Things to try:

1. Cat fur. Stuff it into the woodchuck's hole. The one that the beast dug, not the female woodchuck's hole. That might be dangerous.

2. This.

Trap.
Rock up the entry/exit holes (for me it was a garage one year, a porch the second...)
Drive to Wisconsin.
Toss into ravine.
Repeat.

I have some noisy-ass crows that tempt me to rethink my position on gun ownership. They think my bird baths are their personal killing fields. Regularly I find them dunking bagels, or creating a lovely soup from some slaughterd baby bird. Ick. That's not the zen garden I envisioned. Blam!

In the home plot, I just put in some stumpy carrots, some fennel, some chard, detroit red beets, and I am trying some bush beans in a random back spot, to see if I get any quantity- it might be too shady.

I am trying some natural bug pest guard- cottonseed and rosemary oil. Hmmm.

http://cellar.org/2006/jackthecat.jpg

Import natural predators. If Jack can tree a bear,...

So far, I'm most enamoured of Wolf's # 2 suggestion, it's the gearhead in me I suppose.

I am going to trap it with a have a heart trap and then I am going to relocate it as per my wife's desires. (relocate it somewhere off this mortal coil, or to woodchuck camp, or to the bottom of the creek)

I have also been carrying on a harrassment campign which includes firing the paslode through the spaces in the porch floorboards, (emotional satisfaction really) I'm hoping for the have a heart trap since I live surrounded by neighbors and the only high vantage point (for downward shooting) does not have a good sight line of the holes. If I could find a nice supressor for the .17 or .22 that would take care of my other concern about shooting in the village.

I have several of those 77s......a two liter supressor is cheap. ;)

a little research and it seems all the really good things are illegal.

Only if you're caught.

I got rid of a woodchuck a couple of years ago by trapping it. Afterwards a friend told me that the best way to discourage them is to put used cat litter clumps at the entrance to their holes. I can send you lots of clumps if you need them!

My uncle uses that to get rid of trespassing bow hunters, works beautifully!

Thanks Katkeeper, we're plenty stocked w/ clumps.
:)

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenb1.jpg

Sorry about the size of these huge garden images.

Or, enjoy. This is the new 8x5 bed and as you can see it's happenin'. From top, it's 4 brussels sprouts, 2 rosemary, 1 sage, carrot rows and at lower right is a jalapeno plant. Not visible are beets and a row of marigolds along the edge.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenb2.jpg

Pearl checks everything out and here you can see the tomato staking operation

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenb3.jpg

The brussels sprouts are really impressive, in how fast they're growing.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenb4.jpg

The herbs are slow to start, but the spinach is taking off.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenb5.jpg

The first tomato. It's so early for this. We are going to have hundreds.

Chuck update:

Caught him /her after a tip from an informant pointed out cherry tomatoes as bait. CAught in less than ten minutes.

He didn't even realize he was in the trap.

SWMBO got all peta on me and insisted I release it. So I drove it to the part of the state froest where I saw a Barred owl last year. Not to mention the fox and coyotes...

LMAO and slap my knee!! I love it!

cues Disney Lion King theme...

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc1.jpg

Garden enjoys all this rain. Carrots are about half done.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc2.jpg

Large bed doing well. Lower half carrots, upper half brussels sprouts, in between are rosemary and sage and beets.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc4.jpg

and jalapeno.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc3.jpg

The other beds. the bare-looking one is mostly herbs and they are slow to take off. The spinach has taken yellow after all the rain. I fed it.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc5.jpg

Beets. Not doing great, I think this is because I used a low grade of seed. Live and learn.

http://cellar.org/2006/gardenc6.jpg

The worst problem is that the tomatoes have aphids. I have been using an organic approach to this problem so far: I pick them off by hand. This has kept it under control but I don't look forward to continuing the job all summer.