I think I have chipmunks (maybe 1-3, not sure) in the walls of my home. I saw some of your products but wasn’t sure what would be best. I do see the burrows outside in my plantings but I can definitely hear the little guy in the north wall of my house. It’s a 2-story house and sometimes I think I hear him on the second level. Any thoughts on how best to handle? We’re trying to sell our house and its the one issue that will give people pause. Thanks!
This is a tough one. Though chipmunks can move inside a wall, it’s something that doesn’t happen much. This is probably because they aren’t good climbers like squirrels, roof rats and flying squirrels. The most common way they get inside homes is through an opening or hole in the siding or maybe via a downspout pipe. So do a good inspection to see if you can locate anything like this on the home and if you can, focus in on this area as a possible entry point.
But based on the information you provided, it’s most likely you have one of these other “critters” and not a chipmunk at all. Other candidates include shrews, deer mice, voles and shrews. Again, most of these like to be out in the yard but some will forage inside when conditions are right. And even when they do come inside, most want out and will not linger. This means if you are hearing sounds on a regular basis in the wall, I suspect there is something else taking harborage.
As for the holes out in the yard; true, it could be from chipmunks. But again, there are many animals it could be. In general, ground nesting animals like chipmunks, gophers, moles, woodchucks and others aren’t much interested in coming inside and climbing through walls. This is very much outside their usual environment. So what does like the inside of walls you ask? The most common animals include ROOF RATS and SQUIRRELS.
At this point it might sound a bit complicated but there are some easy options. The first would be do some inspection work up in the attic. Someone really needs to get up there to see if there is any visible animal activity. Look for droppings, tunnels through the insulation and anything else out of the ordinary. Roof rats and squirrels will tend to make it plain and clear when they inhabit such areas; flying squirrels are more secretive and many times don’t forage around too much so they can be hard to see or detect.
Now if you do find droppings or other areas where there is clear sign of activity, it’s quite possible you’ll be able to handle this problem. Such sign would be a great place to set out a live trap. We have a lot of lures and in general can guide you in selecting one that should work based on the local environment. For example, are their pets in the house or do you have bird feeders? Are there nut trees close by? Variables like this will enable us to make a solid bait selection that usually will lure and catch target animals and with a little questioning, we can usually come up with a good game plan.
For now, I suggest you decide if you want to hire someone or tackle this problem yourself. At any time you can give us a call on our toll free 1-800-877-7290 and speak with a tech rep. Once we get a chance to ask a few questions we can usually come up with a solution that can help and at that point you can decide if you want to get something and start or like I mentioned above, hire a professional animal trapper to deal with the problem directly.
Here are direct links to informative articles on Roof Rats, Squirrels and Chipmunks respectively:
http://www.roof-rat-control.com
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page398.html
jonathan
John Hudson says
I know you say it is unusual for chipmunks to be walls but we have watched them. Last summer we watched 2 of them going and coming from a hole behind the brick wall on our patio and we have found 2 more holes in the yard in front. We can here them in the outside wall of the bathroom and the 2 outside walls of the bedroom. I set some poisoned peanut butter in the holes but am afraid that we will end up with dead chipmunks in the walls. This is not very sanitary. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
Tech Support says
@John Hudson: If you know where they’re active, solving the problem is easy. Just set out some of the live traps we have listed in our article and you’ll catch them in no time. If you haven’t watched them yet, check out the videos at the end of our article posted here: http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page398.html