Chipmunks invading my vegetable garden.

Can anyone tell me how to rid chipmunks from around my house , without using posin?

Get a cat.

Chipmunks HATE Milorganite. It is, if you can believe it, made from industrial sewage that the EPA has approved. I have been using it for years. Chipmunks hate it because, I think, of the smell.

Sprinkle an small amount of this stuff anywhere you don't want them to be, and they will leave any plants alone. I have several chipmunks, and I find them charming. What is not charming is having them dig in your pots or dig up whatever is in the ground (they see disturbed earth and think something is buried there, so that's where they USED to dig in my garden.) No more. They just run around.

I know that people have differing attitudes about using cats for pest control, and I respect that, but I would encourage you not to rely on cats. Not long ago, a cat that invades my yard hit under a shrub and stalked and carried off a chipmunk. I tried to stop it, and frankly I was horrified. I found a dead goldfinch the day before, near the same area. I put fencing under my shrubs to stop it from happening again, and chase that particular cat out of my yard. There is another cat that is really cool and comes and sits and watches me garden. He never hunts. I love this guy (see below). And he knows it.

I have two cats. They are indoor only. They can be hurt in encounters with other creatures, and they stalk and kill birds. They are not like my buddy below.

I've been trying to trap a few myself. I'm trying rat traps and glue boards. I have at least one VERY smart chipmunk that's going up into my car engine bay. AND into a planter box. I'm going to get one of those electric traps next to try. They are VERY destructive rodents.

I understand, but it really isn't necessary. I have had entire chipmunks families that stay away from this stuff. Try Milorganite. Cheaper.

Anything can be destructive if not controlled. I used to lose lots of bulbs to voles until I started using sharp slate, and then discovered that they are repelled by daffodils, so I started planting small ones near lilies and roses and other things. It's a permanent solution. And it's cheap.

To be honest, when I read things like you just printed it grosses me out. You are probably going to kill birds and the neighbors' cats (which don't belong there, but probably shouldn't be executed). I once lost 50 rare lilies to voles. It was very frustrating. I know about destructiveness. I'm not naive. But I think that the things you are doing really aren't necessary. And I would like to encourage you to rethink them.

I wonder if milorganite works on squirrels too. I've tried burying my dog's waste in sensitive areas (like tulip bulbs) and that didn't even work. I even tried "found" dead squirrels and that didn't work but I'm willing to give milorganite a try. Be aware that milorganite smells so use it lightly. And organic people might not like the association with heavy metals.
Glue boards are a cruel slow death. Better to give a cat a home. There are rescue cats that only want to be outside and don't do well indoors and don't want to be coddled too much.
My male cat only hunted when he was hungry. He had a taste for rabbit so mostly went after that. It was sad but he was on his own when I found him and that is how he survived. The two female cats next door hunt everything.

Milorganite does not work on squirrels, but I have a good one you. The thing that works beautifully on squirrels is freshly ground black pepper. But it works really well. Note that the pepper has to be freshly ground. Squirrels are such morons. They dig into freshly turned earth (the kind you have when you plant) to see what "the other guy" buried. They often leave bulbs above ground, so they can dry out and die.

This is the deal. Get a cheap pepper grinder from a thrift store. Put pepper corns in and every time you plant anything stand over the plant or bulb and give the grinder a few turns. You need to do it for the next two days, but if you do, it works 100%.

Ground pepper does not work. Neither does cayenne pepper, although I don't know why. Years ago I was growing lilies in pots and the little guys kept eating them. So I BURIED a lily in cayenne. The next morning I heard a weird noise. I looked out, and a squirrel was sitting in the pot eating the lily and sneezing - but he ate it anyway.

Wish I'd had a camera. Also, cayenne forms a disgusting crust. And it's orange!

I have two rescues. One is a seal point Siamese that obviously ran out the door and got lost. The little darling sought the protection of a larger cat. I think she was rescued almost immediately.

The other is a painted Siamese that was taken to college by a student who got bored and released it. The cat ran around a college campus for four months. Happily, it had such a winning personality that I suspect students fed it regularly. Then a professor, at the beginning of December, wondered to who the cat belonged. When he didn't get an answer, he took it to Feral Fixers and they took it to a wonderful no kill shelter.

The shelter refused three other people who wanted to adopt it. One wanted to declaw the baby and the other wanted it let it out. (There was a four page questionaire.) This cat was so adorable that it got the attention four people in less than a month. When I showed them that my cat was vaccinated, and let them know how I would care for it, the honey became mine. I open windows for them so that they can see the world, but I would NEVER let them out, for their own sakes (cars? pit bulls? rabid wild animals? cruel people? other aggressive cats?) But it was easier for me because they were both really indoor cats.

I love them to bits!!! And after a few strained weeks (the little seal point kept hissing at the MUCH larger and more muscular new rescue, and actually gave him a scratch on the nose, who never was aggressive in return), they love each other too!

Thank you for the squirrel tip! I will have to give it a try although I've given up on most of their favorites. I did do some lilies last year and I did lose a few but what I did with those was pull up bunches of onion grass and leave them on top for a while. It mostly worked with a couple of tragedies. Although one little brat just chopped my coral bark japanese maple seedling in half and I knew it would happen because I always lose my best tree seedlings like this. They don't touch the ones I don't care about.
Your kitties are so adorable! Personally and don't take this the wrong way but I think leaving cats indoors their whole life is wrong unless you live in a city or busy road. My guy would not live indoors at first and took three years to come inside. I had to force him to come inside in the middle of a hurricane. That made him a perfect cat for us since my husband has allergies. We set up a doghouse with a heating pad on our front porch and for several years, that is where he prefered to be. By the end of his life though he was sleeping on the bed.
Sorry for the hijack, Suz. What kind of damage are the chipmunks causing you, Suz?

I live in a small city. In the city the life expectancy for a cat is three years. Cars, rats, dogs, disease. Personally, I think it's cruel to let them roam and be at the mercy of the elements, nasty people, diseases, cars and what have you. I have heard some horrendous cat fights. I am mystified that you think it's wrong. I'm not taking it the wrong way ( you don't mean it as an insult), but there is a large body of opinion that letting them roam is wrong, and I agree with it.

My new cat took to being indoors like a cat to catnip. He enjoys being in windows - they both do. My windows are screened and I open multiple windows, and they show no interest in going outside.

I know that is what they think and I disagree but you have to judge your situation too. To me, it is a quality of life issue. I believe your cats are happy but my guy would not be happy.

I agree with you. Quality of life is everything.

Very cool.

I enjoy the antics of the chipmunks--usually in pairs, one running after the other; mostly they come for fallen birdseed, but they probably are digging things up as well and really there's no rational reason to prefer them to the squirrels (the chipmunks are just smaller, cuter, and not as ubiquitous). They're so furtive, though, that I wonder if noisemakers (hanging metal stuff, like windchimes) would discourage them.

DonnaMack, I really like the cat pictures and stories. Makes me yearn to cuddle up with a Siamese, though that would mean not cuddling with my spouse who is breath-stoppingly allergic. Since I can't have a cat and retain the spouse, the roaming ones make me smile, but there sure are a lot of good arguments for keeping them indoors (both sides presented at length on our town's message board, not always in tones as civil as y'all here). On the other end of the spectrum, neighbors of a friend who married a central Illinois farmer thought she was very strange for *letting* her cats inside. The view seemed to be that cats are employees; if they're inside they can't be doing their jobs....

Faintly, I love the stuff about cats being employees.

I shop at Platt Hill Nursery, mostly for plant amendments and tools, and they have three cats who serve as employees in their function as greeters. Well, sort of. They lounge around the interior and wait to be spoiled with rubs and love. Although all of the doors are open, I have never seen them outside. I see them lounging at the register, sprawled on the floor, sitting on bags of lawn food, walking around the store strutting their stuff, but never outside. I think it is actually their job to be inside, because in admiring them and rubbing them, you are closer to the tools, amendments, and pricey knickknacks that they sell. Good strategy!

I used to worry about "all the damage" the chipmunks were doing in my perennial beds. Then I realized I wasn't really finding any damage.

Yes, they do burrow, but they're small burrows. And they do rummage around in my flower pots and bury sunflower seeds in odd places, but I can live with that. And occasionally one gets in the house, but he doesn't steal anything and usually finds his way out on his own. I've learned to enjoy watching them as they zip here and there, like little men with places to go and people to see.

If you really must get rid of them, get a live-catch trap and drive them to a new neighborhood. Poison and glue traps are cruel--and very bad karma.

I was at a client's house today and a chipmunk kept running around. I know it seems silly but it kept making me laugh. I have several in my yard, and I can't find any damage either.

And zip around - that describes it well. I find them charming. Especially when compared to voles, which I used to really cause damage. I found that small daffodils eliminated them from my yard.

I too used to find little sunflower seed caches, but that''s it.

Yeah, I just live with whatever damage chipmunks and squirrels do, too. When I first bought the house and saw a bunch of squirrels eating hickory nuts everyday at 4 PM in my new backyard, I thought that was great.

The squirrels love my neighbors walnuts. I'm not so crazy about them, because if they fall on my car on the way to the garage they can dent it. And wow, they leave a mess, whether they fall and smash or the squirrels peel off the outsides and leave them everywhere. But then I see the squirrels gracefully run across the power line and chuckle, and forgive them (almost) anything!

Yes, you're right about the mess! Soon it will start with my oak tree branches all over my driveway.

Not to mention the billion maple seedlings that fall from my other neighbor's yard. Each one wants to grow up to be a maple tree, unless I pull them - and there are thousands.