You may enjoy seeing lively little chipmunks scamper around your garden. But when they’re digging in your flower pots, eating bulbs, and burrowing under the stairs to your deck, they suddenly may not seem quite so cute. “They’re mostly a nuisance,” says Sheldon Owen, PhD, wildlife extension specialist at West Virginia University. “But because they’re territorial, they typically aren’t found in large enough numbers in your garden to cause significant damage.”
That being said, chipmunks can be a real pain, especially in years when their numbers are high. “Chipmunk populations ebb and flow, depending on the availability of food and cover,” says Owen. With a home range of about ¼ to ½ an acre, you’ll typically see 1 to 2 chipmunks per acre. However, if food supplies are good and there’s plenty of cover for hiding, you can have 10 or more chipmunks per acre!
Only the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) lives in the Southeast. “While they aren’t known to vector, or transmit, serious diseases, they can have fleas and ticks, which can carry Lyme disease,” says Wesley Anderson, PhD, assistant professor at Auburn University and wildlife extension specialist at the Alabama Coop Extension System. “The more rodents you have in your garden, the higher chance you and your pets can be exposed to tickborne illnesses.”
Like any mammal, chipmunks also can carry rabies, though it’s not common and you’d be unlikely to be exposed to it unless you were handling the animal (not recommended, by the way), says Owen.
- Sheldon Owen, PhD, is a wildlife extension specialist at West Virginia University.
- Wesley Anderson, PhD, is an assistant professor at Auburn University and wildlife extension specialist at the Alabama Coop Extension System
How To Get Rid Of Chipmunks
Although it’s nearly impossible to exclude these industrious little rodents from your garden, you can try these management tips, according to Owen and Anderson:
- Remove brush and wood piles. This makes your yard less welcoming by providing fewer places for chipmunks to seek cover, says Anderson.
- Use hardware cloth to exclude chipmunks from garden beds, says Owen. Cover seeds or bulbs with ¼-inch hardware cloth, and cover the cloth lightly with soil. Make sure the cloth extends a foot past plantings.
- Use taste repellant on bulbs. Because bulbs are a favorite food, treat them with a commercial taste repellant when planting. However, “the goal of chipmunks is to survive and reproduce, so they still may eat something, even if it tastes bad,” says Anderson.
- Plant bulbs inside wire baskets or cages made from hardware cloth. This can prevent chipmunks and other rodents, such as voles, from getting to your bulbs.
- Make birdfeeders inaccessible, such as by using a baffle. Because chipmunks can climb, you also should not hang feeders on trees so they have access to easy food sources, says Anderson.
- Don’t leave pet food outdoors. This encourages chipmunks, as well as other wildlife, such as raccoons, opossums, and skunks to visit, says Owen.
- Seal openings in your house or shed. Use ¼-inch hardware cloth or sheet metal to block entries, such as around utility lines entering the building or near foundations where they are burrowing, says Owen. Also, cover dryer vents and downspouts, which may be used for cover.
- Avoid toxic baits. They are not recommended because any animal—including cats and dogs—can get into them and be negatively impacted, says Owen. There’s also the risk of secondary toxicity if a poisoned chipmunk is eaten by a hawk or other predator. Also, because chipmunks stash foods for later, they may not ingest enough of the bait to be effective.
- Forget about sonic devices, essential oils, and other scare devices to repel chipmunks. There’s no scientific evidence proving these methods are effective, says Owen.
- Consider lethal control. For a chipmunk that is causing structural damage, such as undermining the foundation of stairs or walkways, rat-sized snap traps baited with peanut butter are effective, says Anderson. But cover the trap so you prevent other non-target creatures, such as birds, from getting caught.
Signs You Have Chipmunks
These rodents are reddish or brown with a bushy, flattened tail and five prominent dark stripes and two light ones. Chipmunks hide under shrub or tree roots, in rock walls, or may burrow beneath the steps to your deck or under the foundation of your house or shed, says Owen. Their holes, which lead to their burrows, are about 2-inches in diameter, flush with the soil surface and without a noticeable mound of dirt like you’d find with moles.
Understanding Chipmunks
Cousins to groundhogs and grey squirrels, chipmunks are active year-round, building elaborate tunnels that run 20 to 30 feet long. They eat many different kinds of nuts, acorns, grain, berries, birdseed, garden fruits such as tomatoes, and pet food. They also occasionally eat small reptiles, bird eggs, or nestlings, says Anderson.
These hard-working little creatures stockpile food in their dens for winter. Typically, they spend winter in their burrows, conserving energy by sleeping when it’s cold and waking up occasionally to dine from the food they’ve hoarded. But on warm days, you may see them running around your garden, says Owen.
Chipmunks breed twice a year in late winter or early spring and again in early summer, with 5 to 7 babies per litter. “But there’s also a lot of mortality because they’re the first thing on the menu for many predators, including hawks, foxes, and coyotes,” says Owen. Side note if you’re not a fan of chipmunks: They’re not nearly as prolific as other rodents, such as mice or voles, which have 5 to 10 litters per year.
