Chipmunks! How to get rid of them?

[Allan Speers]

Long story short: We have a HUUUGE family of chipmunks that now live all around our house. I guess it keeps them safe from predators. They aren't cute anymore, causing a lot of damage to the lawn, shrubs, etc.

Ca anyone suggest the "best" way of eliminating them? I don't care about keeping them alive, though a quick death would be preferable to something nasty. (Anything is better than being eaten alive by an owl, I think.)


I'm actually considering a slingshot, followed by a baseball bat.

[Malcolm McLeod]

What doesn't work... My F-I-L used live traps on 'his' squirrels. Once caught, he hauled them miles to remote area for pardon & parole to their new wilderness home. And yes, the squirrel(s) got back to the house before he did.

Use a projectile weapon. Caliber, propellant, and muzzle velocity determined by proximity of neighbors who think they're cute. Air gun worked for my father.

I tried poison on skunks. Epic fail. Remington worked fine.

[Phil Mueller]

Allen, sent you a PM.

[Joe Tilson]

Peppermint oil has worked in my shop for the past two years. A few drops on a cotton ball in their hole. they can't stand it. It's also good for mice and moles. It really works. Just make sure the peppermint oil has a high concentration of menthol in it (mfg. in Japan is best). Keep putting it out and they will leave.

[Chris Padilla]

Get a dog or a cat?

We used to have issues with squirrels chewing on stuff and destroying everything.

Now that we have a dog, he chews on stuff and destroys everything!

(but at least he is trainable and we are working on it....)

[Brent Cutshall]

I pop 'em with BB guns and slingshots but I suppose you could use mouse traps. Around here we call them "boomers" and dogs just hate them. I don't know why, maybe because of the noise they make, but don't let any dogs really get to looking for them or they'll tear your stuff up. Are you planning on eating them, I've never had chipmunk but I guess it ain't far from a squirrel.

[Kev Williams]

My dad used to swear by turpentine, in the old days we'd put garbage cans out for pickup the night before, and the neighborhood cats, racoons and whatever would have them tipped over before the garbage trucks showed up in the morning. He started pouring a little turpentine in the can, and that fixed the problem. Cheap to try!

[Jerry Bruette]

Google pvc bait station. You can make it small for mice only, or a little bigger for mice and chipmunks.

[George Bokros]

Dcon or Tomcat mouse poison worked for me.

[Bruce Page]

Get a dog or a cat?

We used to have issues with squirrels chewing on stuff and destroying everything.

Now that we have a dog, he chews on stuff and destroys everything!

(but at least he is trainable and we are working on it....)

That made me laugh out loud

[Larry Frank]

I fight this problem with the striped ground squirrels every year. I use "Better Rodentraps" by Intruder. They are plastic but work fine and recommended by the local feed store.

I bait them with peanut butter and bird seed pushed into it. I also wire them to a pole or stake as raccoons like a free meal and can take off with the traps.

I have a number of the traps and the first year got around 75. I get them out in the spring when I see the first o n e. It is a never ending battle but I live in the sticks. There is a mass graveyard of them over the back fence.


Good luck...you will need it

[Ole Anderson]

Get a TomCat black plastic snap trap (HD has them) and bait it with sunflower seeds, don't bother with peanut butter, you might attract squirrels. And get a box of 1 quart freezer zip lock's to use as body bags. Hold the trap over the bag, squeeze, bait again and on to the next one. Chipmunks are really easy to trap, they are very stupid.

[Allan Speers]

Get a TomCat black plastic snap trap (HD has them) and bait it with sunflower seeds, don't bother with peanut butter, you might attract squirrels. And get a box of 1 quart freezer zip lock's to use as body bags. Hold the trap over the bag, squeeze, bait again and on to the next one. Chipmunks are really easy to trap, they are very stupid.

Mine must have gone to college.

Is there some trick to this?

--------------------------------

I went out today, to check my 12 snap-traps (six intruder, and six of the black ones recommended earlier.)

2 Intruders are simply gone. Two have been ripped apart. (raccoons?) Two were tripped with no catches.

2 black ones tripped with no catches, and the other four are still set, but empty !

[Mel Fulks]

Allan those traps are a little fussy. You can secure the wire a little too solidly, you want it to be so easily sprung that you have to be pretty careful to not get hurt. I need them so rarely that my first setting is invariably to slow.

[Mayo Pardo]

I had chipmunks burrowing and nesting underneath our patio and then below the siding on the house. I could hear them chewing on the framing on top of the foundation, so no more... I got a hav-a-hart trap and used dried fruit and nuts (trail mix) which worked good, but also found small pieces of apple worked very well. I caught a total of 7 which I relocated to a park near a river. Hopefully that's all there were in the family!