Chipmunk Crazy

Several people recently have asked me to write about chipmunks. It ‘s not because they love the cute little guys running around their yards…I suspect that it is because they are looking for information on how to eliminate them. Hopefully with the information below you can decide if and what you can do about the chipmunks that are driving you crazy.

First let me make it clear that chipmunks don’t bother me much. In fact, I kind of like to see chipmunks. When we first moved in a couple of years ago my wife was concerned about rattlesnakes or copperheads hanging out in the yard. I pointed out the chipmunks running around and told her that if there were rattlesnakes that we wouldn’t see all the chipmunks because the snakes would get them. Several months later that attempt to calm her backfired when she observed that she hadn’t seen many chipmunks lately. I’ll have to think up another “don’t worry about snakes” idea.

Actually rattlesnakes and blacksnakes do love to feast on chipmunks, as do foxes, hawks, bobcats, and weasels. Dogs and cats sometimes catch them but probably rarely eat them. After the fox article in the paper a couple of weeks ago two different people emailed me to say that they had seen foxes catching chipmunks in their yard. Chipmunks are an important part of the natural food chain. Chipmunks, on the other hand, eat nuts, acorns, seeds, mushrooms, fruit, berries, insects, bird eggs, and even baby birds or baby mice…as well as your flower bulbs and seeds. More on that later.

The Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias Striatus) is the one we see around here. Although eastern chipmunks can readily climb, they spend almost all of their time on or under the ground. Before I put predator guards on my bird feeder poles the chipmunks would zip up and down the poles like they were on a string.

The genus name Tamias means “storer” and the species name Striatus means “striped”. That is the perfect name because this squirrel is a striped storer. They carry seeds and nuts in their expandable cheek pouches to underground storerooms for eating later. They even use their cheek pouches to carry away the dirt from the entrance to their burrows so predators can’t spot their homes as easily. That is why their burrows just look like a small 2 inch hole in the ground.

In cold weather, chipmunks sleep for days or weeks at a time but don’t truly hibernate. Instead, they wake up from time to time to have a little snack from their underground stores. Therefore they don’t need to fatten up for winter like bears and groundhogs do.

Almost everything I have read says that chipmunks do little damage in yards. Yes, they do eat some flower seeds and bulbs but ¼ inch hardware cloth will let the plants grow through but keep the chipmunks out. Their burrows (10-30 feet in length) are generally much too narrow to cause any structural damage to your house or walks. A chipmunk’s territory is ¼ to ½ an acre and since chipmunks lead a solitary life except during a brief 1 week breeding season how many could you possibly get in your yard anyway?

But to some people, chipmunks are a nuisance that drives them crazy and they must be eliminated. I know several people who regularly trap them in live traps. Some drive the captured chipmunks to another part of town and release them while some send them to chipmunk heaven. If you release them just be sure you don’t move your problem to someone else’s yard. Trapping is considered to be the only effective method to control chipmunks; however, it may be a never ending job because a yard without chipmunks is a vacuum waiting to be filled by another one. But then again, trapping chipmunks is a fun challenge for some folks and since most of us in Fairfield Glade are retired anyway what else do you have to do?

But if you are looking for that ultimate way to eliminate all chipmunks from your yard I don’t believe it exists. I just sit back and enjoy the little guys. Everyone is different and whether you love or hate chipmunks is probably just a difference in the eye of the beholder.