by Barbara Claire Schaefer

Created on: November 09, 2009   Last Updated: November 11, 2009

Chipmunks and ground squirrels, adorable or just plain pesky

Chip 'N Dale are adorable if you are watching a Walt Disney cartoon but if you have them in your yard they are a pain in the neck. Or at least in my neck, some people still adore them.

To me they are rodents, or mice with tails. They get into almost everything that is sealed, in any plastic container or anything nailed shut. That is if they can't chew their way in. They also have holes all around the yard where they devour my tulip bulbs.

I've read that some of their burrows are as long as two miles with a separate burrow for their feces which means they are at least clean in their homes With any luck at all that two miles would put them way out somewhere on the bike trail.

I seem to have an overabundance of them this fall. They have two broods a year of four or five babies so that means that I must have at least six adult pairs scampering up and down the maple tree in my front yard judging from all the babies.

One recently scared me (and probably him or her) out of about five years of life. I walked over to the red plastic garbage can on my front porch that holds bird seed and peanuts as I do at least once a day. As I lifted off the lid, a chipmunk or ground squirrel let out of loud chipping sound which could barely be heard above my surprised scream and jumped straight at me. Of course it was only trying to flee but that didn't help any.

As I was trying to figure out how it got in the can in the first place I could see where it had eaten through the plastic at the top of can and along the lid. I don't know how long it took to do that but the triumph was short lived.

After I got my breath back I went to the garage, unloaded a large metal garbage can that was housing dried flowers and carried it around to the front porch. I've read that chipmunks' teeth never stop growing and that's why they chew on so much stuff. If he gets through the metal can he's going to need dentures.

If they get hungry enough they have been known to chew their way into attics and garages and chomp a hole through bird feeders. They even eat the insulation off the wiring in a car. That's just what I don't need. Mine so far are getting fat just eating birdseed and peanuts.

I thought I had a good idea for keeping them away from the birdfeeders by using cayenne pepper sprinkled on the birdfeed because birds have no taste and it doesn't affect them. It did work for a while but the other day I noticed that the chipmunks had chewed a hole in the cayenne pepper shaker as if to say, so there, you can't stop me. I think they must have developed a taste for the pepper or they were just sharpening their teeth.

The one thing they don't have is very much brain power. Why are they driving me crazy when just up the street they could gorge themselves on the nuts that are all over the ground and sidewalks. There must be hundreds on the sidewalk alone.

I considered using the old Hansel and Gretel trick of dropping the nuts all the way from my house to that street so they would get the message that a smorgasbord awaited them there but that seemed like too much work. Besides I didn't want to risk the neighbors thinking I was nuts.

With any luck at all they will soon be hibernating somewhere away from my house but I have no doubt that the little devils will be out and about next spring. The only other solution would be to get a cat and that's not going to happen. I have a love/hate relationship with neighboring cats.

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