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| Have 7 bushes. Put netting around them to stop birds. But chipmunks crawl under and around netiing and get ALL the berries. Tried hot pepper wax spray on the berries. Doesn't deter. Same problem with sweet cherries. Chipmunks climb dwarf tree and get cherries. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Get a female cat. Be nice to her and she will take care of your chipmunk problem as she (or he) learns to hunt. "Being nice" includes keeping your use of chemicals and pesticides to the absolute minimum as cats lick and continually clean themselves. The 'munks either lose or will relocate their nests. |
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- Posted by 2010ChampsBCS 7B St Clair Co (My Page) on Sun, Jun 29, 14 at 17:19
| EdD42. Cats are the answer to your problem. |
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- Posted by meredith_e 7B Piedmont NC (My Page) on Tue, Jul 1, 14 at 2:24
| I wondered about the hot pepper for rodents. I had a thief of a chipmunk, too, who ate my figs and green strawberries. In my case, a big black snake moved in there and the chipmunk family relocated to where they're supposed to be (my bird garden area, far away from my fruit!). Someone on here said they are easy to trap. Maybe you could relocate yours even farther away ;) |
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- Posted by 2010ChampsBCS 7B St Clair Co (My Page) on Tue, Jul 1, 14 at 5:02
| My cats say chipmunks taste like chicken, which they prefer over mice. |
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- Posted by harvestman 6 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 1, 14 at 5:22
| Rat traps baited with peanuts or almonds under the nets will clear things up shortly. I usually have to trap out a dozen chipmunks every year- the nearby population tends to stay put after you kill the ones in the immediate are. The plastic traps Gemplers sells are easy to bait with nuts as they use a small cup. They are also quick to enter live traps if it is too hard on you to kill the vermin. Chipmunks are hell on blueberries, stripping the green ones as they eat the ripe ones. I've got to get my traps out there promptly as the earlies are starting to ripen. |
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| I can tell you what NOT to do - do not try to kill/catch and relocate existing chipmunks. I did it once. I had pair of chipmunks picking all my strawberries. So I bought a trap, caught them and relocated. Next day at 5 in the morning I was watching a great chipmunk battle over my yard. 6-10 of them(difficult to count when they move so fast) were running around, screaming and chasing each other. Till night. I ended up with two pairs. They decided they can split my lot right along my strawberry bed. Another thing not to do - is bird feeding. At my new place I didn't have chipmunks until my neighbors started heavy bird feeding 4 season long... |
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| I second the rat trap approach. Use the black plastic snap traps with peanut butter as bait. Just be sure to not leave them in the open (e.g. outside the netting) because you may lose your trap due to a larger animal being caught in it and taking off with the trap attached. |
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- Posted by PersianMD2Orchard (My Page) on Wed, Jul 2, 14 at 6:57
| I had the same problem last year(s), I used to net the blueberries for birds and then chipmunks would get them from underneath. You just have to block the ground access so either: 1) Lay the netting all the way to the ground then set bricks on the ground on top of the netting. Set bricks close side by side (touching) with no space between them around perimeter of ground. (did this last year) this works well if you plant them all next to each other in a box like configuration and just make a big netted box around the plot with bricks layed down. i may get the rare chipmunk who digs underneath the bricks but for the most part this is a 99% efficacy deterrent for me. 2) have you tried tying tightly the netting to the trunk of the bush underneath where all the berries are? this works pretty easily too. did this this year. the chipmunks i've learned are ready to risk everything for the blueberries so they are tough and cunning little guys. gotta do something so their path from the ground to the berries is blocked. hope this can help and good luck. |
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