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hostasformez4

What to do about our chipmunks

hostasformez4
14 years ago

We have been invaded. Some how the chipmunks have managed to dig their way inside our house!!! We have suspended ceilings throughout our basement and we discovered something dark covering the light panel in the laundry room. When we took the panel down there was DIRT and ROCKS all over the top of the ceiling! We probably scooped out 15 lbs. of stuff and now we aren't sure how to get rid of the varmints.

Do we trap them in live traps ,only for them to return and dig another day or what.

HELP!!! They are still depositing dirt as I write so we need to do something ASAP.

Any suggestions either humane or that will lead to their demise will be appreciated.

Connie

Comments (24)

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    14 years ago

    call trapper bob .. link below.. but he isnt in your state ...

    try the yellow pages for animal control.. or call a local vet for a referral ...

    i know life is a disney movie... but when the vermin invade your home.. you have to draw the line somewhere ... and for me.. that would be at the brick wall ...

    its you or them ...

    i vote.. be done with them ..

    it is.. IMHO.. worth paying money to be done with them ...

    in the alternative.. rat traps baited with peanut butter works just fine ...

    ken

    Here is a link that might be useful: link

  • woodthrush
    14 years ago

    I would take a careful look around your foundation and find their entrance. Block all the entrance holes you can find.
    Then set trap in that ceiling fixture. You don't want to put poison in your ceiling and have them die somewhere where you can't get to the bodies.
    Pam

  • mctavish6
    14 years ago

    I will follow this very closely. We have had squirrels living in the space between the roof and the ceiling for YEARS. Any attempts have not worked. Why can my killer cats not catch them? We tried blocking up the entrance holes with sharp, metal grid stuff. They chewed through it in no time. We got a squirrel cage. It turned out the holes are larger than our particular squirrels. I heard of a type of light to put into the hole that will make them leave but can't remember the name. Poisions are out of the question (because of the cats). I hope someone has an answer. Myrle

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    14 years ago

    NEVER... EVER ...... use poison in the House ...

    TRUST ME ON THIS ONE .... THEY DO NOT DIE WHERE THE POISON IS ...

    AND YOU ARE LEFT WITH A ROTTING >>>>>SMELLYwhen i moved into this house.. i used it in the attic .... and the mouse burrowed under the insulation above a closet ... and died.. and 10 years later.. even after finding it.. and removing it.. on humid rainy days.. the closet below stinks of death ...

    spend the money and have it taken care of properly ... trapping with removal ..

    ken

  • cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
    14 years ago

    I don't know if this works with other varmints, but we had mice coming in through our dryer vent which did not actually connect to the dryer (at some point, the pieces of pipe must have come apart-we now use a dryer with a condenser that does not need to be vented). I read you could block the holes where the critters enter with steel wool and that did solve our problem. I stuffed it all around the hole very heavily. Maybe if you find the point of entry this would work. Nonetheless, I would also agree with Ken-it is worth the money to have someone fix it for you! Good luck. If you can't catch them, maybe you could teach them to sing, record it, and make a tv show-oh wait, that's been done. Darn.

  • mctavish6
    14 years ago

    My particular squirrels are fond of bowling. In the fall they load up on walnuts. They seem to be mostly in the roof of the entry (dog) porch shown in many of my garden pictures. Through the winter I hear them roll the walnuts down the slope of the roof (to crack?) and it sounds like they are bowling.

    Another thing we tried to block the holes was that yellow foam expanding stuff. Now we have an ugly yellow growth (chewed through) beside the front door.

    I agree with you about the smell of decomposing items, Ken. I have a decaying mouse somewhere in the garden at the moment that I can't find. I was driven inside last night. Well, that and the fact the the squirrels were peeling the outside green part of the walnuts off and throwing it down on top of us.

  • hostasformez4
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks for all the suggestions. We are going to try the rat traps and somehow tie then down so the critters can't pull them to some other part of the basement and die. I don't want a smell for years. If we aren't successful we'll call for help as we need to catch the DARLINGS !!!

    Myrle so sorry to hear about the squirrels. They are so crafty.

    Connie

  • idiothe
    14 years ago

    Just for the record - I love nature, I love critters, I get a tear in my eye watching the butterflies on the eupatorium, and I'd rather watch squirrel acrobatics than Cirque de Sol

    but not in my house and not when they tear up my garden. I'll share, but not surrender!

    I too, after about 10 years of peace, am dealing with a red squirrel infestation in my attic. They must die or relocate. I'm using a combination of techniues.

    For the squirrels that chew through the hardware cloth over the holes... use the hardware cloth to focus their attention, then shoot them with a pellet gun while they are doing the chewing. Red squirrels, however, are very fast and seldom sit long enough to be good targets. Live traps are recommended.

    Grey squirrels are more likely to "colonize" and you will deal with multiple adults, but if they are the awful red squirrels (who chew through anything and love to eat siding, wires, etc), for most of the year you are dealing with only one, or with a mating pair. Reds don't like other reds - they even drive off their kids as soon as they can. (Sometimes I wish I'd learned this parenting technique earlier...)

    So if you can kill or trap the one or two, you really can go back and seal stuff up and maybe prevent another infestation. Biggest hindrance to that is the caches of acorns and nuts the little bugger buried in your insulation before you got rid of them which, if detected, will draw a new generation...

    Connie - smart about not letting them drag off the rat traps - we lost three of them last summer...

    A sure fire chipmunk trap, ridiculously inexpensive, but not for the faint of heart, is a five gallon bucket half-full of water. One puts a board up to the rim - a ramp - then places a few sunflower seeds along the ramp and floats a handful on the surface of the water. Chipmunks lean over to get to the sunflower seeds and falls in and drowns. No poison, little mess. Empty the bucket once a day - don't know how many are in your basement, but outside you can often get 6 or more a day.

    I'm not endorsing this - in our case, the first time we found one swimming and squeeking we dumped it out and went back to rat traps and live traps. Some people consider it inhumane to drown an animal - though they still eat hamburger and you really don't want to know what that steer goes through... I guess if I had a choice, I'd rather have a steel bar break my back than drown...

    Actually, to be honest, after getting tired of driving live varmints many miles away, (experts say it should be 10 miles for a squirrel...) burning a lot of gas and living with a lot of live animal stink in my car, not to mention giving the varmints to somebody else - I just use the live traps to make it easier to shoot them... experts in capital punishment say that being shot by a high velocity rifle (bullet arrives before you percieve the sound) is by far the best way to go.

  • just1morehosta
    14 years ago

    OMGosh Connie,
    How are things going now?
    What have you decided to do?
    What a mess to be having to deal with, I feel so bad for you.
    Do you know where the little guys are coming in at?
    YIKESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
    Carol

  • hostasformez4
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Weeeeeeee moveeeeeeee slowlyyyyyyyy when it comes to letting Hubby be in charge!!!!!! All that is done so far is putting rocks in front of the hole area and checking the top of the dryer for more dirt.

    This is the honest to God truth. LOL I keep reminding him that they will head inside for the winter.

    Connie

  • just1morehosta
    14 years ago

    Hey girlfriend,
    Go buy some of that fome stuff,find the holes,and fill them up.Try Something!
    Were they bringing the dirt and rocks in for the winter hoe down?
    Want me to come and help you,i will.
    cAROL

  • Janice
    14 years ago

    Have you found their entry point--is it something that could be filled with Quick Crete, after live trapping?

  • mctavish6
    14 years ago

    Connie, How will you know if you've trapped them inside or outside? Carol, we tried the foam stuff with squirrels (small ones not like the huge grey squirrels on the coast). It didn't work. They chewed through it immediately. We are making a renewed effort to trap and move them. We got a special cage designed by a young fellow we'd heard about. We've moved it 4 times so far. It's so sensitive that shutting the front door set it off. I think our squirrels are on Weight Watchers. They've been in it twice now and stollen the nuts but not set off the trap. Maybe I should give them names and post pictures of them on the pet thread?

  • Janice
    14 years ago

    Hey Myrle--I know you're an animal love like me!! Soo, because you could find this out AFTER relocating
    some--they are HIGHLY territorial. If they are relocated, the squirrels who were there before the newcomers
    will kill them!

    I knew you'd want to know that. I didn't and did that with a pet squirrel that needed to be out
    finding a girlfriend! We gave him to our Vet who lived on a wooded acreage in February one year. We
    also never thought about him not having a chance to build a nest in the Summer or Fall or that he had no
    clue how to find food for himself. Someone brought him to us as a 'foundling' and we bottle fed him till
    he could be on nuts and things. I don't think it is EVER wise to do that! It just postpones their deaths!!

    Sniff!

  • mctavish6
    14 years ago

    The young fellow who loaned us the cage had caught several for a woman who had them in her house too. He was concerned enough that he built a little 2 room house and nailed it to a tree where he relocated the squirrels. He want back and they were happily living there. Now I don't plan on building a house for them but other people (one guy has pet squirrels too) thinks this is a fairly ideal time since they have time to stock up for winter between now and snow. I was always too worried in the spring that there would be babies. I think giving them at least a chance somewhere is better than killing them which I wouldn't do anyway. So far the squirrels are winning 100%. They keep stealing the nuts without setting off the trap. Gun's and poison are out of the question so......

  • Janice
    14 years ago

    I bet--it's chipmunks that are stealing the nuts, McT!! They would be small enough to get in and out
    of a larger trap and not set it off---I wonder?

  • mctavish6
    14 years ago

    We have small squirels, about the size of chipmunks. We have the occasional chipmunk but they seem to be more at the mercy of the cats. This trap we're using was designed by this young fellow to be very sensitive. Mike added at shot glass of water yesterday for the extra weight. I though he was trying to get the little guys drunk. His reasoning was that the added weight of the squirrel would combine with the little glass of water and the whole thing would work. Not so far.

  • just1morehosta
    14 years ago

    This is so interesting,i did not know that if you relocated a squirrel,others would kill it.
    Back here in the woods, we have gray,red,and black squirrels,the red are pretty aggressive,and believe they own the woods,the others let them think it.
    Have you ever watched the chase,when they are getting ready to pick a mate?
    There will be one female, and sometimes up to 20 males,they will all chase that poor girl,all day long,up this tree,down that one,up,over,down,have even seen them fall out of the tree, depending on how many are in the running,the male who can hold out the longest,wines her heart,poor little girl, she is beat by then,and just surenders.
    cAROL

  • hostasformez4
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I'm taking things into my hands today and showing no mercy!!!

    I'm trying the pail and board method someone mentioned and will set them up all around the outside of the house,3 areas. I will be transplanting some hostas in the next day or two and who ever falls for my traps will be fertilizer for them.

    A girl has got to do what she has to do!!!!!

    Connie

  • Janice
    14 years ago

    Good luck, Connie, but if you don't find a way of keeping 'them' out--*other things*, maybe
    WORSE could find their way in!!! Gasp!!!

  • jel48
    14 years ago

    Ewwww.... one of my co-workers had skunks under his porch.... It could always be worse! Good luck getting rid of them though!

  • Janice
    14 years ago

    Any progress, Connie?

  • just1morehosta
    14 years ago

    I've been wondering also Connie,how are things going over there?
    Need any help?
    Soon they will be going into hibernation ya know,
    cAROL

  • dln949
    14 years ago

    I have found that this product works very, very well for us. We got rid of all the chipmunks ruining our yard. (Yes, there will be new ones back next year, but we'll be ready for them.)

    I'm just a user of this product, I don't have any connection with this company.

    Here is a link that might be useful: The

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