Chipmunk Problem

Over the past week or so I've noticed holes dug in my garden. Some were smaller holes while others exposed the roots of my tomatoes and onions. Well today I decided to stake out the garden and low and behold a chipmunk ran straight to the base of the tomato plant. My movement caused it to scurry away in a hurry but he knows I can't be there all the time.

To date I've sat out an owl statue to no avail. Any ideas on what I can do to keep this critter from ruining my garden? So far the only casualty has been an almost ripe roma tomato? I'm open to any and all suggestions.





Thanks,

Cary

Half of my chipmunk problem left my yard this morning in the mouth of the neighbor's cat.

Hiya, I believe I could probably set the record for chipmunks in our yard. I can spot at least 2 at any given time!!

That being said, I too have been fighting them digging up my crops all spring. I think I have found the solution though. MESH of any sort. I had some old orange bags on hand and cut them to fit around the plants as a ground cover... so far it has worked. With that in mind, using tulle would work too or up to a 2" square netting product. It seems with my guys, if they don't have room to comfortably dig, they move on.

BTW, I tried hot pepper flakes and powder.... it didn't phase them and the pepper seeds started sprouting!!! I was watering a couple of days ago and didn't pay attention to where the hose was. A few minutes later a very WET chipmunk paid me a visit. It was a wonderful reward for me!

Several here have recommended the Scarecrow motion activated sprinkler.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000071NUS

Watch the videos - it might be worth a try.

I have found these organic pest control devices to be quite effective on of all kinds of rodent pests in the garden (squirrels,chipmunks,voles, ect....)



I have quite a fair number of these devices roaming the apartment complex garden here and so far have not a single problem with squirrels and chipmunks.

Of course they also find MM to be the perfect medium for elimination of their waste material and can become something of a garden pest problem themselves...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll give them a try. They are driving me crazy.

I don't have anything producing in my garden yet (it's the first year for us), but we live in a pretty dry climate with plenty of small wildlife. Something was eating my two basil plants (they share a pot) so I got bamboo trellis for the pot and covered it with tulle. Those two plants have come back so quickly I need to harvest them because they're running out of room in there! They've remained almost entirely pest-free thanks to the tulle.

We came home on Mother's Day and something had stripped my new baby habanero pepper. I stuck some pieces of PVC in the soil around it (it's also potted) and put bird mesh over it. It hasn't been touched since. I will probably get a tomato cage soon to mount the mesh to.

All 3 of my potted tomatoes have bird mesh around the cages that go well below the rims of the pots, since at the same time the habanero was eaten some of the tomato leaves were, too. The bird mesh has kept them untouched.

So far the zucchini hasn't been touched, or the strawberry plants (I haven't let them flower) though my culprit has turned out to be a squirrel and it does dig in those tubs. I've found corn in them - someone must have a feeder nearby.

Both of my 4x4 beds are completely enclosed, trellises and all, by bird mesh. I left a gap once and some of my baby radish tops and peas became casualties. I'm much more careful now and so far, so good.

In fact, I have seen that squirrel(s) 3 times today, eating the grass next to one of the beds. I think he's just thirsty. It's hot and dry, and it's only going to get worse.

Anyway, I expect that before long I'll need to protect the zucchini, strawberry, and the pumpkin that just joined them outside. This is going to be an interesting summer...

I lost all my snap pea shoots and strawberries (while still green) to chipmunks last year. My gardens are along the edge of the forested part of my lot, so we have many many chipmunks and red squirrels.

Well I decided to wage war on the offending pests.....I set a large plastic V-trap (without any bait) in the garden by the snap peas until they came up and then in the strawberry box. Only the offenders that travelled through the garden that checked out the trap would be wacked.

I killed approximately 30 chipmunks .....and I did not use any peanut butter, just placed the set trap in the garden boxes being predated. There are still signs of chipmunks this year and I still see them around so I know I hardly put a dint in their population. My snap peas made it out of the ground this year without being all eaten, so it looks like I caught the ones that were conditioned to eating them.....now we'll have to see if I get some strawberries .

They are digging a bit but that has lessened now that I have put the deer mesh back up. Maybe things will be different this year? Well at least until the chipmunks learn that there's food in the those boxy things.....

Grrrr... one of the only lemons on my dwarf lemon tree was downed by the squirrel today. What's worse is apparently he doesn't like green lemons; after removing it from the tree and taking a couple of bites (complete with teeth marks) he just left it in the pot by the trunk.

I had some extra plastic gutter guard, so I encircled the rim of the pot with it. Maybe it will be spiky and unstable enough that the squirrel won't want to climb it.

I definitely smell trouble coming with the strawberries, zucchini, and pumpkin...

No problem with my veggie garden, which is a raised box with a chicken wire fencing on top of it. However, they aparently don't care for my color scheme with the impatiens; every day 2 or 3 have been dug up and have to be replanted. It won't be a problem once they are well rooted, but were just planted a week ago.

Mrs TD is furious.  She likes to grow sunflowers so she created a spot for them near the SFG beds.  She has a little plastic fence around the area and put a plastic hardware mesh over the ground where she planted the seeds. The seeds started to sprout nicely. She just came into the house and is not at all happy.  Our resident chipmunk has eaten all the new sunflower leaves and even dug up some of the seeds. She has now sprinkled cayenne pepper around the area. We have coexisted with one or more chipmunks for years. One even followed me into the garage the other day. But I can't have an unhappy Mrs TD so I am thinking it may be time to acquire a live trap.

But then there is this to deal with ... 

• In Ontario, it is illegal to trap and relocate animals from the site where they were captured according to the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
  http://www.ottawahumane.ca/services/live-trapping-and-relocation/
  

I feel for Mrs. TD - I have tried planting sunflowers in the "back garden" wildlife area, with limited success due to all the squirrels and chipmunks. I managed to stop them from digging in my SFG garden (after losing most of the pea seeds) by covering the bed with 1-inch chicken wire. I didn't build a frame or anything for it, but just sort of humped it over the sides of the beds and then covered in tulle until the seedlings started hitting the top.

Maybe you could do the same, laying it over the plastic fencing as a support? I have had limited success using mentholated foot powder sprinkled around the edges of beds, too. You have to reapply after every rain, but it does seem to make the groundhogs, chipmunks, and squirrels less thrilled about exploring.

I have had chipmunk problems since the beginning of my garden.  They have extensive tunnels some of which go under one bed and I keep caving in that tunnel.  The only bother they have been to my garden is eating the low hanging tomatoes in the middle of summer.  They are trying to get water from the tomatoes.  I was working in the garden one day and actually saw a chipmunk munching on a tomato that had fallen on the ground.  They may be the ones eating my just planted pea seeds but I have been blaming the birds for that.  I now cover the newly planted seeds with hardware cloth and burlap until they get established.

I bought hav-a-hart traps but never put them out.  I also bought a trail camera but could never figure out how to get it to operate accurately.   So I just put up with the little buggers.

Chipmunks in my previous yard were extremely destructive. They tore into wife's flower pots, garden baskets and ithroughout my garden beds. They also devour bird feeders with sunflower seeds.  The havahart trap is about the best way to go. only you need to smaller one. They can get out of the slots in the small animal trap.
I also baited them in and shot them with a pellet gun.
My wife adored them until they were seen in your deck baskets tearing out the petunia plants just looking for something they smelled. If the smell anything appealing, they dig, and dig they will.
When I trapped them I just lowered trap in a bucket of water, when done I just reset the trap
Take out a family and another family moves in from another brood.
They are nothing but rats with stripes.

trolleydriver wrote:Mrs TD is furious.  She likes to grow sunflowers so she created a spot for them near the SFG beds.  She has a little plastic fence around the area and put a plastic hardware mesh over the ground where she planted the seeds. The seeds started to sprout nicely. She just came into the house and is not at all happy.  Our resident chipmunk has eaten all the new sunflower leaves and even dug up some of the seeds. She has now sprinkled cayenne pepper around the area. We have coexisted with one or more chipmunks for years. One even followed me into the garage the other day. But I can't have an unhappy Mrs TD so I am thinking it may be time to acquire a live trap.

But then there is this to deal with ... 

• In Ontario, it is illegal to trap and relocate animals from the site where they were captured according to the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act.
  http://www.ottawahumane.ca/services/live-trapping-and-relocation/
  

I seed all my sunflowers in containers outside, on my patio table.  Plant them in when they are about 6-10” tall.  Otherwise, things (I have gray squirrels) eat the seeds.

BlackjackWidow wrote: I have had limited success using mentholated foot powder sprinkled around the edges of beds, too. You have to reapply after every rain, but it does seem to make the groundhogs, chipmunks, and squirrels less thrilled about exploring.

Interesting.

sanderson wrote:

BlackjackWidow wrote: I have had limited success using mentholated foot powder sprinkled around the edges of beds, too. You have to reapply after every rain, but it does seem to make the groundhogs, chipmunks, and squirrels less thrilled about exploring.

Interesting.

Isn't it funny? My granddaughter got quite a kick out of helping me sprinkle foot powder around the gardens. My local grocery store's dollar aisle sometimes has full-size shaker bottles of some no-name brand of the foot powder for a buck a piece. When it shows up, I usually buy 5 or 10. The cashiers must think I have some real stinky shoes! 

Mentholated foot powder... I wonder if that would work better than my plastic snakes for protecting my blueberries from the little buggers...?

I have tons of rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks in my yard. I sprinkled crushed red pepper around the perimeter of my SFG bed, and so far, nothing has bothered anything in there. Now as far as the rest of my yard, there isn't enough red pepper in the world to keep all of them out. The chipmunks really make a mess of things with the holes they dig. They're adorable, but GRRRRRR...go be adorable somewhere else!

P.S. After posting the above, I went to research how to get rid of chipmunks and ran across the website "getridofthings.com". Anyway, here's some more info, for what it's worth.
https://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-chipmunks/

AtlantaMarie wrote:Mentholated foot powder...  I wonder if that would work better than my plastic snakes for protecting my blueberries from the little buggers...?

It's pretty cheap to try - let me know if you have any success. I'm doubling down on foot powder, hot pepper flakes, and adding more fencing to my gardens. Some little critter has found my sfg again and made quite a mess. Even bit through my drip line in one bed last night. I am not a happy camper!

Spent some time yesterday trying to dissuade Alvin and Theodore from tearing up my gardens.

First thing - I have never finished the fencing around the gardens. I left an opening towards the house in order to get wheelbarrows and things in there and generally just couldn't find the time to put up a gate and finish it off. It's still not pretty, but I jimmy-rigged the "no dig gate" with some zip ties and finally put it into service. I did bang on the fence post a little more to try to level it. 


Hauled out my cheapskate repellents and fantasized about critters sneezing and running away. Ba ha ha ha ha! (looks like medicated body powder was in the dollar aisle this time) The more I think about it, the more I think it was medicated foot powder, not mentholated. Do they even make mentholated powder? Anyway, the powder with additives for sweaty body parts is what I use lol. Then I rolled the chicken wire in a cylinder and placed it between the gate and the wall to block the opening. Just didn't have time to get to the fencing, and this was already cut.



This morning - success! No new holes anywhere! Yay! Fingers crossed it continues to work.


I used the cayenne pepper on the soil, but the powder I only sprinkled on the wood and the stones in the aisles. I don't think it would technically hurt the plants themselves, but I don't want the soil contaminated with "medication". Yuk!

BlackjackWidow wrote:Spent some time yesterday trying to dissuade Alvin and Theodore from tearing up my gardens.

First thing - I have never finished the fencing around the gardens. I left an opening towards the house in order to get wheelbarrows and things in there and generally just couldn't find the time to put up a gate and finish it off. It's still not pretty, but I jimmy-rigged the "no dig gate" with some zip ties and finally put it into service. I did bang on the fence post a little more to try to level it. 


Hauled out my cheapskate repellents and fantasized about critters sneezing and running away. Ba ha ha ha ha! (looks like medicated body powder was in the dollar aisle this time) The more I think about it, the more I think it was medicated foot powder, not mentholated. Do they even make mentholated powder? Anyway, the powder with additives for sweaty body parts is what I use lol. Then I rolled the chicken wire in a cylinder and placed it between the gate and the wall to block the opening. Just didn't have time to get to the fencing, and this was already cut.



This morning - success! No new holes anywhere! Yay! Fingers crossed it continues to work.


I used the cayenne pepper on the soil, but the powder I only sprinkled on the wood and the stones in the aisles. I don't think it would technically hurt the plants themselves, but I don't want the soil contaminated with "medication". Yuk!

I can't say that the crushed red pepper is what's keeping the critters out of my SFG bed, but they're out and it's cheap, (I use the stuff from the dollar store), and it's contains nothing I worry about adding to the MM. I usually add a bit more every few weeks or so, and as long as it keeps working, I'm happy. Let the critters find somewhere else to go for lunch! Hope they don't develop a taste for spicy food, or I'm in trouble.   
Good luck to you!

BlackjackWidow wrote:I have had limited success using mentholated foot powder sprinkled around the edges of beds, too. You have to reapply after every rain, but it does seem to make the groundhogs, chipmunks, and squirrels less thrilled about exploring.

    ...and here I thought I'd heard it all...

Not sure why I find that so funny since it sounds like a great idea!
Thanks.
CC