If he doesn t see his shadow he goes back into his burrow to sleep. Truth is, groundhogs typically wake up in February long enough to mate, then they go back to sleep until the warm weather. Remember, groundhogs are not finicky about what they eat. However, they do seem to stay away from herbs and mints, such a lavender and sage. Other than planting mints and poisonous plants, there isn t much you can do about groundhogs.
Animals seem to know when a plant is poisonous and stay away from it.
If you have very young children who put everything in their mouth this isn t welcome news, as you well need to closely supervise your youngsters when they are outside. Most plants that are poisonous to animals are also poisonous to humans. You may want to consider other alternatives, but typically they aren t very effective either. Sometimes fences work, then again sometimes groundhogs climb fences. Sometimes hot pepper wax is effective, but predator urine generally isn t.