Chipmunks eating my plants!
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Does anyone have suggestions for chipmunk removals?
They are eating everything in my garden and tunneling under all
my plants. I have a BB gun. :(. Thanks in advance for help.
Marsha
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(post #15270, reply #1 of 105)
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The Nichols Gardens folks raked the lumps from the kitty litter and dropped them down the burrows. Chipmonks abandoned areas thus treated.
BJ The Gardeners Husband
(post #15270, reply #2 of 105)
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Or get a rat terrier. They do more damage trying to get ground dwellers than the ground dwellers, though.
(post #15270, reply #3 of 105)
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Cats can really reduce chipmunk populations too.
(post #15270, reply #4 of 105)
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I had a traumatic experience involving a BB gun and an unsuspecting chipmunk, back when I was 12 or so. It's hard to get a clean kill. I wouldn't recommend it.
(post #15270, reply #5 of 105)
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I have read that calcium carbide, dropped into the burrows is an effective deterrent to moles voles, and chipmonks. It acts by combining with the water in the soil and giving off actylene gas. I'd like to try, but carbide is no longer a common hardware store commodity. Welders buy their actylene in cylinders and miners use electric torches. Maybe I can get it for one of those gas cannons. Any suggestions?
BJ The Gardeners Husband
(post #15270, reply #6 of 105)
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Hey, how 'bout getting an acetylene cylinder and blowing it through the tunnels? Or you could do like a friend of hubby's....he got so fed up with the moles in the yard that he poured five gallons of gasoline down into the burrows then he lit a match. Now, envision Wiley Coyote trying to get moles out and doing the same thing. Watch as the whole yard lifts up about a foot and Wiley is blown onto his back. Now imagine Wiley with no eyebrows. It was really stupid, but really funny. The whole lawn died, but the moles were gone.
Eric, it sounds like the chipmunk had more of a traumatic experience than you did.
You can pour fertilizer down their burrows. They won't come near the stuff, it burns their widdy feet. And it gives off fumes as well. Burns their widdy lungs.
I don't recommend a cat unless you have a bobcat. I worked in a wildlife rehab place and my love affair with the cute chipmunk ended there. When trying to remove their food and water bowls (with heavy gloves) they would try to drag you into the cage so they could eat you alive. Strong little (deleted). An unsuspecting cat could really end up on the short of the stick if it actually caught one.
(post #15270, reply #7 of 105)
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Wow! Chipmunks are that tough? They seem so cute and innocent. The cats I grew up with all ate chipmunks. It's pretty horrifying to see the cute little kitty chewing on a chipmunk's head. Sometimes they brought live chipmunks into the house and let them go. I was impressed with how quickly chipmunks can climb brick.
Our toughest male cat sometimes caught squirrels. I would not have believed a cat could catch and kill a squirrel if I hadn't seen it myself. Maybe it was a weak squirrel.
One of my cats now thinks she could catch a squirrel. She's not that big or tough, and Wisconsin squirrels are bigger than Tennessee squirrels! She's an inside cat now.
(post #15270, reply #8 of 105)
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Yeah, them northern squirrels are purt near the size of a cat. When I lived in Ann Arbor, I used to put peanuts on the front porch and a stool just inside the screen door for my cat to sit on a watch the squirrels come up and sit on the porch, eating peanuts. She'd chatter at them and they were probably thinking, "Oh, yeah? Come out *here* and say that!"
(post #15270, reply #9 of 105)
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Try rat traps and peanut butter.
(post #15270, reply #10 of 105)
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I had a cat that used to catch squirrels -- the big, gray northern squirrels. So, I have a hard time believing that chipmunks would be a problem to a cat. The problem I have with traps is that then you have to empty them. :-( When I moved in here last autumn, I noticed several good sized snakes in different places around the yard, so I'm hoping they'll keep chipmunks and voles away from my garden. Nothing like the natural predators. :-)
(post #15270, reply #11 of 105)
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My 8 lb hunting wonder, Killer, used to regularly catch chipmunks and squirrels at our old house where there were more established trees. She's amazing! You should have heard her at 2:30am last night keeping the "3 times her size" stray from coming through her cat door! Anyway, cats, or at least our cat, are great for keeping the house and garden rodent free. Unfortunately, they also catch songbirds, snakes, and other "nice to have in the garden" kitty meals. Oh, could I tell you some stories! Just realized I have a pic. Here she is!
(post #15270, reply #12 of 105)
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Awww, she's cute!
Throughout my childhood we had a pet door, three cats, and one dog. All sorts of stuff (live and dead) came in through that pet door in the mouths of our animals--lizards, snakes, birds, lizard tails, misc. organs, chipmunks, moles, mice. Other neighborhood cats came in, and then the raccoons. Then we had to close off the door!
(post #15270, reply #13 of 105)
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Oh a calico! I've always wanted a calico.
(post #15270, reply #14 of 105)
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Hey ! Where did you get a picture of my Eek ? Seriously, this looks just like her. Only she's gotten so.. so... so fat.....
Eek has six toes on each paw. All the regular toes are there, and then there's an extra one outside the normal, tiny one that is where our thumb would be. Because the tiny one is still in there, it spaces the extra toe out from the others, and she looks like she actualy has hands with thumbs and fingers. The extra toe works fine, just like all the rest, and I have actualy seen her use them in an opposing fashion, when grabbing a string.
(post #15270, reply #15 of 105)
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They have a new product out. It combines a lawn sprinkler and a motion detector. When the motion detector catches motion, it turns on the sprinkler instead of the lights.
Aught to be good for just about any type of four legged garden pest, including rabbits, deer and chipmunks.
Set up a second one to turn on lights at the same time, and I would suspect that your garden will be more or less left alone.
(post #15270, reply #16 of 105)
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How can I keep rabits from eating my shrubs and flowers? No matter what I plant, in a day or two it's chewed down to nothing! In the winter they munch on the landscaping, and in the summer I have to put any flowers I want to plant in movable containers so I can put them out of reach. I've tried hot pepper, but no luck. I don't want to fence in my front yard, and I have a dog, but that doesn't seem to help. Thanks for your suggestions!
(post #15270, reply #17 of 105)
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I forget the thread, I think it was "Marching into Spring" back around message #200 or so. Luka posted a formula for a repellent you can spray on. I haven't had the time to try it yet. You might want to have a few beers the night before you mix up a batch.
(post #15270, reply #18 of 105)
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Luka, your Eek is a polydactile (not sure I spelled that right). Means they have extra toes. Hemmingway's cats are like that.
(post #15270, reply #19 of 105)
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Luka, is Eek her name because she is meow-less? Killer justs squeaks,never meows, unless she's in the car or in a fight. And that's more of a crying thing.
Calico's rule! Best personalities of any cats I've ever seen. Especially ours. Everyone who visits (even cat dislikers) say she is the friendliest cat they've ever seen. Saving my pennies to clone her (shh-let's see what kind of rise this solicits from Jeana).
(post #15270, reply #20 of 105)
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Eek is so named because when I brought her home, that is the only sound she made. eek eek eek all day long. Whenever she was awake it was eek eek eek, eek eek eek, eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek eek.
Aaaaargh !!! But it was fun to make angry noises about something so simple as that. LOL
Even now, she almost never actualy makes a real cat-like noise. She still eeks, but it has changed a bit. I think that sqeaks are small-talk to her. If she really wants my attention, she will actualy meow.
She also mimicks my laugh. Seriously. When I bust out laughing while reading the board here, if she is in the house, she makes a noise, eh eh eh eh eh, sounds a lot like laughing.
She is also the most friendly of the bunch. She always wants right up on my chest, with her face against mine. She loves to be hugged. When I am walking by, she will climb up something to be chest level. when I stop to pet her, no matter what level she is on, she begs me to pick her up. When I pick her up, she prefers to be bundled and hugged. If my shirt pockets were big enough, she'd ride around with me all day in there.
The others don't like being picked up, and don't even think about hugging them unless you are fond of being scratched.
C.P. follows me around like a dog. Seriously. I go outside and walk about, climb the ridge, whatever. She and Rufus are right there at my feet. She acts just like he does, jumping about, looking to make sure that I am paying attention, digging after things, looking again, running back and forth, etc. She likes to sleep curled up against some part of me at night.
C.P. and Eek both come a running anytime that I call them. Just like Rufus. Patches only comes when she is hungry, and even then, she doesn't run. She does like to follow me around when outside, like C.P. does. She stays close, but doesn't act like a dog.
My cat is not a parrot dinosaur. She's a calico !!!
(post #15270, reply #21 of 105)
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Sorry, Luka. I
i meant
she's a freak of nature.
Got $15,000? Clone away. I have my baby girl (a blue point Siamese) on top of the monitor right now that I'd clone if I could. I think you'd be more likely to get a close replica of a cat than you would a dog. Dogs are pack animals and much of their upbringing and place in the pack (family) determines how they turn out. I can tell you from my years of breeding cats, that their personality shows up very early. When they're still squirming around in the nest box, you can tell which ones are the "put me down" types and which are the "hold me all day" types.
(post #15270, reply #22 of 105)
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Here's lulu. So far all she catches are birds. From here you can't really see that half of her face is black and other other half orange, split right down the middle, just like her personality.
(post #15270, reply #23 of 105)
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Nice looking cat, Ruth. Jeana, so you're a cat person? I'm not sure what a blue point is; we had a Siamese when I was a kid that was very dark, growled like a dog, and would catch and kill squirrels. Scary animal.
(post #15270, reply #24 of 105)
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Eric, I was up against that sort of thing the whole time I was showing and breeding. It seems everybody's grandmother had a mean "Siamese" cat. What I had to explain over and over and over was that their cat may have been pointed (light body color, darker colors on the "points" - face, ears, paws, tail), it most certainly wasn't a Siamese. These old style cats looked just like, well, cats with colored points. The Siamese of the last half century have been bred to be as far from that as possible. Long, thin, tubular bodies, long, fine-boned limbs, long whippy tail, elongated face in the shape of a wedge, the ears more on the side of the head, fitting into the wedge. So they're long and angular. They look delicate, but if you pick one up, you see they're all muscle. And the breeders have worked hard on the personality of the breed. Of all the breeds, the Siamese is more like a dog than a cat. They want to be with you all the time. They want to be in your lap all the time, they want your constant attention. Most of them even play fetch. In short, they're not for people who want a cat that does its own thing. Being so muscular, they're quite powerful for their small size. So cats with an attitude problem simply can't be tolerated. Those that ever attack anyone are almost always immediately put down. Not out of cruelty, but out of necessity. These cats have to be caged and you still have to give them food and water every day as well as take care of the litter box. I've known of a couple of people who've nearly been shredded when trying to attend to an ill-tempered cat. And these cats can't be sold or given away for fear that someone else will be hurt. They certainly can't be used in a breedig program.
So, next time a cat show comes to your neck of the woods, check it out. You'll be amazed at the diversity of the cats (as well as their very strange owners).
http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/siamese.html
(post #15270, reply #25 of 105)
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Thank you, Jeana. Interesting subject. I checked out the sight...unique-looking animals. Ours wasn't like that. It was...well, fat. With a body not quite as dark as its points. I wonder what it was.
(post #15270, reply #26 of 105)
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Maybe we could get a two for one cloning discount!
(post #15270, reply #27 of 105)
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Boy, Eek sounds so much like Killer! Killer loves to be hugged and her favorite is to be cradled like a baby. If you're holding her you have to really watch her because she's liable to just plop sideways to be cradled. I'm surprised she's never been accidentally dropped doing this.
Her most interesting trait is her face rubbing. If you're holding her,she gets right up on your chest, in your face and rubs her cheeks against yours. I had never seen a cat do this, but it sounds like Eek does the same thing.
She also follows us around like a dog and comes when we call. Maybe these are traits of all calicos. Or maybe Eek and Killer are long lost siblings.
Well, we're way off subject and I think I'm the culprit. Sorry Marsha. Hopefully our earlier posts helped your chipmunk dilemma.
(post #15270, reply #28 of 105)
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She's a beauty!
(post #15270, reply #29 of 105)
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Jeana, all morning I've been singing
"We are Si-am-ee-eese, if you plee-eese.
We are Si-am-ee-eese, if you DON'T please!"
(post #15270, reply #30 of 105)
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Well, c'mon, Ruth. Make with a .wav file.
b : )
BTW : I agree with Eric. That is a beautious cat.