chipmunks :)

[fowlman33]

ok, starting to have a little chipmunk problem around the coops and pens....please give me hints on trapping or eradicating !!

The small Havahart traps doesnt seem to trip easy enough....what is the best "bait" for a chipmunk ?

 

[GoldenSparrow]

I had the same problem. it was from the chicken food.
heres what I did.

make sure chicken food is in a tight container, so they can not get into it (the chipmunks)
at night time take away the leftover chicken food.
we are home all the time, so we tryed to feed the chickens every time we went out there, then took the food away so the chicpmunks cant eat it.
keep coops clean.

we were going to catch the chipmunks, but then after we kept the food away from them a few days they left.
I did however catch 6 chipmunks! I know I had 6, cause I had them all at one time in different cages!

if you are going to catch them, use black sunflower seeds. they love um!

 

[jakec]

i had a bulldog problem that a late night waiting and a .30 06 solved.

 

[GoldenSparrow]

jakec wrote:

i had a bulldog problem that a late night waiting and a .30 06 solved.

 

[jakec]

i tried some other ways but after 12 quail and 14 bantam chickens killed by the same 2 dogs they had to go.

 

[jerryb]

I have lots of chipmunks where i live, they do not get into the chicken or rabbit feed I keep that in metal cans inside. they do go into the attic of my garage so I trap them. I am going to take the siding off the garage and find where they are getting in so that maybe I can leave them alone next year.

so I have found the following when it comes to trapping chipmunks:

the little buggers are smart enough that after a while they will not go to your traps anymore, so you have to change trapping strategies every few weeks or so.

an old fashioned rat trap works great, for bait use sunflower seeds mixed with some 5 minute epoxy and glue the seeds right to the trigger.

the new fangled plastic rat traps also work well, bait them the same way, or use a bit of wire and wire a piece of fruit to the bait pot.

the havahart live trap will work fine if you bait it with the epoxy/seed mix. the problem I have figured out is that the pan will trip while the chippy is only part way in and they wiggle back out.
glue the bait to the pan and they will be caught 99% of the time.

you can use whole kernel corn if you have it on hand, works almost as well. peanut butter will work for a while. keep changing traps from time to time.

I have trapped over 50 chippys in the past two years using the above.

good luck
Jerry

 

[kahlertm]

I do not know how closely behavior in chipmunks resembles mice, but I did attend a conference at which the original scientist who discovered Hanta Virus (Sin Nombre virus) in the southwest spoke of mouse behavior.

Along side of his research with the virus and the deer mouse he conducted a study with mice and relocating them. He actually caught and numbered the mice and released them at differing distances from his home. Some 5 miles away. Within a period of time depending on if there was a cloud cover each and every mouse made it back to his home. He documented the entire experiment and hypothesis.
The hypothesis was that they used the constellations (stars in the sky) as the way they were finding the way back to the original nest and trapped location. He re tested and recorded the weather patterns and did get the same results. The mice took longer when their was cloud cover. Whether they were using constellations or using visual cues (they did not see their trip away ie; landmarks).

It cracks me up when my mother in law traps squirrels and takes them about a mile up the road. I'll bet if we painted the ear of those she trapped, she would be re-trapping the same one in about a week or less depending on weather and how far she took them away. I don't /can't share with her. She does not pay heed to daughter in laws sadly. Oh well. At least she'll stay busy.

Just a thought on the humane trapping and relocation of rodents..... I found it fascinating...and somewhat disheartening.. They'll come back, happens with Bear, Lynx..many others.

What to do? Prevention. Keeping clean as you can....peaceful coexistence to a point I suppose...depending on the individual.

 

[Orange Ribbon]

I wonder what names the deer mice have for the constellations? "Son, that is Fluffy the Archer. Over there is the constellation Killer Cat. And when the Mice Twins are in the sky you know it is time for the ancient ritual of sacrifice to the Hanta Virus gods."

Seems to me that if the mice are using constellations then you could just take them five minutes away and they would never find their way home since there is no way to tell any difference in the sky from such a short distance away. Especially if you live in a flat area.

They might be instinctively able to return to their original homestead, but if a scientist thinks I'm stupid enough to believe a mouse can go by constellations then he is stupid enough to believe he came from an ape.

 

[JJMR794]

Never Seen 1 Outrun A 22 Bullet... And They Dont Find There Way Back From Rodent Valle Halle

 

[fowlman33]

agree, problem is we only see them for split seconds.....just see the evidence for most part