A chipmunk is a type of small squirrel commonly found across North America, especially in wooded areas. These tiny creatures might seem cute, but if they start eating your plants or digging up your garden, they can become a nuisance. Chipmunks can also pose a safety risk by carrying parasites and diseases.
Getting rid of chipmunks is not always easy, especially if they keep coming back despite do-it-yourself (DIY) removal methods. If at-home treatments don’t work or the problem gets worse, consider hiring a professional pest control company to help you humanely remove these critters.
Understanding Chipmunks and Their Behavior
A chipmunks is a small squirrel, usually measuring between 8–10 inches long. They live close to the ground and often build their homes in forests, plains, and wooded backyards. You’ll notice their activity peak in autumn as they scramble to collect food. In early spring, chipmunks rely on special fatty tissue that keeps them warm until they can access their food reserves again.
Their foraging behavior makes chipmunks prone to finding a home in your basement, garden, or attic. Similar to mice, chipmunks can gnaw and chew through your walls, electrical wires, and insulation. Left untreated, chipmunks can cause all sorts of problems, like ruined garden beds and tick issues.
Pro Tip
- Chipmunks are part of the evergreen forest ecosystem, according to an issue of This Old House Magazine on forest creatures. The Eastern Chipmunk is listed among the key wildlife species that homeowners might encounter in wooded properties.
How Do I Know If I Have Chipmunks?
Chipmunks make their way from the woods to human dwellings to find food, water, and shelter. If you have a fruit or vegetable garden, your produce might attract them. Chipmunks eat flowering bulbs, fruits, and young plants, but they can also disrupt surrounding plants and seeds. You’re likely to find these rodents underneath bird feeders, eating bird food that has fallen to the ground.
Chipmunks are also natural tunnel diggers, which you may find around your property. Tunnel entrances are usually near a structure like a woodpile, a rock, or your home’s foundation.
It’s somewhat rare that chipmunks will actually infest your home, but they can squeeze into surprisingly tight places. If they make it inside, it’s usually into a basement or crawlspace, though they may get into the walls, too. If this happens, you’ll hear scratching or chirping sounds. Check out-of-the-way places in your home for chew marks on wood, stockpiles of food, or excrement to confirm a chipmunk problem.
Pro Tip
- While chipmunks themselves rarely cause structural damage, their tunneling can create other issues around your property. Rain can get in the tunnels and turn into mud, which can lead to erosion problems around your home’s foundations and walkways, according to This Old House Magazine.
How To Get Rid of Chipmunks
The good news is that chipmunks don’t tend to congregate in large numbers like other pests. Learn more about methods you can take to humanely control a chipmunk problem on your property below.
How To Repel Chipmunks Naturally
Unlike some other pest infestations, attempting to repel chipmunks is a good first and non-lethal step. Repellents tend to fall into a few different categories, including natural and synthetic options.
Natural repellents are non-synthetic items that chipmunks find distasteful. Human hair—which you can acquire by asking your barber for a bag of trimmings—sprinkled around the perimeter of a garden may do the trick. Fox or other predator urine can work, too, though it also smells unpleasant to human noses.
You can also cultivate garden plants that keep chipmunks away. Many animals, including chipmunks and other squirrels, aren’t fond of daffodils and plants in the Allium family, which includes garlic, onion, shallot, leeks, scallions, and chives.
Pro Tip
- Roger Cook, This Old House’s landscaping contractor, suggests trying human hair as a natural chipmunk repellent: “This is a nylon mesh bag filled with human hair. Well, unshampooed hair. We want something that has a real fragrance to it.” He notes that while this budget option might work in secluded neighborhoods, its effectiveness can vary.
Using Synthetic Chipmunk Repellents
Synthetic repellents are specially formulated chemicals used to drive chipmunks away by scent or taste without being harmful to other wildlife. Most squirrel repellents will also repel chipmunks, and this includes products like anti-rodent spray, granular repellents placed in soil, and taste-aversion repellents containing Bittrex and Thiram. These products tend to last a little longer than natural repellents, but still need regular reapplication.
Other Repellent Options
The last type of repellent uses ultrasonic frequencies or pulses of water to frighten chipmunks away. However, these methods tend to cost more and only work above ground, not in chipmunk burrows or tunnels. You can also try statues of predators, like an owl decoy. Some home and garden stores even sell bird decoys that light up or flap their wings.
How To Trap Chipmunks
If you can’t find an effective repellent, you can try using non-lethal or live traps to catch the chipmunks and release them far away from your property. You can buy these traps at your local hardware store and set them up near tunnel entrances or other infested areas, baiting the traps with peanut butter or sunflower seeds. Always double-check local regulations about trapping and releasing animals.
Pro Tip
- In This Old House Magazine, Pat Vissering, a senior wildlife biologist with the New York State Department of Conservation, advises: “I have heard of squirrels finding their way back from 10 miles away.” This persistence applies to chipmunks as well, making prevention crucial.
How To Prevent Chipmunks From Coming Back
The problem with repelling or trapping chipmunks is that they can make their way back to your yard or house. To prevent this from happening, try the following methods.
- Clear yard debris, clutter, rock piles, and wood from your yard to remove hiding places, and trim back overgrown bushes.
- When berries, seeds, or nuts fall to the ground, sweep them up as soon as possible to remove food sources.
- Store birdseed and pet food in airtight containers.
- Surround your garden or even your home with a “moat” of a few inches of gravel, which will remove plants that can act as hiding places as well as deter digging and tunneling.
- Put a wire mesh fence around the garden, buried about 8 inches into the soil.
- Bury special L-shaped barriers or footers near house foundations, around decks, and anywhere else you want to prevent tunneling.
- Seal all cracks and crevices leading into your home with caulk or expanding foam. Cap chimneys and seal vents and gutters with metal hardware cloth.
Many of these methods will also help keep away other pests like snakes, insects, and spiders.
When To Call a Pest Control Professional for Chipmunks
Generally, it’s a good idea to explore humane solutions first before calling in a pest control professional. However, if you have a chipmunk infestation you can’t solve, you’ll want to call in a professional pest control service before resorting to more extreme measures yourself. Not only do you not want chipmunks to die and decompose within your home, but attempting to poison or otherwise kill chipmunks on your own could have disastrous consequences for other animals, including pets.
Our Conclusion
Chipmunks might look cute and harmless, but their digging, chewing, and nesting may cause damage to your garden and home. By recognizing the signs of a chipmunk problem early and using effective repellents, traps, and prevention methods, you can protect your property and keep these small animals from returning.
If chipmunks continue to cause problems despite your best efforts, you may need to call a professional pest control company. Experts can identify the source of the issue, remove the chipmunks humanely, and offer long-term solutions tailored to your yard and home.
We recommend both Terminix and Orkin for providing rodent control. Both companies offer free inspections and can work with you to find a pest control solution.
FAQs About Getting Rid of Chipmunks
What is the best product to get rid of chipmunks?
You can attempt to repel chipmunks with natural repellents like human hair or fox or other predator urine. You can also try synthetic repellents like anti-rodent spray, granular repellents, and taste-aversion repellents containing Bittrex and Thiram.
Will vinegar get rid of chipmunks?
Although chipmunks don’t tend to like strong smells, vinegar might not get rid of these critters. Instead, try a natural repellent that you spray directly onto the plants chipmunks might eat, like a mixture of water and cayenne pepper or chili powder. However, you may have to reapply natural repellents frequently.
What is the easiest way to get rid of chipmunks?
You may need to try a combination of methods to get rid of chipmunks, including natural repellents, trapping and releasing, and keeping your yard clear of both debris to hide in and food sources.