In general, do you encourage, discourage, or generally live with large chipmunk populations at your house?

Is this a REAL question?

I would think it depends on how much damage they cause, and what you are willing to live with.

MY 2 cents....My experience, you can't ever totally eradicate them. New ones will just come if the habitat is to their liking. Chipmunk proof things you don't want them to get into and enjoy their company when they come up and sit on the front porch with you in the morning while you drink a cup of Joe.

Edit: Same goes for 13 stripe ground squirrels

Seriously tho, they do cause a lot of damage where they can get into and make a mess out of it.

I bet you could use them for catfish bait. Cmm

I tend to delegate responsibility, so I leave the ground squirrel decision making process in the capable paws of our cat. He tends to manage with extreme prejudice.

I have no complaints.

It was a serious question. They're all up under all the concrete patios. I can see them eroding out areas that could be considered as mild foundation.

Cats take care of it, but we don't keep cats.

I easily and successfully controlled mine for several years with a cheap live trap baited with sunflower seeds or peanuts. They are very easy to trap in a live trap. New ones will come and repopulate over time in my experience. If you are willing to put forth a yearly effort, trapping works. You will be amazed how many you can catch in the first couple weeks!

Sunil we have Voles around our home, likely due to the bird feeders which drop seeds all the time. They can destroy lawns with their tunnels and are a general nuisance. I will get fed up once annually and go Elmer Fudd on them. Live traps can work, but since Voles like to tunnel a lot, I use warfarin laced gummy worms or pellets with peanut butter coating and drop them in their tunnels/holes. I must knock back a significant portion of their population, as for 4-6 months I won't see them around. Then I calm down, feel kinda guilty for my campaign against them, until they reappear and the cycle starts again.

Voles or other burrowing critters can cause damage, especially to concrete patios - their tunnels can collapse and requires mudjacking to restore patio to original levels. If you go EF on them like me for a couple weeks you should knock them out. Live traps or Warfarin are my recommendations. If you live trap them I'm sure Ken could make some fricassee and you'd never guess you're eating Alvin.

FYI - the antidote to Warfarin ingestion by cat or dog is Vitamin K...other poisons [zinc phosphide/bromethalin] don't have any antidotes. It would require a very significant dose of Warfarin to kill a pet so I would not worry much about it. If you have pets that like eating crap they shouldn't, I recommend only using Warfarin just in case.

Well when yer sittin' back enjoyin' Chip & Dale, pull up the ol' Internet machine and brush up on rodents:

http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/index.html

http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/direct.html

http://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/indirect.html


Squirrels, rats, mice, & chipmunks are persona, err rodent, non grata around here. The potential diseases they carry and transmit give us enough incentive to eradicate them at every opportunity.

Seems like you've already got your answer - they're up under your concrete patio making nests.

I posted this on one of TJ's threads. Electric cat

My problem is squirrels(tree rats). They gnawed into my attic and chewed up wiring. Since I live in town during the week, I used some 22 calibris with no powder. Hence, very little sound. That worked but I wasn't always around when they were. So, I started using live traps. That worked great. I shot the first one that got in a trap. However, it took 3 shots for it to die. That sickened me. I don't like to see things suffer.

So, I started relocating them a couple of miles away. I rarely see a squirrel this year.

The wife uses chewing gum on them. Pops a little piece down the holes she sees. You won't see any results until the following spring. Seems like the buggers stash it all and then eat it during the winter. I would suspect that's the case with most baits used on these critters. Like everyone else, we put up with them, there fun to watch, but you have to go after them every once in awhile otherwise they will get totally out of control.

I'm concerned about the dens under my extensive concrete patios.

I was going to employ the bucket of water with seeds floating on the top, but just didn't have it in me.

I guess I'll try it.

Once I have some dead chipmunks, I might tie a line to them and see if I can't catch a red tail hawk.

This is what I did with the chipmunks and ground squirrels. Worked great! I used a pet carrier I have and would store my catch all day and then off to their new home in the evening.

Discourage with extreme prejudice. They have a habit of chewing on things that I don't want chewed.......

Rat traps baited with peanut butter works.

Don't worry about the dogs. Once they get their nose slapped a time or two they'll leave the traps alone.

Chipmunks are industrious little creatures. I once had one fill the air breather of my tractor to its fullest capacity with acorns.

Have had real good luck with MOTH BALLS on mice and rats in the machinery---It might work they are cheep and easy to get.

Mike, I had always heard about moth balls as a deterrent. So, I put a box of them in a camper trailer that I had. The mice chewed a hole in the side of the box.

I don't think they make the real ones anymore.

I've seen a lot of moths, but I guess they were all female. No balls.
Cmm

A guy told me once moth balls are good bait but all I've been able to catch must be the females as well so can't say fer sure if they are or aren't. I'm thinking they would be hard to keep on a hook anyway!

Ummm!

You need to learn tolerance and acceptance of cats.

But, you may need one of Tony's intolerant cats. Some cats are just too tolerant, even of those who don't like them.



Your alternative is that you will be destined to using Rex the PVC Muskrat Killer and Half-Stick Hudson.

Our cats, chickens, and guineas take care of snakes, voles, moles, mice, chipmunks, and neighborhood dogs that stray near the house or chicken coop.

Cat's are OK, if they are not around me.

I had a cat, and did indeed end up bonding with the cat.

While the cat's name was "Trixie," I called it "Cattle."

The cat depended on me for certain things, and in my efforts to support the cat.....well....it's a story for the next time I see you..

I should say 'we' had a cat. It was Woman's cat.

That must suck at times.

You up for a charter on Lake Michigan?

Let me know pretty soon.

Do it, kill them all! Kill every red squirrel and every chipmunk. I have started to see more and more of them this year, I find nuts stored in the basement of my 5th wheel camper, I see them sitting on the tires of my truck, I find nuts stored in my engine compartments of all my vehicles. Then, disaster! A few months ago I'm driving and my right headlight doesn't work. A month later the engine light goes on in my truck. Then my windshield wiper blade suddenly had no rubber wiper! I take my truck a month ago to the dealer, squirrels/chipmunks ate the wiring harness to my headlight clean off, they ate the wiring harness to my trucks DEF sensor, they ate the rubber off my wiper blades!

I have rat traps with peanut butter on the tree I see them on. I have only been able to shoot one because I never have a safe back stop. I have not been able to catch one in the rat traps, they set them off but I'm not getting a body. Kill them, kill every one. Do it with extreme prejudice and do it with malice. They cost me almost $1000 in truck repairs.

By the way, they gnawed and ate countless more wiring harnesses that I had to repair. They probably damaged plenty more that I don't know about. It was so bad I traded the truck in and got a new one.

Daaangit! And I thought the squirell were bad around here. I live in the city and we are overrun with squirrels . I use a .22 cb cap from ci. Quieter than a pellet gun and in a rifle very accurate. Won't go through a squirrel so safer to use

Varmints 1000-Tim 0

Tim think about rat zapper it's a battery operated rodent killer I use for mice very effectively at my outbuilding on farm. It won't mete out the malice you prescribe but there's also no drama or mess.

Yeesh. It reminds me of how I got to retire a little early because they realized I was crazy-crazy-crazy.



For some reason, it reminds me of a long-time and close Pond Boss friend and fishing companion.



Maybe we could have the chipmunks with fava beans and a fine Chianti.

That's strange....I guess I always thought of chipmunks as having white meat.

If anyone can make chipmunks palatable it's you ken

Yolk -- you are good at selecting fine wines.

Sunil -- you can bring the chipmunks. You may need help from Rex and Esshup. If you can, also bring a big turtle.

Sparkplug -- we may need some maple syrup for the chipmunk marinade.

TJ -- can you visit Dr. Lecter to torture him for a recipe to go with the fava beans, Sunil's chipmunks,and Yolk's wine?

I can do the cooking and catering. All are invited -- as long as Sunil can harvest enough chipmunks and a big outhouse turtle.

All other help would be greatly appreciated.

Why am I assigned the torture? Not complaining mind you, just curious.

I hear you Tim. Those red squirrels and chipmunks have cost me $$$$.$$ in damage, easily several thousand

I had a bunch of stuff stored in Fremont. I thought it was fairly secure from theft, but the rodents never entered the equation at the time.

I hauled a bunch of stuff to the shop in the fall of 2013 and was totally appalled when I unpacked. Chipmunks got into everything. They got into so much, I can't even describe it here. Just to give you a hint, I opened my 7 drawer Kennedy tool box up and most of the drawers were full of eaten acorns and they pissed all over everything. My Starrett and Mitutoyo precision tools were all junk. One drawer they did not get into, everything is fine. This is only one thing they got into - It gets worse!

Field mice are probably more evil. They can get into places a chipmunk can't, and how the hell did they fill up my HP 1220C printer with dog food? It was a backup, NEW and stored, but became junk. Let's not talk about the nest they made in the head of my drill press

While TJ and Edison may be on the same page with this battery powered stuff, I'm going with Tesla and Westinghouse

Have you ever been woken up at 2:00 am when the furnace blower in your camper kicked in and it was beating something to death? Yep, field mouse got in from the outside, and it was ugly. Had to rip the furnace out, but fortunately, mice bounce when they get caught in the blower, and not much blood and guts. I can take that furnace out in my sleep

Is it just me, or does the Cattle allusion sound eerily familiar to a certain Diego--or a Hipp???? Kinda---Durstlike!!

I've had a lot of rodent problems.

In the country it has been both tree rats and field mice. Mice have chewed wiring on both tractors. Squirrels have actually chewed holes in the side of the trailer house and I've had to replace the wood, repaint, etc. I keep mouse traps baited 365 and poison under the house. Lots of holes in the bottom of the paneling that I continually patch. Some may find this odd but when I don't have mouse problems, it generally means that a rattle snake has moved in under the trailer. It is under pinned so I can't see them. I like that and as long as they move out and leave in the Spring, we get along just fine.

In town squirrels have been my problem. They ate a hole under an eve and got to phone wires in the attic. And they did it at some danged inconvenient places to find and repair. I finally put some expanded metal at that eve. Last year I went on an eradication program. I shot a lot of them with calibri's and CB caps. I also trapped and relocated about a dozen. Now, there are virtually no squirrels around my house and I like it that way.

Not quite, got one using .25 pellet about a week ago. Got another just this morning. Very tough to get a shot when they're sitting on the tire of your truck!

Nobody knows torture like an English major. You can contort his very consciousness into rigid five paragraph form, bereft of any spark of warmth or humanity, and wack off his dangling participles. Makes me break out into a cold sweat just thinking about it.

Never question the Brotherhood.

I figure there are two people in the Pond Boss group who could charm even Hannibal Lecter -- you or Sunil. Sunil will be busy getting the chipmunks. That leaves you. Oh, and it takes torture to charm Dr. Lecter. Maybe Yolk can give you some advice before you go.

I guess I'm not sure why I gotsta be a torturer too!!!

Are you still sporting your terrorist-like beard? If so, you already look the part....

Thank you, it's important to keep an accurate score.

No! No! No!

This was intended as a supreme compliment to you (Sunil) and TJ.

To those who may not know these guys personally, they are two of the people at the top of the list for making everybody on Pond Boss feel like they are part of a family and part of our group.

Even though this thread might be about killing and eradicating cute little critters, it is also about the welcoming and big-heartedness of people like them. It is also about tolerance and making friends with those who don't always fit under the "normal bell curve."

Knowing these two guys for a number of years, I don't think either is capable of truly disliking anybody. They both can make friends and allies, in seconds, out of the the most hateful.

Maybe they both need Yolk Sac's psychiatric help so they can learn how not to be as accepting and inclusive as they are. But, Yolk too is personal friends with these guys, and very accepting of everybody. I've only heard him utter good things about people, including these two guys.

But, then again ... could/would these guys be our good friends if they weren't the way they are?

Ken

Field mice, how do they do it?
I had my Mustang parked in back for a few years, no surprise that I had mice nesting in there. Mouse pee smells great.
But the neighbor had a large nest in the airbox of this car, that was driven daily. Doesn't seem like a great place to make a nest.

And I just finished some work on the wifes car, found a stash of poison pellets in the engine compartment.
I don't even see how, the car is driven daily and it is parked on the street, far away from any of the poison I put out in the garage/storage in back.
But we do get birds nesting under the hood of the cars in the spring, supposedly they have caused a few car fires in the past around here.

And let's not get started on the mice that got in the apartment a few years ago.
Most of them were smart enough to avoid the traps I had, would just see them everyone once in a while or hear them scurrying in the walls at night.
Finally had enough and punched holes in the wall so I could place poison bait in there.
Sealed the walls back up with the bait in there, no mice since.

We back up to a bean field, so every fall we start the battle again.

I am not a fan of poison, but I have learned my lesson and just place it around every fall.

Doing some spring cleaning today and finding bodies and poop everywhere, I did not bait until mid winter, those buggers got into everything.
Maybe I haven't learned my lesson yet.

Rats and mice are poison smart. You might get a few but the rest catch on and either crap on it to keep the others away or hide/ stash it. It amazes me that they can figure that out


Pat

They get in my trailer house, chew tractor wires, etc. I use a lot of poison.

I've got the engine shrouding removed off of a Kohler V-twin right now, in order to clean out the mouse nest that was constructed over the winter. Air cooled engines don't appreciate it when the nest debris obstructs the air flow over a cylinder head. Bad things happen to the valvetrain.

I've had rats make nests in my tractor a few times. Once I felt the "breeze" as it ran past my ankle when I started it up. The next time, she ran forward instead through the fan but not successfully. After that, I started lifting the hood every time before I started it.

The mice like the air filter compartment of dirt bikes too.

Bastagees.....

I used to poison the hell out of the mice around the farm (no real issue with chipmunks...the dog resolves that for me).

And I found what was posted earlier....they seem to get wise to the poison. So I went the 'all natural' route and got some farm cats. I've noticed a significant drop in the number of nests I have to clean out of tractor air cleaners, mower decks, etc.

Many people I work with have tried the "bucket" method to eliminate them. Fill the five gallon bucket half full of water, and cover the water with sunflower seeds. Lean a 2 x 4, or any "ramp" they can climb from the ground to the bucket rim, with a cleat to hold the board to the bucket, and line the board with a few seeds. They WILL jump in the bucket. They have been catching dozens a day. Hope it helps......

Never thought of that! Sounds good Mike!

Bucket methods work pretty well on mice.

A neighbor set one up for me that consisted of a 5G bucket, some bailers twine and peanut butter.

Bucket was over half full of water.
Over the top was a tensioned length of bailers twine spanning the bucket. Peanut Butter was smeared on the twine over the center of the bucket. 2 lengths of twine were draped over the side of the bucket.

Mice can climb the twine on the side of the bucket quite easily, but they really suck at walking the Tight Rope. Splash!

I like the sound of this bucket trick. I got a remote cabin where we wage war with mice. I always feel like they are winning. I don't think they are ready for the bucket though!!!!!

I've heard good things about the electric traps.

Bucket, electric, or whatever trap. If you're not there to dispose of the carcases on a timely basis, it could get ugly.

One year I had some Blue Racers move in under my shed, and they kinda cleaned up for me.

I don't remember the movie, but a poorly paraphrased line in it was pretty accurate....we spend about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get rid of rats (mice)...they spend all their life thinking how to mess with or avoid us....

Two things --

1. I think that a Minnesota Pond Boss friend, and a few others, should pitch in and get Sunil some electroshock and other therapy treatment so he will to accept cats as friends. There are plenty of homeless cats in shelters in his area that need homes. They could quickly take care of his chipmunk issues.

2. If Dwight our Minnesota friend is unsuccessful, maybe we can find somebody, probably from a place like Nebraska, who loves to cook, and who knows a little bit about explosives. Those types usually also love to plan cookouts. Maybe we could have such a cookout at Sunil's place. It could be a real blast. I've never had it, but I can only imagine how good pre-shredded chipmunk shish kabob could be.

I wouldn't even think about doing this without Rex being involved. If the brainwashing and fireworks don't work, we could disguise the chipmunks as pieces of PVC pipe.

We might all get arrested, but ...