Squirrels and Chipmunks | Pad Patter July 2nd

The squirrels don't bother me. They never get close to the house. But I've got a chipmunk that comes right up to my sliding door and looks in. Sits on my patio furniture and even crawls up the brick. Saw it when I glanced out the window of my office while watching online church several weeks ago. When I was still working, when I pulled into my garage after work one day there was a chipmunk on the ledge of the window again having crawled up the brick. I've even had it come into my garage.

In 2017 I had the old patio dug up and a new one put in. The chipmunks have had a burrow under the old one for awhile. I had hoped that this work would destroy their burrow and they would move elsewhere. NOT...

And, lately because I had rock put in my landscaping instead of mulch (my dog ate the mulch), I had again hoped this might deter the chipmunk and it would move elsewhere. Nope. It just dug through the landscaping fabric and moved the rocks. I piled extra rocks on the 2 holes and the dang chipmunk has made another one. I have also seen it go into my downspouts.

I even poured way more of the rodent repellant than it said was needed into those holes. Doesn't phase this one at all. One neighbor just laughs about the chipmunks because their dog will try to chase it but since he's a 9 year old lab mix, he's not fast at all. They don't have one living under their patio. I think there are some living under another neighbor's shed. He doesn't take care of the outside of his property except to mow the grass. Doesn't even trim around the shed. Prime area for chipmunks to live in.

I have for a couple of years had an essential oil diffuser that I put peppermint oil in out in the garage. It diffuses for about 4 hours. I started doing that after the chipmunk came in the garage. Apparently they hate the smell of peppermint. It hasn't come in the garage since.

in other words, HATE CHIPMUNKS....

 

I've also tried spraying a water/peppermint oil mix around the decorative fencing around my patio. Worked for a couple of days but then it was back. The diffuser serves 2 purposes in the garage though. My dog is trained to use pee pads in the garage so it also helps with keeping that smell in check.

I just took a walk and saw a neighbor that I had heard had been trapping chipmunks. He said he has gotten 18 of them. I asked if he would trap mine. He said he would when he gets back from vacation (they leave today). So hopefully in about 10 days, it will be gone. I just hope it is the one but if there are more, he'll keep trapping until he gets them all.

 

We live near a ravine and there are several ravines throughout our small town, so we have a TON of squirrels that live near us. They don't bother me at all (especially since we don't feed the birds anymore). But, in my last house I had a red squirrel (the smaller ones with less bushy tails) chew into my attic. I could hear him running around up there and no matter what I did to block his holes, he'd always chew right back in there. Drove me crazy.

When we were camping this weekend there was a little chipmunk that visited our campsite several times in hopes of a snack (we did not feed him), but he was such a strange looking chipmunk. Instead of the normal stripes, he had stripes of spots. I don't know if he was a different kind of chipmunk, or just had some random markings.



ETA: I guess he's not a chipmunk... he's a thirteen lined ground squirrel. Huh. Who knew?
https://oaklandcountyblog.com/2019/08/02/i-am-not-a-chipmunk/

 

Here's a normal chipmunk:

 

I love them.. especially the chipmunks.. they are my fav.. I like squirrels as long as they stay outside and don't get into the attic!

Years ago (back in the early 1980's) living on Long Island in NY, my Mom was a Bird watcher etc., and always fed the birds. [She was past president of the local Audubon chapter as well as their newsletter editor for many many years. She was friends with the bird artists- one of her best friends being Arthur Singer, illustrator of the Birds of North America Bird Guide, and also friends with Roger Tory Peterson etc.]

With the Audubon chapter they always had a bird seed sale/drive to raise money at the chapter so my parents would buy 50 pound bags of Sunflower Seeds, mixed seed and then small bags of thistle seeds for the thistle feeder for the finches. Anyway, with the birdseed, my parents kept the bags downstairs in our finished basement. This one November when we went away for Thanksgiving, Dad had lowered the temperature on the heater since we were not going to be there for the week, and apparently left the shop door open.

When we came home from our trip we saw the wooden window frames on the basement window in the shop was chewed on and when we went to the finished side of the basement there was seed everywhere, plus we heard the feet pattering all around.. LOL We grabbed the have a heart trap, put some peanut butter on bread and placed it in the trap and caught our little friend.

Apparently with the temperature lowered, somehow our little squirrel friend found his way down the chiminy and got into the basement .... I am sure he was happy when he found the "mother load" of seed.. all the food he could eat, but he was not very happy that he couldn't get out of the basement!

Dad took the trap outside opened it, and the squirrel ran out of the trap like a shot! It was funny but we had a lot to clean up afterwards!!!

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Another time before Mom got baffles for her birdfeeders to keep the squirrels out, she would "Crisco" the metal pipe pole on the birdfeeder and the squirrels looked like little firemen! The would jump to get to the pole and then would slide down.. it was really very funny to watch!

@ArmyGrl Lisa they truly are acrobats!!

 

He said another neighbor has been trapping them as well. That neighbor had one that had a very small tail and he could never get it. Les said that this week, one with a very small tail was caught in his trap so he thinks it came to his house (across the street). The 18 has been over a period of about a month.

My cousin lives 2 houses from this guy. She is the one that old me he was trapping them. She has seen chipmunks at her home as well but she hoped they were moving on down to his house since he was putting out the traps with bird seed in them.

I'm hoping it is only the one but I wouldn't be surprised if he might catch more because of the neighbor's shed that I think more are living under.

 

ooh how neat.. I never saw that kind before, Karen!

 

they are smart and will come back regardless of how far away you release them.

 

Can't come back when they are dead. LOL

 

What is weird about the chipmunks in our area is that none of my neighbors have bird feeders. One that did has been gone for quite awhile since she passed away. The other one that had one took it down several years ago. So there is no bird seed for them to go after.

The squirrels have always been fun to watch. There are lines (power, phone and cable) running above ground behind my house (on the lot lines between the houses). Mom and Dad would sit at the kitchen table in the mornings and watch the squirrels run back and forth on those lines. Quite entertaining. I don't see them on the lines so much anymore but do see them climb the 2 poles. Did a layout back in the Scrap Orchard days of a squirrel perched on top of the pole with no where to go. I also have a layout about the chipmunk visits that I did for a challenge at another store since the kit was from there. Cute layout and chipmunks are cute but annoying.

We also used to get a raccoon visit in the evenings back in the 1980's. Mom and Dad had put a screened in porch on top of the original patio. They would sit out there in the evenings watching TV that they had plugged in just inside the sliding door. No other lights were on. Every so often a coon would come up to the porch, look in and run away when Mom screamed. All she saw was the whites of its eyes! But the raccoons eventually went away. Haven't heard of one around here for maybe 20-25 years.

Got lots of rabbits around here too. Had a mom have her babies in the corner of a flower bed by my driveway/garage about 15 years ago. Babies died. Mom didn't know I had sprayed Roundup in the corner just a day before. My neighbor disposed of them for me so Pepper and Paige wouldn't get them. The only annoying thing about the rabbits is they drive Peyton crazy when she sees them when she looks out the window (Pepper and Paige too when they were alive). They like to hide under the bushes in the front flower bed when it rains and she can see them.

 

We had a ton of squirrels in Florida and they were very friendly. We called them "our pets". Living where we do now, we don't see too many of either. Other things - like deer, wild turkeys but no squirrels. We have a LOT of cats roaming around, though.

 

Unfortunately in our new area of the subdivision we don't have either. But I think they're cute and like them. YIKES that they are causing terror for your yard and $pockets though. UGH

 

When I lived in downtown Toronto, the squirrels would climb across the street in the overhead telephone and power wires. The traffic below never bothered them. They were fearless. We were right downtown and living in a concrete jungle and I wondered where the squirrels made their home!

When we moved to Oakville, we had several bird feeders, but the squirrels chewed through them to get at the seed. We finally gave up on feeding the birds. The squirrels went elsewhere once we stopped, and we never had any problems with them getting into the house.

Where we live now, we see only the odd squirrel, but lots and lots of jack rabbits in the neighbourhood. At least they can't climb!

 

;(