How to get Chipmunks out of your Home
Do you have chipmunk problems?
They may look like tree-dwelling squirrels with their tiny noses, swollen cheeks, and bushy tails, but chipmunks are not baby squirrels. Believe it or not, the two are different but related animals. Chipmunks are ground squirrels; they are the raging cousins of the larger tree-climbing species. Of course, this explains the pockmarked appearance of your garden plot. These furry critters dig and build their houses and shelters underground. This differentiates them from their tree-loving relatives, who spend most of their time in trees.
Approaches to chipmunk control
Before deciding how to get rid of the chipmunks from your home, it's important to learn about their habits. Chipmunks are powerful eaters. They spend their lives eating, searching for, and storing food. What is the effective way of getting rid of chipmunks? The key is to find out what they eat. Chipmunks eat everything and anything from grass to your pizza crusts. Their main diet usually includes mushrooms, plants, nuts, grains, seeds, and occasionally insects. In the worst case, chipmunks are also known to catch small birds and rodents like shrews, although they are not actively looking for these resistant protein sources; they are content to search the ground for edible finds.
Aside from food, chipmunks are also suspicious of very open spaces, which is not surprising since they live underground. They also tend to be in shady areas looking for food. Their caves are usually built in the shade of solid matter, like a tree stump or your porch. In your quest to eradicate the chipmunk, these are two weaknesses that you should take advantage of to end your chipmunk problem.
Now that you know their weaknesses, it is time to take action. There are many ways to get rid of chipmunks, so be creative.
Use Predators
An inexpensive way to control chipmunks is to keep a pet. Cats can be an effective weapon against these lively balls of fur. If you feel adventurous, choose badgers, weasels, or falcons. These are the natural predators of the chipmunk. They stalk their prey in the shade, and the poor chipmunk will have no idea what happened until it hits the predator's belly.
Live Traps
A less morbid option is live chipmunk traps, which are sold in most hardware stores. You can buy some conveniently sized traps and just add seeds, nuts, oats, or whatever your chipmunk wants. Secure the traps in shady areas or where your enemy is often. Patience is not even necessary because chipmunks come where there is food. Once trapped, drive to the other side of town and let the critters out. Better yet, drop them off at the nearest national park.
Repellents
If that doesn't work, just give the furballs a taste of their own medicine. The trick to getting these chipmunks to voluntarily leave your home is to limit their food supply. You don't have to clear your garden; just spray pepper solution or hot sauce on your plants and the places your furry friend is, and they will move out safely.
Professional Pest Control
However, if these tricks don't work, your chipmunks are a tough bunch. Simply choose pest control and invest in a professional chipmunk eradication program. This is a foolproof way to get rid of chipmunks.