This method doesn't score points with PETA, but it works. You'll need a bucket, a piece of wood for a ramp, a metal coat hanger and a plastic beverage bottle. Fill a 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 with water. Grab a spare piece of wood and make a ramp leading up to the top of the bucket. Take your empty plastic bottle (cap still on) and drill a hole as close as possible to dead center in the cap and the bottom. Straighten the coat hanger and put it through the bottle so it rotates using the coat hanger as an axle. Notch the sides of the bucket and put the coat hanger in the notches so it won't fall off. Coat the center of the bottle with peanut butter. Make a chipmunk Golden Corral style buffet trail up the board and the rest is self explanatory. When they attempt to step onto the bottle to continue dining, they get a quick physics lesson. And you almost never have to re bait the bottle. I made one of these this spring and put it in my garage after I found a camp chair with a hole in it about the same time a corner of the garage door seal went missing. Caught two overnight. They can run around outside and do what they do, but when they come inside my walls I cannot guarantee their safety.
I prefer bird seed/ critter mix and .22 mag/ .17 . When you do your part, there isn't even evidence of what was formally a chipmunk. CCI maxi Mag +V's are a vicious little bullet in my gun. If you are too close or don't want pieces and parts all over, BB/ pellet gun. One weekend at camp I was bored with a buddy and we ran to town and stopped at walmart. The girl checking us out hesitated and she swiped the items hot dogs...buns...margarita mix (camp is in PA so no alcohol except state stores)...10# bird seed...5000 bb's.......red rider bb gun.............I told her not having TV led to us making our own entertainment that weekend.
My chipmunks made a mess of my back lawn, which is the septic field and hang out in the rock walls. Haven't seen too many. Got a RodenTerminator electric trap a few days ago, but no chipmunks yet. A mouse a night, yeah.
I made one of these and call it the wheel of misfortune. Mine uses a steel rod through a tin can. Haven't caught one munk in it, but it's the best mousetrap ever.
Never thought of that.......perfect! They'll sometimes eat the PB off, and not trip the trap. The mice that do that on the rat raps are sometimes too lightweight to set 'em off too. I'm noticing a minor resurgence of the little buggers, so it's just about time to teach the new generation the "art of chippy napping". Now, where's that super glue?
A little update here. This problem has kinda taken care of itself. Late in the fall some stray cat had kittens in the woodshed. I kept an eye on them and noticed that after a while momma wasn't coming around anymore. I left the kits alone thinking that she was feeding them when we didn't see it. Nope, one of them died and then others didn't look so good. So I brought them into the garage (it was pretty cold by now) and nursed all but one back to health...fortunately they were old enough to eat soft food by then. Fast forward to now...they are 8 month old "adults" and they now "live" in the woodshed again. The other night we were getting ready for dinner and looked out to see one of the females carrying a chipmunk...and toying with it for a while...before eating it!
I have posted this before. My dog has started to run down a couple chipmunks too. We have a good balance around my house
I hope you or a neighbor get the females all fixed so you don't get over run with cats instead of chipmunks.
Small Hav-a-heart trap. I didn't need to bait it and the chipmunks just kept going in and getting trapped. I'd introduce them to Mr 10-pump Pellet gun, up close. One shot put them down. I'd dump them on my stone wall, and within a day, something would take them away. Hawks or area cats. I got 55 of them last year, over 3 months. Never would I have imagined they were that many. Haven't seen one yet this year. They were digging holes in the gardens, with burrows, I believe deep underground. I started eliminating them after seeing them scurrying on the deck, attached to the house. Too close. They can do too much damage. If they get real comfortable, they'll move into your car and chew it all up. I avoided poison as I didn't want any second level poisoning(animal eats a dead poisoned chipmunk, and the animal digests the poison).
I was finding holes right alongside the pole barn, and saw them run back and forth from the shed to the house and deck. They chewed through the rim board and got into the crawl. I used rat traps and took out close to 30 last year. Got about 3 early this year and haven't seen any more since. I know there are more out there.......somewhere. A Peek Inside a Chipmunk Burrow
We've had good results with the chipmunk jacuzzi. 5 gallon pail half filled with water and enough sunflower seeds to cover the water. A 4' board from the ground to the pail lip with 3 small dots of peanut butter each holding a seed. Caught 4 at once, don't know how long they can tread water - surely not overnight. Since the seeds waterlog in a day and sink, we have to refresh with new seeds daily. The dumb chippies will even dive in after the seeds if a few of their friends are floating dead.
