I just saw a chipmunk eating my blueberries, any suggestions about how to kill them? My cats are indoor cats because it's no longer safe for cats in my neighborhood. I'm going to set a number of mousetraps, are there any poisons that are good for chipmunks?
My dad nets his blueberries for birds-- don't know if he has a chipmunk problem. I've got them eating all my gooseberries, so I'm going to start trapping them with a drowning set. [1/2 full 5 gallon bucket with a cover & a bit of pipe leading down into the bucket. Peanut butter smeared on the inside of the lid so they can smell it.]
Mouse traps are too small-- but rat traps or ratzappers will work.
Jim
Rat traps work fine. I had to resort to them last year on the deck garden. The chipmunks got too destructive.
Boron
Use the rat trap & bait with peanut butter. IMHO they are just as or more so tasty than squirrel. You just need more for a meal.
if you have ants and birds around you may want to put them under a box with gaps in the sides. otherwise you'll find birds in the rat traps too.
if you have extra sunflower seeds i mix them in the peanut butter.
songbird
I have never found birds in the rat traps, but I always set them in chipmunk runs between plants or tubs on the deck. IT isn't hard to see where they are coming from and in the "real" garden, they leave obvious holes. And really, there is no need to use anything beyond the cheapest scrapings from an peanut butter jar. Frankly, I don't cater meals to critters I am looking to knock off and I don't have trouble getting them in the plain traps, either, with just a hint of peanut butter scent and "l'eau de dead chipmunk."
I have found many odd creatures in the Have-a-Heart traps we set out for groundhogs, though...skunks, possums, raccoons, cats, crows....and the groundhogs, natch.
Boron
I'll get a bunch of rat traps at Home Depot today, a couple of the mouse traps that I set out yesterday were tripped but they didn't catch anything. I'm also going to get some rat poison. The area around my blueberries is fully netted so catching birds won't be a problem.
I hope no favorite pets visit around your blueberries.
-snip-
Never got a crow-- but I've gotten the rest of your assortment-- and a Fisher. As fierce as they look, he was as docile as the skunks. [and I released him the same way- with a blanket and extreme caution]
Jim
Wow. We do not have them around here at all. I do not think I'd like to confront an angry one in a trap, either.
Boron
Chipmunks don't eat that much compared to the good on Norway rat.
Anyway here is another take on the subject.
If he had been angry I would have dispatched him from a distance-- but he was sleeping in the morning and just looked at me when I spoke to him.
So I got the 'skunk blanket' - approached again - covered the trap, and opened the door. He sauntered out in about 10 minutes and walked into the woods. I wished him a long and fruitful life and recommended he eat squirrels instead of porcupines.
Jim
My cats are indoor cats, if they were outdoor cats I wouldn't have a chipmunk problem. My last cat was an outdoor cat and he killed at least one chipmunk a day. Unfortunately the Coyote population has skyrocketed since the ACME corporation settled with the Consumer Products Safety Commission. It's no longer safe to let cats roam outdoors so I have to rely on traps and poison.
I've tried a number of things on that list, they don't work. Plastic owls don't fool anybody, I tried one and the birds used it as a perch. I've also tried used kitty litter, that was the worst mistake I ever made in my garden. Kitty litter turns into a slurry when it gets wet, and once wet it never dries and it stays around forever. After several years of stepping into kitty litter quicksand I dug it out and buried it in the woods. I am using Critter Ridder repellent, I have no evidence one way or the other on that so I bought so more this year out of shear desperation.
I'd be tempted to get one of those owls for the photo opportunity-- but they are way too expensive.
I love the 'review' on the live trap- " I ordered it and within 30 minutes of getting it and setting it up I heard the "Snap" of the trap. Sure enough, I finally had safely trapped the chipmunk. I delivered him to the arboretum across the street, where I hope he lived happily ever after."
1 chipmunk? Moved him all the way across the street? That's rich.The fox urine *is* a possibility, though. I used liquid fence for a rascally rabbit one year & it seemed to work. [that bugger was a ghost-- got through fences, never showed himself when I was armed, and would *not* go in a trap] Expensive, and a pain in the butt--- but it worked.
The ultrasonic repellent might be worth $15 to try, too.
-snip-
Have the chipmunks kept coming after you used it? That look's like a pepper/capsicum based one. I've tried them with squirrels and they were useless.
Jim
I used hot pepper in my bird feeder last year and it worked. I went to an Indian grocery and bought the hottest chili pepper they had. The first time I mixed it into the bird seed I didn't use a respirator and it was like I'd experienced a WWI gas attack, I learned my lesson and when I do it now I use a gas mask.
I feel like a murderer. The mouse traps caught a couple of moles and the rat trap caught a chipmunk. The chipmunk was still alive which is why I feel so guilty, I had to drown him to put him out of his misery. The chipmunks have eaten five trays of rat poison, I won't see them die so it's not so bad. BTW I saw the chipmunks eating the poison so I know it's not other animals.
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