This year was different though... I caught two the first week and lost an entire tulip bed worth of bulbs, all my pea and sunflower plantings (in spite of half a dozen replanting efforts) and the first grape tomatoes off my plants to these now wiser chips. They ran around my traps or sat next to them to enjoy their meals (compliments of my efforts.) The only two others I caught in my now EIGHT trap arsenal were two that happened to step on the trigger when running their paths over the next two weeks.

I finally decided to try the chipmunk swimming pool (I had no faith that it would work) but needed to catch the last two trespassers if I was to have any success with my snap peas this season. A good sign was the enthusiasm the chips displayed when digging up my newly planted sunflower seeds -- within an hour after planting the seeds I would have nothing but a bunch of empty holes in the soil ready for refilling...

Well the first day (yesterday) I caught FOUR -- and I thought I only had TWO trouble makers! Today I caught two more! The great thing about the pool is no snap traps to worry about when my kids are in the garden and no constant rebaiting. I also don't snap any birds, squirrels, possums, cats or dogs.

I used two 30" x 6" boards in between my raised beds right on the path the chips run (next to the peas and sunflowers) and have had great results.

We also have destructive critters that tunnel around our foundation, under our driveway, near the air conditioning unit and through the vegetable garden. I think they are responsible for my poor raspberry harvest and we haven't gotten to their usual favorite, ripe tomatoes. I think in our part of the country they are called thirteen stipe ground squirrels, or thirteen-lined ground squirrels. Over the past 4 years I have tried poisoning them and the Pool of Death (PoD). With many pets and kids around I decided poison was too risky and killing the critters that way was few and far between. I used some poisoned oats from a farm store. The pool of death is cheap, very effective and easy to do. However, I witnessed one take the plunge today and was expecting that the drowning would occur in 20 minutes or less, which already seems a bit inhumane. After 3 hours the critter was still treading water! I felt bad waiting for the critter to drown, but I didn't think I could handle dunking it or smacking it with a shovel. I know, it was unnecessary for it to suffer that long. When my husband came home, I made him take care of it. The idea came to me to submerge the critter with a second bucket the same size. I know most people don't have the time to babysit their traps, but if you do, try the double bucket method, I guess it only took a minute or so to finish the job. Before he got home, I had already ordered the RatZapper for $40 including shipping. I felt too guilty about the 3 hour PoD tragedy. I really think the Rat Zapper sounds like the way to go.

In case anyone is wondering I built my trap with a 5 gallon bucket filled 3/4 full of water with a large handful of seeds floating at the top. I sawed a 4 ft board into a 3 ft section and a 1 ft section. The board was about 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. I screwed the ends of the boards together to make a hinge and rested the short board across the top of the bucket and the longer board was the ramp up to the horizontal board. I baited my ramp and horizontal board with sunflower seeds.

Could someone point me to a good reference for fixing the tunneling damage and prevent new ones from moving into the existing tunnels?

Added bonus with the grate - now the dogs can't drink out of the pail.

Kris

Getting ready to plant some hardy annuals seedlings in next couple of days and was just worried about slugs, rabbits, deer and groundhogs.

Now I'm going to have to get a "plank" and more sunflower seeds.

Oh Pooh!

Glad I saw this thread, though.

I originally came to this forum to see if it was appropriate place someone could help me with a fungus/mushroom problem since I've had no replies in Moss, Ferns & Cryptograms...I thought "crypto..." was just newspaper word game...LOL.

Kris

Bloomer, to keep the squirrels out you have to cover the entire top of the bucket with grid or mesh open enough to let chipmunks in, but keep the squirrels (and dogs, etc.) out.

I didn't have any luck when I put one near the bird feeder. Too much seed laying around and the chipmunks just ignored the 'pool'.

I got tired having to keep adding seeds when the sunflower seeds sunk, so I cut a 3" square of 1/2" styrofoam, put a little pile of dry seeds on it then float it in the water. The seeds stay fresh until someone goes swimming.

I put the traps under overturned window boxes (because they are deep and allow the snapper to swing freely and not touch the 'roof' of the window box.). Then I prop up one end of the box with a bit of 2x4. Then weigh the box down with a rock. Now birds can't get at it and neither do squirrels.

At first no matter what I used for bait (peanut butter, seeds, etc.) the 'munks would clean them out without springing the trap. The darn bait holder isn't that senstive, I guess. Well, this will sound crazy (but chipmunks will do that to you), I decided I needed to keep the bait on the holder so the 'munks had to actually touch it. Soooo...

I grabbed my hot glue gun, layered on a wad of glue then pressed in a tempting pile of sunflower seeds. Voila! That bait isn't going to go anywhere and it won't attract the ants like the peanut butter.

Today was a field test. I made 3 traps. *snap* *Snap* *SNAP* *SNAP* !! I got 4 chipmunks (and a mouse!) in less than 3 hours. And the bait is doing okay.

Crazy, huh? Yeah, but crazy like a fox! ;-D
Kris

I have a solution that has worked like a charm for me. It is a product called a Rat Zapper. It is an electronic rat trap.

I bought one and I created a weather proof cover using a transparent plastic container that had a removable lid. I cut a hole in the side of the container to allow entry. I used a transparent container because the trap has a light on the top that indicates when it has caught something.

I added some sunflower seeds to the trap and some in the container and set it out. For the last 3 days the light has been on each morning, one dead chipmunk each time.

Just take the trap out of the container, shake the victim out of the trap into a garbage can, re-bait and wait for another.