Chipmunks may be cute, but...

[ER2B]

We have had an ongoing battle with chipmunks over the years. They dig under my porch, my driveway and in the lawn! For some reason, this year has seen a big decline in population. Coincidentally, we have had a family or two of Garter snakes take up residence. Sure enough, according to several websites, they do eat chipmunks. I guess these snakes have to get them as babies as they are pretty small compared to a grown chipmunk.

We were fine with chipmunks around until they started digging under the porch. Every year ever since we would find mice, snakes and even chipmunks in our finished basement. We've been trapping them with sticky traps but was starting to be a nuisance every year usually around fall. We fixed the problem by replacing the clay soil under the porch with crushed coarse gravel. Once this material settles and hardens chipmunks are unable to dig through. What a relief. Haven't had a rodent in the basement in three years now.

 

[Walt34]

Wow, I have never had a cat who could catch a squirrel.

We didn't either and we always had cats when I was growing up. But when I bought a house near D.C. a neighbor up the street had a cat that would catch squirrels. I saw him do it once, when I was leaving for work early in the AM. When I shut the front door the noise distracted a squirrel who looked over at me to see what the noise was. The neighbor's cat, hiding in the hedge, seized that moment of distraction to pounce on the unlucky squirrel and grabbed it by the the back of the neck.

The cat then proudly trotted home with his trophy to lay at the feet of his [-]owner[/-] staff.

 

[euro]

We didn't either and we always had cats when I was growing up. But when I bought a house near D.C. a neighbor up the street had a cat that would catch squirrels. I saw him do it once, when I was leaving for work early in the AM. When I shut the front door the noise distracted a squirrel who looked over at me to see what the noise was. The neighbor's cat, hiding in the hedge, seized that moment of distraction to pounce on the unlucky squirrel and grabbed it by the the back of the neck.

The cat then proudly trotted home with his trophy to lay at the feet of his [-]owner[/-] staff.

Yep, our most recent cat has already caught 2 squirrels this year. One pretty small, the other normal size. That said, he does lose the contest probably 99.9% of the time as the squirrels generally are just too fast, especially up the trees. Every now and then though, he gets his revenge.... As I said in my previous post, this cat eats almost all of his chipmunk catches )I know because he typically leaves the tail and the intestines for me to clear off of the front steps....), he ate a good portion of both of the squirrels he caught, but he almost never eats mice, voles, moles. Those he donates to me...

 

[freedomatlast]

PSA:

The good news is that the coolant didn't need replaced as the repair guy had guessed was the culprit. In case you didn't know, older systems that use R-22 coolant are now much more expensive, if not impossible, to have their coolant recharged. Meaning most that have this issue are simply ruled out-dated and replaced. My system is indeed past it's expected lifespan, so I would have likely just replaced the whole system. But for now, I'll pay the $265 and keep my old system until it totally collapses.

Short A/C lesson:
The "electrical contact device" that wasn't properly closing because of the debris brought in by the rodent is called a contactor. Should have been an easy diagnosis and should have taken no more than 10 minutes to clean. It's also a good bet that the contactor wasn't broken as you were told, it simply needed to be cleaned.

R-22 is refrigerant, not coolant. And he wasn't going to replace it, he was going to add more if necessary. Coolant, also known as antifreeze, is what flows through the radiator in your car. No reason to replace an A/C system that runs R-22 unless the compressor locks up, or if the evaporator or condenser is leaking. R-22 is still plentiful although it is now more expensive than R-410A.

 

[Amethyst]

If our cats ever ate their catches, they did it where we couldn't see. I honestly don't see where they had time to catch even more mice, chipmunks, and moles than they were diligently lining up on the back porch for us to admire.

We did have a cat years ago in Florida, who stayed out late one night and fought a noisy battle with a roof rat outside our house. Next day, as the mighty hunter slept, I found the rat's corpse, uneaten, but with its bitten-off tail and nose lying next to the body.

Yep, our most recent cat has already caught 2 squirrels this year. One pretty small, the other normal size. That said, he does lose the contest probably 99.9% of the time as the squirrels generally are just too fast, especially up the trees. Every now and then though, he gets his revenge.... As I said in my previous post, this cat eats almost all of his chipmunk catches )I know because he typically leaves the tail and the intestines for me to clear off of the front steps....), he ate a good portion of both of the squirrels he caught, but he almost never eats mice, voles, moles. Those he donates to me...

 

[Mykle57]

Try googleing 'chipmunk swimming pool of death'. It works, it's cheap and it's portable. Whenever they get out of control at my house, the pool goes up.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Try googleing 'chipmunk swimming pool of death'. It works, it's cheap and it's portable. Whenever they get out of control at my house, the pool goes up.

We have a chipmunk problem, but I don't think I could handle using this method to get rid of them.

 

[VanWinkle]

Pellet Gun Pest control and hobby rolled into one.

 

[CaptTom]

Try googleing 'chipmunk swimming pool of death'. It works, it's cheap and it's portable. Whenever they get out of control at my house, the pool goes up.

My problem with the bucket trap is that the birds eat all the seeds I put near the ramp and bucket. Smearing a bit of peanut butter on the inside seems to help. The seeds sink after a copule of days, making this an expensive option if you want to cover the whole water surface with them. I've found just a few floating around is generally enough to attract the rodents' attention.

By far the best mouse trap I've ever used is the "walk the plank" style. It's a variation on the bucket trap, but you put the plank trap on the rim of the bucket. The plank is a metal strip held ever so lightly in place by a small magnet. The bait is at the end of the plank. It feels solid to the mice until they get almost to the bait and then the magnet lets go. Snap traps get some or maybe most of the mice. The plank will get virtually all of them.

 

[ER2B]

Chipmunks dug a tunnel under my concrete porch. Mice found the tunnel and before you know it, they're having a party in my basement. I closed the tunnel with packed crushed gravel. Let's see if man beats chipmunks.

 

[braumeister]

Around here, chipmunks are called "rats with racing stripes."

 

[RetiredHappy]

Aw... but chipmunks are soooooo cuuuute!

 

[Dash man]

I’ll give you a tip….”cats! Lots of cats!”

 

[jcfradio]

You know, in 50 years of cat ownership - all but one was an indoor-outdoor cat - I could count on one hand the number of "trophies" with feathers. Cats may seem to "fly" when they jump, but their wings aren't too effective!

The hysterical statistics about how many songbirds are killed, I find highly suspect (who actually counts?)

That said, a cat's presence certainly annoys birds and could keep all but the most confident (jays, mockingbirds, crows) away from the feeder. I hope your discouragement does not include shooting or otherwise harming cats, though.

Amethyst, you need to toughen up your cats...LOL! Our young runt cat of 2 years has probably brought us a dozen birds this year, including a couple of live ones thath she brought in as presents for us, through the cat flap in the screen door. You don't know how much fun it is (NOT!) to try to catch a wounded and scared bird that is flying in your basement.

 

[Montecfo]

I tolerate the chipmunks. Cats? Not so much

 

[CaptTom]

Interesting time to resurrect this old thread. We're having an explosion in the rodent populations around here. Squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, you name it. Probably because there seems to be a bumper crop of chestnuts, acorns, apples and maple "helicopter" seeds. We had an unusually wet August, which probably contributed.

The bucket traps are working well against the chipmunks, although I've only begun to make a dent in the population. Not sure what to do about the grey squirrels. I have a big (50 gallon) bucket trap for them which has worked well in the past, but this year they have so much food just lying around that they have no interest in whatever I put in the trap. I'm seriously thinking about investing in a good pellet gun. It would be far cheaper than hiring an exterminator if they every find a way into my attic.

 

[CRLLS]

Earlier I posted about our garter snake keeping down the Chippies this year. We haven't seen the snake for a few weeks now. Not since we saw him devouring a toad with only 2 hind feet sticking out of his mouth. Today was the first time I saw Chipmunks, twice! It may be time to set the livetrap.