The groundhog didn’t leave as I’d thought, and this morning I found the darn thing had babies. Three of them were sitting on my steps. They are cute, but all of them have to go. So now it’s a multi-stage campaign to get rid of them.

First, more ammonia poured on the ground near the hole. At the same time, I put a turned-on radio inside a ziplock bag and placed it near the hole. This is because I can’t afford the sonic vibration sticks you put in the ground that are supposed to be good at scaring off rodents. I’ll also make sure I walk out in the yard and hang around that spot frequently.

After a while of continuing to renew the ammonia, if I still think they're hanging around I’ll get those kibbles you toss into the hole and then add water, which makes a sticky goop groundhogs apparently don’t like to walk through. The next step would be pouring as much gravel as I can, into the hole.

I suppose the only reason they got entrenched is because I don’t go out that door now because a wooden step is broken and has to be repaired. (I blocked off the steps.) Otherwise, this is so close to a main door animals wouldn’t normally set up a household.

The other night, I found a couple of ants inside so I tried to fend off any problem there with ant powder along the baseboards. Other than the Pennsylvania stink bug infestation a couple of years back, I haven’t had to treat for any bugs for about 10 years, so I guess I’ve been lucky. Today there were more ants so now I have those liquid bait traps that should kill the colony. I don’t like uninvited critters.