Chipmunks in the crawlspace (house, neighborhood, living)

[MeInHSV]

I live at the base of Green Mountain in a neighborhood with a lot of trees so there is plenty of small wildlife (squirrels, chipmunks, occasional raccoon, etc.). For several years I've seen evidence that chipmunks were in my yard and getting under my house but didn't think too much about it. Recently though I've started hearing scratching sounds inside interior walls so am concerned that they are doing damage and want to get rid of them. Of course my wife thinks they're cute and that I should leave them alone. I've googled chipmunk control and it seems it's very difficult to get rid of them and then to keep them from returning.

I'm curious if anyone else has had this problem and if they found a solution.

[writerwife]

You have chipmunks in the crawlspace, we has squirrels in the soffits. We found the hole they were getting in that they had created under the eaves and beside the fireplace chimney. We had the hole patched over and figured if any were still stuck inside we might have a smelly house soon enough. Not terribly long after, they chewed thru that and were inside again. The chewed through the wiring for all of our outdoor lighting. I did a lot of research and pretty much found out that you can either kill them or set a trap (lowes-havaheart) and then you have to drive them appx 10 miles away to let them go. Any closer and believe it or not...they can find their way back if they had a good living/food arrangement. I couldn't kill them. Anyway... we found the hole again, put metal hardware cloth in it and had the board that they chewed their way thru replaced and that was 2 yrs ago and for whatever reason, they haven't been back this time. Oh... I think the main reason they left...we had always put out a lot of birdseed, we stopped. We cut off their food supply that was keeping them here.

[DvlsAdvc8]

They make traps for chipmunks too I think. My advice: go with traps, not poison. The last thing you want is to have to hunt down the location of the smelly dead thing.

[MeInHSV]

Yeah, I'm going to try the traps first and see what happens.

[guxu]

Can they sing?

[writerwife]

Originally Posted by guxu

Can they sing?

Only when wearing hula hoops.

[Keeper]

Are you sure it is chipmunks? I had the same thing scratching in the bathroom wall and they told me it was a mouse. The exterminator told me they will scratch a hole in the drywall.

[Newsboy]

get a couple of cats. chipmunks don't stand a chance around my cats. if my cats had their way, chipmunks and hummingbirds would be extinct.

[skinem]

I've had the same issue here with squirrels that writerwife had, nearly word for word. I've had problems with chipmunks in Washington state.

In both cases, once we got them removed we've controlled them with both outdoor cats and live traps. Between the two, we haven't had any more problems with them in the house.

MeInHSV, please inform your wife the dangers of chipmunks (or squirrels, or any rodent) in the house...not to mention disease they can carry (out west some chipmunks carry hanta virus and bubonic plague, yes, that plague. Never heard of any with either of those here, thank goodness) but also the very real fire hazard they pose by their penchant to chew wiring. It only takes one wire with the insulation chewed off in the wrong place to start a fire...and it does happen. For your own safety, you have to get them out of the walls and keep them out of the house.

[MeInHSV]

I'm going to try a couple of these traps:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_36849-1558-1...vahart$y=0$x=0

From what I've read the best bait is peanut butter mixed with sunflower seeds. Will give this a try and see what happens.