CLEVELAND — To help combat the high demand for services, Ward 10 Councilman Anthony Hairston said Cleveland City Council has allocated additional funding for more traps and additional funding to the health department to hire more staff to address complaints. Our newsroom continues to get calls from residents who said they feel helpless.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Lisa Jones lives on Gruss Avenue on Cleveland's East side. We’ve shown you her struggles with groundhogs throughout the summer.
“I don’t utilize my yard, I can’t utilize my yard; you definitely can’t be out here at nighttime; it’s just terrible,” Jones said.
The groundhogs have dug into her home, shifting her foundation in July. Following through with Jones’s concerns, her foundation is now caving in a month later, about ready to collapse.
“With all the rain, the ground is resettling,” Jones said. “It's pushing it inward.”
The owner of Lakewood Exterminating, Sean Payne, said summertime is busy for groundhogs.
“This is the time of year when they leave their nests and find new nests, so people are finding little 5-inch holes on their property, and they’re calling in,” Payne said.
Payne recommends getting the infestation under control before they burrow in for hibernation.
“With woodchucks, you have to set a trap in there; otherwise, if you block them out of your porch or deck, they can rip into the lattice and be pretty destructive,” Payne said.
It’s up to the homeowner or renter how to move forward with combating groundhogs and how much someone is willing to pay. To combat groundhogs, you can call a private company like Lakewood Exterminating, or if you live in the City of Cleveland, you can call Cleveland's Division of Animal Care and Control for trap rentals.
Ward 10 Councilman Anthony Hairston said Cleveland City Council has allocated additional funding for more traps and additional funding to the health department to hire more staff to address complaints. Jones said the Department of Health finally returned her calls.
“There’s 200 people before me if I wanted to get a trap,” Jones said. “Or if I pay a $20 deposit, you can get it right away."
Payne said trapping is the best method to get rid of groundhogs, but the traps need to be checked daily. Using foods like apples, lettuce, or broccoli is helpful to lure them into a cage. Payne said using home remedies like moth balls, poisons, or even planting certain herbs doesn't ward off groundhogs like traps do and is a waste of money.
“You have to have dirt in them to cover the wire mesh that smells like a woodchuck, that’s how you really catch them, or otherwise they won’t really go towards the trap,” Payne said.
Jones said she’s not getting traps since the damage is already done. Instead, she’s paying $450 dollars to cement around her foundation. Jones just wishes the city would help foot the bill.
“I feel like they’re trying to run people out of their homes that can have a home,” Jones said. “Can’t afford to go live anywhere else.”
