When we talked to Kaitlin Saturday night she told us about her cheeky chipmunk. (Correct me if I have some of the details wrong, Kaitlin.)
Apparently she was working in their backyard when a chipmunk started running straight at her. It startled her so she screamed. That startled the the chipmunk who jumped, squealed, and ran off. How weird was that?
Not as weird as a few days later when she was on a Zoom call for work and she heard a tapping at the window. She looked, and it was the chipmunk trying to get her attention. What was that about?
Andy had the answer…the previous owners had fed the chipmunk and it wanted the handouts to continue. Unfortunately for it that’s not likely to happen. Kaitlin and Torben have plans for the backyard, and they don’t involve it being destroyed by chipmunks, no matter how adorable they look.
They’re little. They’re cute. And they can be incredibly destructive.
At first glance chipmunks might not seem like a garden’s worst nightmare. But just wait until they’ve chewed up your freshly-planted tomato seeds, dug holes all over your garden, or eaten up your tulip roots.
Because they’re small and nimble, chipmunks can get into tight places that larger pests can’t, and they’re great diggers, too, so even seeds beneath the soil and plant roots aren’t safe.
—How to Keep Chipmunks Out of the Garden
Sorry little chipmunk, no handouts.
July 20, 20
There are chipmunks at my house again. Actually they were pretty bad for a while there and then my puppies, my border collies, chased them down and had them running for their lives, so they moved on. Now that the puppies are no longer here, the chipmunks are back. ?
I’m so sorry about that! You already had more than enough to deal with. 🙁 ♥♥♥♥
Even though they are small that would have scared me if one came running at me. That’s funny that it was tapping on the window. I hope it gets the hint quick that the food supply has run out there.
There’s good reason to be scared…it could have been rabid. The other day when Kaitlin and Torben were walking the pups a neighbor couple warned them they had seen a racoon that was acting funny, so be careful.
How funny!!! Mom’s aunt had a similar experience many years ago when she moved into a new house. At the top of the stairs there was a window. Outside the window was a very large tree with a branch that extended almost to the window. Every day, several times a day, a family of squirrels would come and tap on the window. It really freaked out the aunt, who lived alone and was elderly. She had the big limb cut back, and that was the end of the tapping:)
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Yes, I would get rid of that branch too! 😀
I agree.
🙂
chipmunk = pukeko here for wrecking gardens and digging up bulbs. Of course the pukeko is a bird, but it not well liked for sure…
never seen a chipmunk and I certainly want one racing full tilt towards me…
Thaks for telling us about pukekos.
Here the rule is, if a wild animal starts racing towards you, it may have rabies so it could be dangerous. Not a pleasant experience.
we are worlds apart with animals for sure…
A friend of ours had her husband trap them, and drive them 25 miles away and let them go. That is how far you have to take them so they don’t return. She did this over and over and over…
That’s a long ways to go! It would be hopeless up on the land…we had to give up our outside garden because of all the critters. We don’t have chipmunks, but golden mantle ground squirrels, very similar. One lived in a pile of wood close to the garden. At first he would just chatter at us if we stayed inside the garden for too long. Eventually he would just come in and eat while we were there. We were happy with the idea of sharing, but the animals wanted it all.
Pukekos are a new one on me. But we do have chipmunks. Must admit they are cute!
Yes. 🙂
Well this one for sure if it’s in the cute category!. I did see in the news and now I can’t remember where but yesterday they were talking about they have an invasion of chipmunks wherever this is and that they’re destroying everything and I never knew until then that they could destroy things I just thought they were cute and like squirrels
They are cute. I loved the one that scolded us for being in “his” garden too long. We had sense to know we were outnumbered, so we gave up on outside gardens.
Chipmunks never bothered me until Levi discovered them to bark at. Then they had to go because it was all day long. I put deCon pellets down their holes but it took forever for them to die off. I finally figured out they were storing the pellets for winter.
That’s really sad. 🙁
I didn’t know chipmunks could be such a menace. Like Madsnapper, I thought they were rather like squirrels. Though squirrels can be a minor menace themselves, gobbling food from bird-feeders and chewing on wires and cables.
Chewing on wires and cables is the worst. Mice and rats tend to do that in cars.
We had many chipmunks in our backyard in Atlanta, but we only had pine trees so they did not damage much, plus my late husband who had Alzheimer’s loved to watch them during the day. Here in Nashville, I have not seen any in the backyard. When I go back to our Atlanta house in a couple weeks, I’ll look, but I bet they are still there as no one is bothering them.
They are fun as long as you don’t have a garden or plants you want to protect. 🙂
They can be a real pain…I do know that.
It’s too bad, because they’re so cute.