Monday, June 7, 2010

The War On Chipmunks


         Is he a cute little bugger?  No he is not.  The chipmunks have moved into our house.  They have a chipmunk dance and multiple domestic squabbles every night above our heads on the upper side of the bedroom ceiling tiles.  

       Back when they were content with the old stump and the wood piles in the back lots they were kinda cute; we thought.  Amy got them to feed out of her hand and she could pet them, too. 

       But now it's time to eliminate them.  I researched it on line and found that extermination is probably the best thing to do...a complete chipmunk purge.  The best way to do this is to trap them in rat traps they say.  "They won't suffer." Wait, who is suffering here?  Or Have A Hart live traps can be used, but " relocated chipmunks hardly ever survive in the new wild surroundings." Some folks who don't mind having ugly, five gallon buckets sitting around out by the porch, say drowning is the best. All you have to do is to cover the water in the bucket with sunflower seeds, lay a ramp up to the top of the bucket lining it with more seeds and presto, you have a chipmunk dunking tank. "It always works".  Isn't that kinda gross? Elv had me buy poison to set out for them to eat.  I put Bounce dryer sheets up there all over their favorite dance floor, and if that doesn't deter the noisy chipmunks it's not all wasted...the mice hate Bounce, so they say.

     So far Brad and Amy have been shooting them with a pellet gun and getting a few too, but obviously they multiply faster than we can shoot them.  Frances even took a crack at one tonight and was sure she'd "got 'im!", then started to feel sick in her soul about it.  But Brad came in and said he couldn't find it... "You missed!" he mocked.

    Once we feel we've rid our property of these pests; Elv hopes to be able to plug a few more holes around the foundation of our house.  This will be a challenge considering the fact that there are two foundations: one for the original house and the other for the addition of the thick stone walls. 

   Would any of you like to own a cute pet?  Bring your live trap with you and you can have as many as like.  They're free, too.

       

6 comments:

  1. Didn't you sweep a bear out of your yard once? Not sure it would work for chipmunks though...

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  2. So sorry you are dealing with the cute pesky little things! Still hoping we can get together sometime this summer. A camping trip is on our want to do list.

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  3. I would NOT recommend poison! Unless you want to have to move out of your house for a few weeks... I know they say that the critters will go outside to die, but that's a bunch of bologna. There, now you have my 2 cents.

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  4. I think the chipmunks are perfect for providing Brad, Amy, and Frances with challenges, entertainment, and summer fun! Laife would think he was in his height of glory if he could target practice on squirrels... YOU however, do have my sympathy.

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  5. One more comment... The word verification had me write "nutsimen" How punny... a new name for squirrels!

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  6. They are raiding the sunflower seeds we store in the back of the hardware store. Which reminds me, I was supposed to reset the traps Friday...

    Another solution might be to buy or adopt a cat. While mine is only partially effective against chipmonks, the number of mice getting into the house has gone down.

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