How to Protect your Yard or Landscaping from Chipmunks

The best approach to take when you have a chipmunk problem on your land is to use multiple methods. It’s all about using your head too — these creatures are coming on to your property because you have something they want. When you work out what that is, you can take it away. When you no longer have something the animal wants, it doesn’t have a reason to stick around and will, therefore, politely bugger off.

In an ideal world, you would sprinkle some repellent granules around, or stab an ultrasonic stick into the ground, wait a few weeks, and then come back to a chipmunk-free zone, but that’s often not what happens. These are gimmicks used to make you spend money and they are not effective.  Chipmunks, while cute, are small, speedy, and oh-so-stubborn. They aren’t going to move on without a fight, and that’s why we recommend that you arm yourself as best as you can, not just with the right tools to prevent these creatures from coming close, but also the right information.

Chipmunk prevention starts underground, because that’s where these critters spend most of their time. Entrances to these underground burrows are usually created in patches of dense vegetation.  The plants above offer a covering to stop their entrance from being visible to predators. The first step you should take to making your land chipmunk-free is to remove the patches of vegetation that offer chipmunks the ground cover they need.When the chipmunk doesn’t have ground cover to hide in, they are vulnerable to predatory attacks. If this ruins your landscape, you will have to finely comb through the brush to find the tiny entrance burrows.

Residential yards often contain cats and dogs, which will chase down and attack chipmunks, given the chance. Their other natural predators include eagles, hawks, and owls, which will easily see the chipmunk where there is no ground cover to protect it. Coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, and more will also hunt and attack, if they think they can win the battle. The fight for food and shelter in the wild is now more fierce than ever with decreases in natural habitat options.

Along with shelter, food is another big thing that the chipmunks are attracted to. In fact, food is the main reason many wild animals come into residential areas at all, with some species being almost entirely reliant on humans to provide them with food. Chipmunks will scavenge for seeds, nuts, and fruits.  If you have a bird feeder and leave out seeds or nuts for the birds, or if you grow fruit on your property, their favorite meals to attract them to come eat in your yard.You’ll need to get rid of this stuff until they leave.

Again, removing the debris in your garden that provides ground coverage for these creatures will go a long way to making your garden wild animal free. If you have plants growing in the center of your garden, with wide, open lawn space all around it, the chipmunk has no choice but to burrow beneath the ground. You can make this difficult by adding protective layers between the two. This could come in the form of mesh-wire underground fencing, and also as coarse pebbles, rocks, and stones put around the area you want to protect.

Of course, the best way to have these critters removed from your land is by hiring a professional, licensed, and insured wildlife removal specialist, who will not just remove the animal, but help you to protect your land from further invasions.