Chipmunk-- in the house....

[mattl]

Having a weird day.  My grandfather clock stopped, checked it and found one of the chains broke and fell completely out.  Had to pull the guts out and reinsert the chain, not easy. Funny thing was many of the links were in the process of opening.  Closed a number of them, now it will take a week or more to get the clock running properly again.

 

While in the process I had a chipmunk dart past me.  It went around the corner and ran up the stairs, saw me coming and ran back down into the library.  Blocked off the other exists except for the front door that I opened.   I made some  noise, no sign of it.  Went throughout the room nothing scared it out.  Not sure where it went, no easy exists even for a small animal.  Odds are it came down one of the chimneys.  I have spring loaded caps on both, but both were open a little as I had been using the gas logs on cool spring nights, should have closed them.  Wonder if it ran up the chimney..

 

Closed the door, opened the window, put some nuts by the window in hope it would find them and exit.  Failing that, not sure how to get rid of it.  Loaded a live mouse trap with peanut butter too, but it might be too big to get in there.

 

Any suggestions?

 

[launderess]

Is his name Alvin?

 

[rp2813]

You may have to learn to live with it. 

 

My world history teacher in junior high had two "pet" squirrels that escaped from their containment area and were impossible to capture.  They ended up taking over a large chair in her living room and made themselves a luxurious nest from all of the convenient stuffing inside it.  Instead of teaching history, she would often share the latest squirrel capers with the class in her cynical deadpan (and in this case, defeatist) style, which was well-suited to the atmosphere and acoustics of the oversized original science classroom in a 1931 building that had already been condemned for not meeting earthquake standards.  It didn't take a lot of prompting from us to get her into a story that took up the whole period.

 

I don't know what ever happened.  There was no closure by the end of the school year, and I was off to high school in the fall.

 

[appnut]

Launderess, you took the words right out of my mouth!!!

 

[abcomatic]

Simon

 

[askolover]

Theodore

 

[delaneymeegan]

 

 

They are cute, but....

 

I DON'T want them in my house.  

  I don't want them digging holes in my lawn, I don't want them eating my plants, eating from my bird feeder, laughing annoyingly, and I don't want them getting a record deal and singing chorus tunes.

 

The old house I recently bought has holes in the foundation that I'm working on fixing, and they've come inside on a few occasions now.  Today for example, I entered the room and heard something.  There it was looking around near the wall.  I moved, it moved.  Then it will just stop and look at you, like it thinks I'm going to feed it. Then it scampered off.  

 

Apparently they don't want to live inside.  They've only get indoors by mistake.

 

I bought some rat traps.  

http://https//youtu.be/3rnPHlOHb7g

 

[petek]

I love them. When we bought this house 10 years ago it came with very very tame chipmunk who would climb right up on me sitting on the front porch to get peanuts.. I went to TSC and bought a huge probably 25 lb bag of  peanuts in the shell for him.. The bugger would sit there and literally stuff 5 of them in his mouth. So comical to look at, then he'd race off around the house and take them down into his burrow and be back on my lap wanting more within about a minute.. He went thru the bag in no time.. I figured he must have a warehouse down there.. . There's been a few more over the years. I just started training this years baby a few days ago and already he'll come when he's called and sit at my feet but hasn't climbed up on the chair or table yet while I'm sitting there.. I can get my hand about 6 inches from him and have to drop it. I figure another day or two and he'll be climbing up..  

What I don't remember is there being so many of them back when I was a kid. You'd see one occasionally but they're everywhere now. Most of our neighbors hate them because they dig up the plants.. Doesn't bother me,, they're just too cute. 

 

[mattl]

Cute, but not in the house.  One it ran into the room I've seen no evidence of it.  Closed the door, opened the window put pecans by the window and they are still undisturbed.   Only thought is it ran back up the chimney, perhaps if it came down that way it knew the route, not sure about the memory capacity of this tiny animal.  I did close the cap on the chimney a little later though.

 

[delaneymeegan]

 

 

I doubt it came down the chimney.

 

Is there a basement under your house?  

They probably went DOWN somewhere, in a crack or hole you don't realize is there.

 

[washdaddy]

you would be surprised at how small of a hole a rodent or chipmunk can squeeze itself thru.

 

[delaneymeegan]

Very true.

 

 

Something the size of a quarter even.

 

I have old SOLID wood paneling in some rooms.   With wood comes knots in wood.  Sometimes the knots dry and fall out leaving a perfect hole.   I've actually seen knots where, what ever was using the hole, it slightly chewed and tried to make the hole larger.

 

[lordkenmore]

>Cute, but not in the house.

Reasonable view. One I'd take. But I have to think they might be less trouble than some human guests...

 

[turquoisedude]

Get one of these.... 

 

Failing that - peanut butter and rat traps will work.  Not pretty, but it will solve the problem.

 

[circlew]

I like them too!

My cat used to catch them at times, and would usually eat them. This always made me so mad, as he was well fed. I don't see many of them around where I live, as there are a lot of cats in the area these days.

Hope you have no more trouble out of yours.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I would suggest a cat, but sometimes a domestic cat can be lazy.  Get a Dachshund they are tenacious when it comes to critters.  

 

[moparwash]

Invite David Seville over....(sorry...couldn't resist)

 

[launderess]

Oh well, since we're already well down that path...

Enjoy!

 

[mattl]

Launderess, I got a real laugh out of that.

 

Alvin, Simon or Theodore seems to be MIA, I've seen no evidence of his presence today.  I did leave the window open overnight and today, might have packed bags and left.  But it's a big house and could easily be anywhere.