Groundhog Under Your Shed or Deck?

A hole the size of a dinner plate beside your shed, a fresh dirt pile that wasn't there yesterday, and a vegetable garden that keeps getting shorter. Here's the part most people don't see coming: it was never really about the garden. That animal is hollowing out the ground under your shed, deck, or slab — and settled concrete doesn't un-settle. Trapping alone almost never ends it either, because an empty burrow just gets a new tenant.

Free Estimate — Call or Text 717-379-3248

Why They Pick Sheds, Decks, and Porches

A groundhog wants a burrow with a solid roof over it. Your shed floor, deck framing, porch slab, concrete pad, or barn foundation is exactly that: a ready-made ceiling that can't cave in, with soft soil underneath and cover on all sides. That's why they'll ignore your open field and dig two feet from your foundation.

A burrow system isn't one hole. There's a main entrance (the one with the dirt pile) plus one to four hidden "plunge holes" dug from below with no spoil pile at all — escape hatches you won't spot until you step in one. The tunnels run 8 to 25 feet or more, several feet deep, with chambers along the way.

Structural Undermining

Excavated soil from under a slab, footing, or shed pad doesn't come back. Over a season or two you get settling, cracked concrete, tilted sheds, and sagging deck posts. This is the damage people underestimate, and it's the expensive one.

Garden & Landscape Damage

An adult groundhog eats a pound or more of vegetation a day. Beans, broccoli, squash, and hostas disappear overnight, and young shrubs get clipped off at the stem. They also gnaw and climb more than people expect.

Equipment & Livestock Hazards

Burrow openings in a field or pasture are a broken leg waiting to happen — for horses, cattle, and anyone on a mower. On farms this is a real liability, not a nuisance.

The Vacancy Problem

An empty burrow is prime real estate. Skunks, opossums, rats, and next spring's groundhog all move into existing tunnels. Removing the animal without closing the burrow just changes who lives there.

How We Actually Solve It

Anyone can set a trap. Making it permanent is the part that takes doing — and it's why we quote exclusion with every groundhog job instead of selling you a repeat visit next spring.

1. Read the Site

We find every entrance, including the hidden plunge holes, and determine whether it's one animal or a female with young. Timing matters: removing a mother in early summer while pups are still below ground creates a worse problem, not a solved one.

2. Live Trap, Legally

Trapping and handling is done under our PA Game Commission NWCO certification, following state rules on capture and disposition. Groundhogs are a rabies vector species in Pennsylvania — handling them is genuinely not a homeowner job.

3. Exclude Permanently

The fix is a barrier they can't dig under: heavy galvanized mesh trenched down and bent outward in an L-footer along the shed, deck, or porch perimeter. Done right, that structure is off the market for good.

4. Close the Burrow

Once we're certain the system is empty, entrances get collapsed and filled so nothing else claims the tunnels — and so nobody steps in a hole.

5. Remove the Invitation

Brush piles against the shed, gaps under the deck skirt, an unfenced garden buffet. We'll point out what's advertising your property and what's worth changing.

Service Area

We serve Dauphin, Cumberland, Lebanon, Perry, and York Counties — including:

Harrisburg, Paxtang, Penbrook, Steelton, Highspire, Middletown, Hummelstown, Hershey, Palmyra, Annville, Cleona, Lebanon, Grantville, Linglestown, Colonial Park, Susquehanna Township, Lower Paxton, Camp Hill, Mechanicsburg, Lemoyne, New Cumberland, Wormleysburg, Enola, Marysville, Halifax, Millersburg, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Mount Wolf, Manchester, Dillsburg, Carlisle, Boiling Springs, and surrounding Central PA communities.

Groundhog FAQ

Can I just trap it myself?

Pennsylvania regulates the trapping, transport, and release of wildlife, and groundhogs are a rabies vector species — which restricts what may legally be done with a captured animal. Beyond legality, the common DIY outcomes are a trap-shy animal, an orphaned litter left under the shed, or a bite. If you've already got a trap out and it isn't working, that's a normal call for us.

Will they come back?

The individual won't. Another one will, if the burrow and the shelter are still there — groundhogs actively seek out existing tunnel systems. That's the entire argument for pairing removal with exclusion and burrow closure, and it's why we quote them together.

What about the smoke bombs or poison at the hardware store?

Gas cartridges are legal for some uses but genuinely dangerous near structures — burrows run under sheds, decks, and slabs, and fires have started this way. They also fail often, since groundhogs plug tunnels fast. And there is no legal, safe rodenticide answer for groundhogs. Trapping and exclusion is the approach that works and doesn't burn down your shed.

Is there a best time of year?

Early spring before breeding, or late summer into fall, are cleanest. Early-summer jobs need care because of dependent young below ground. We'll tell you at the estimate if waiting a few weeks produces a better result — and we'd rather say so than take the job twice.

There's a hole but I've never seen the animal. Is it active?

Fresh soil, worn paths, clipped vegetation, and clean-edged openings say active; cobwebs, leaf litter, and crumbling edges say abandoned. Either way it needs closing — abandoned burrows get inherited. Text a photo to 717-379-3248 and we'll usually read it from the picture.