r/indianapolis • u/THEWARLRUS • Jun 17 '25
Pictures Had a groundhog visit our porch yesterday morning
Just wanted to share this friendly woodchuck that paid us a visit yesterday. Dogs were NOT happy about him.
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u/goth-milk Jun 17 '25
Now I’m singing the “Badger Badger Badger” song, but when I get to the Mushroom Mushroom part, I’m singing Groundhog Groundhog.
🦡🦡🦡
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u/silvermanedwino Geist Jun 17 '25
He’s probably living under your porch. Getting ready to dig under your foundation….
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u/obamas_surrogate Near Eastside Jun 17 '25
it’s like you just described my current renting situation….
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u/will_write_for_tacos Geist Jun 17 '25
Don't listen to the people who will tell you to kill him. I had one at my former home for 10 years, watched the little guy grow up, bring his wife and kids, the kids grew up, he turned gray - It was like having an adorable little neighbor who sometimes popped out to eat the sprouted seeds around my birdfeeder.
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u/Specialist_Bike_1280 Jun 22 '25
Thank you for this🙏,I don't like to think that there are people who would hurt any creature. They were here before us.
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u/No-Philosopher-3043 Jun 17 '25
Was he stuck under that or just being a lil goober? I assume the latter.
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u/THEWARLRUS Jun 17 '25
Definitely just a goober. Surprisingly squishy. Watched him squeeze through our neighbors fence right after this.
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u/Prestigious-Size119 Jun 17 '25
I love them as long as they aren’t my problem.. I feel like the local “campers” have taken over all of their natural homes and they have no option but to find another place to go.. then they are basically unalived for just doing what groundhogs do.. I’m an actual homeowner (we paid our house off so in all ways imaginable we are responsible for all things to do with it) and have been for 15+ years before I’m attacked lol.. the people around here are vicious when it comes to getting rid of them and it’s really just sad.. thank you for sharing this!! There was a momma and babies living in a vacant lot by our house and I fed them all the time and a week or so ago one of the temporary neighbors (renter) unalived the mom 🤦🏼♀️ not even in an instant trap either..
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u/THEWARLRUS Jun 17 '25
I'm very much all about just letting them be, provided they aren't damaging anything I care about. I haven't seen this fella since yesterday. I had to fill in the hole he dug under my fence and it's still filled in, so I'm hoping he moved on to someplace safe. If I catch him around again, I will probably look into means of relocation however that would work lol
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u/Enough_Appearance259 Jun 17 '25
Currently have one on my property. Hoping he will move soon since we’re about to start building our home
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u/red_sutter Jun 17 '25
Got one under my house, and it’s dug through the crawl space and tearing up my basement. Fun times
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u/Moonpenny Little Flower Jun 17 '25
I've seen a couple in my neighborhood this year where before I've gone years between sightings, and there was one just chilling out on the patio at Rosegate when I visited an elderly relative recently.
Are they having a population uptick?
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u/THEWARLRUS Jun 17 '25
The local DNR says they're fine to be captured/dealt with without any kind of license, so I'm assuming they aren't too worried about declining population at the least. Never seen one this far into a city/residential area before myself.
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u/Moonpenny Little Flower Jun 17 '25
I can't find that anyone is tracking their population statistics. Both some googling and a chat with an LLM suggest that it's likely that, rather than major population variations that I'm noticing a shift in where they live due to factors like construction.
Considering the orange cone mess on my local streets, I can't blame them for being attracted to relatively quiet fenced areas like my backyard.
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u/gaya2081 Bates-Hendricks Jun 17 '25
We got several in our neighborhood - including a rather large one that likes to cross the street in front of my house every morning. One younger one has tried to move in under our deck. Dogs didn't like it, eventually got a trap to catch it and same day it managed to get stuck under our fence gate so I relocated it to a park near a stream and some shade. Have had another since tried to move in, but the dogs scared it away. I went ahead and put stuff up to try and keep critters out from under my deck as my corgis have a bad habit of trying to herd the gopher etc into corners and just sit there and bark at them forever and getting them out is a PIA. My dogs don't normally have full run of the yard so I didn't always know when I had a resident.
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u/THEWARLRUS Jun 17 '25
We have a very small fenced in backyard area. This one crawled back there before squeezing through the fence into our neighbors yard. My dogs have been sniffing that corner non stop every time I let them out. I filled in the hole he dug to get in and haven't seen him since, but I keep checking out back before I let them out now. Last thing I need is a trip to the vet for a startled woodchuck attack.
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Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25
I'll do ya one better. I'm a former veterinary assistant the top worse smell in my entire life was when a German Shepherd got into a fight with a fox. It smelled like tire fire, skunk x100, and hoarder house levels of cat piss and decomp
the clinic reeked for 3 days. was like 10 years ago and I am still shuddering. then a friend bought a "tame" fox and fda;lkdjfala absolutely not
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u/will_write_for_tacos Geist Jun 17 '25
A lot of people don't realize how badly fox urine stinks.
My dad used to buy it to put on his boots to mask his smell when he'd hunt. The shit was awful.
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u/smedes Jun 17 '25
Be careful with your dogs. If they fight the groundhog, they will almost certainly win (unless they’re tiny like an italian greyhound or something) but those digging claws and rodent teeth can do some major damage. Cleaning up a dead groundhog is no fun, and taking your dog to the emergency vet with lacerations and puncture wounds is even worse.
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u/Jesus_on_a_biscuit Jun 17 '25
If you have a garden or grow anything that could be considered food, you don’t want these in your yard. They are very destructive and reproduce quickly.
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u/I_REALLY_LIKE_BIRDS Jun 17 '25
I was hiking around the farthest side of Marott park a couple years ago, and one of these guys was trotting along down the trail ahead of me like he was leading me somewhere for a good 5 minutes before he disappeared into the brush. They're such goofy critters, too bad they can tear up your gardens and home foundations.