: where groundhogs already know a food source, deterrents likely fail. Maine staff report animals habituate to ammonia and coyote rags within days. Budget scents as a two-week bridge while you trench, not as the plan.

Method	What it actually does	Effort	Honest limit
L-shaped mesh apron	Blocks digging under sheds, decks and gardens	One hard digging weekend	Useless if an animal is sealed inside, so test vacancy first
One-way door eviction	Lets residents out, none back in	Pro consult plus two weeks of monitoring	Wrong during breeding or hibernation season
Live trapping	Removes the current animal	Daily checks, bait changes, legal homework	Pointless without exclusion, since newcomers refill the den
Habitat cleanup	Lowers food and cover value	Ongoing picking, binning and trimming	Slow alone against an established den
Scent and taste repellents	Brief deterrence	Spray and reapply after rain	Animals habituate, and fed regulars ignore them

A groundhog sampling garden flowers. One animal eats up to 1.5 pounds of plants a day in summer.

Fences beat sprays for beds for exactly that reason. Browse the wider lawn and garden pest group to compare diggers side by side, and meet the species profile in the groundhog hub.

When should you call a wildlife professional?

Call promptly when tunnels approach foundations, footings, slabs or retaining walls, since undermined soil shifts drainage and settles structures. Call when the newspaper test keeps failing in spring, which signals dependent young, or when the den sits somewhere traps cannot go safely around kids and pets. Call when your state’s trapping, relocation or discharge rules read like a maze. And call after two correct weeks of DIY produce nothing, because a pro rechecks the diagnosis itself: burrow reuse by rabbits, foxes or skunks fools plenty of homeowners.

Ask for a written scope that separates inspection, eviction or trapping, exclusion and repair, and be wary of anyone promising instant results with poisons or unlabeled chemicals. Compare your options across all pests if several diggers share the yard, then open the pro finder to hire the exclusion work done right.

How to: How to Get Rid of Groundhogs Under a Shed

Prove the shed burrow is empty, remove the animal legally, then bar the next one with buried mesh.

You'll need

• galvanized hardware cloth
• screws with washers
• crumpled newspaper
• live trap (optional)
• work gloves

Tools

• trenching shovel
• wire cutters

1. Map every entrance

   Walk the shed perimeter at dawn and flag each hole. Groundhog systems hold multiple entrances, and missing one ruins both trapping and sealing.

2. Run the newspaper test

   Plug each entrance loosely with newspaper or leaves. Recheck over several days. Seal nothing until every plug sits undisturbed.

3. Evict or trap the resident

   Fit one-way doors over entrances for at least two weeks, or live-trap at the main entrance with fresh produce bait. Confirm your state rules before relocating anything.

4. Install the L-shaped apron

   Screw hardware cloth to the shed base, trench 12 inches deep, and run the mesh 1 to 2 feet outward underground. Backfill and tamp firmly.

5. Strip food and cover

   Pick up fallen fruit, switch to an enclosed compost bin, and clear brush piles. Recheck the apron each spring for frost or erosion gaps.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know the burrow under my shed is empty before I seal it?

Press crumpled newspaper or loose leaves lightly into each entrance and check over several days. Undisturbed stuffing means no animal is passing through, and only then should you fill holes with soil and rocks. Never seal a burrow that still shows traffic.

What bait works best in a groundhog live trap?

Cabbage, lettuce, apple slices and carrots, changed daily. Set the trap right at the main entrance, funnel the path with logs, and pre-bait with the trap unset for several days so the groundhog feeds calmly first. Check set traps at least twice a day and close them at night.

Can I relocate a trapped groundhog to a park or woods?

Usually no, or only with strict conditions. In New Jersey groundhogs are classed as a rabies vector species, so moves outside the capture site are strongly discouraged and limited to a 5-mile radius inside the same township with landowner permission. Maine wildlife officials discourage relocation over disease and conflict risk. Always confirm the rules with your own state wildlife agency before you trap.

Do mothballs, ammonia or predator urine drive groundhogs away?

Only briefly. Animals get used to scent rags fast, and mothballs are registered pesticides that are not labeled for use as wildlife repellents. Use scents as a short nudge while you build the real fix, which is a buried mesh barrier.

When should I call a wildlife professional instead of DIY?

Call when tunnels run near foundations, footings or slabs, when young may still be in the den, when local trapping rules confuse you, or when correct trapping and fencing have failed. Rutgers extension specifically advises consulting a nuisance wildlife control professional for evictions and lethal methods.

Useful links (3)

1. Rutgers NJAES E361: Ecology and Management of the Groundhog— njaes.rutgers.edu
2. University of Maryland Extension: Groundhogs— extension.umd.edu
3. Bangor Daily News: How to keep groundhogs from making your property home (2026, UMaine Extension)— bangordailynews.com

Photo credits

Thank you to Cephas, Ryan Hodnett, EleetCanoe and Rhododendrites for sharing these beautiful photographs and helping bring this guide to life.

Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0