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.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Human guests don't generally gnaw wires, although they can cause gnashing of teeth.

 

[labboy]

Alvin

Not a chipmunk but his coloring and face reminded us of one...

 

[lordkenmore]

Yes, human guests don't generally chew wire.

On the other hand, chipmunk guests are unlikely to get sozzled, and pass out on one's new carpet, surrounded by a large sea of various revolting body fluids...

 

[delaneymeegan]

 

 

John, I'm sorry to hear that you have friends/relatives/general intruder's that have frequent incontinence, bladder control issues, or Hemophilia.  That can be a mess for sure, and I'm sorry, I'll have to think twice about coming to your house to visit.  I hope you have a good carpet cleaner.

 

 

 

My problem is- this freakin' song.   Yesterday the line "christmas, christmas time is near"  kept playing in my head.

 

Today it's "me I want a hoola hoop"  keeps repeating.  

 

HOW DO I MAKE IT <span style="font-size: 18pt;">STOP  ?!</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I'm being haunted by a frickin' chorus of chipmunks.</span>

 

 

 

<span style="font-size: 12pt;">On the positive side, I haven't seen or heard them in or outside the house.  When mowing today, I found a well used hole going into the foundation.  I've also seen the neighbors fat cat in my yard several times.  As long as it's catching things, and not just peeing all over things, it can visit.</span>

 

 

[lordkenmore]

Delaney--what I described above is more of a hypothetical situation than one that has been much of an issue for me.

Actually, my guests usually leave before anything could happen to the carpet. They leave fast--very fast. Something about my personality drives them crazy... LOL

 

[delaneymeegan]

Who-HOOOO Daddies Home

 

Saturday left the house for 24 hours to celebrate a relative's birthday.  I get home about 4:45 pm.  I didn't even notice that chippy had made another house visit until about 10:30 pm.   lol

 

This time, his interest in peanut butter lead to ..... a one hit wonder.     <span style="font-size: 14pt;">lol.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Tomorrow I'll school the neighbors fat cat on how it's done.</span>

 

[launderess]

You might have warned

Such an explicit photo was coming up. Some of us have delicate sensibilities.

 

[brucelucenta]

LOL Launderess, you are priceless!!!! I think you would be a lot of fun to know.

 

[delaneymeegan]

 

 

Laundress sweetheart, the title of this thread is "Chipmunk-- In the House".

 

How, my dear, did you think things were going to progress? 

 

Appliance collecting is not for the faint of heart.  Nor are the lives that appliance collectors lead.  lol

 

 

I threw the chippee outside last night, into the rain.  We'll see if it's still there this morning.  I'm guessing not.

 

But last night, I heard something in the wall above my desk.  I'm guessing a mouse.  With all the rain, they were probably seeking shelter. 

 

[iheartmaytag]

You just wait til I tell Simon and Theodore you killed Alvin. 

I shudder, yes quake to think where they may place that trap. 

 

I do side with Laundress, the postmortem pics were not necessary.  Thank Goodness you didn't take autopsy pics.

 

 

[brucelucenta]

Golly, I can't imagine being so squeamish about a rodent. Besides, you have to wear a suit of armor on this site about comments and such anyway. I have no blood lust, but doesn't bother me that much to see a rodent in a rat trap. Better there than running about the house. The only bothersome part is when you think of it in terms of Alvin, Simon or Theodore.[this post was last edited: 6/13/2016-12:25]