Rita, I know that Chipmunks are rodents and are just as destructive as the squirrels and mice, but I just adore them! We have several in my Mom's front yard that are living in tunnels between the ecology blocks that make up the retaining wall of her main rose garden. Maybe your terracing has attracted him? Stones to gather the heat to make a tunnel behind?

They just adore the bird nuts and seed, and since if I remember correctly you have made your yard very bird friendly, it makes it a wonderful place for a chipmunk to move in as well.

Julie

I feed the birds and squirells here. Cracked corn and birdseed in the winter, just some birdseed in the summer but I put out much less. Guess I will be feeding one chipmonk from now on too. I too think they exceptionally cute. I am sure he/she lives in the garage or under a part of it were there are new tunnels made this winter and spring.

1 is cute but when that 1 calls all their friends to move in. It stops being cute. I've had strawberry plants for 5 years and haven't gotten a single strawberry thanks to the chipmunks around here.

My cats are so well fed they just sit and watch them. The cats would probably run if a chipmunk approached them. I covered my strawberries with netting and they tunneled under or chewed thru in some spots. I just gave up and let them have the strawberries. They haven't bothered any of my other plants.

So maybe if you plant a patch of strawberries they will leave you plants alone. Or you could actually get a cat that would catch them. Ohhhh not a good idea.... cat chasing chipmunk... thru flower beds destroying flowers... Just plant some strawberries. lol

I have strawberries and many fruiting small fruits growing here. I actually have the yard planted to be very wildlife friendly and there are lots of fruit it can eat. There are lots of cats as well as red fox around here so it had better be careful.

I remember one time when I was a kid, I had a pet hamster I took outside to let run around in the grass and collect dandelion leaves. I wasn't paying too close attention and my hammy found a ground squirrel (or chipmunk) hole and disappeared, it's little behind being the last I saw of her....or so I thought. I was scared thinking the chipmunk or whatever it was in the hole was going to kill my hammy, but an hour later she came back up through the hole of which she went into with nothing but a dirty little nose. I was much more careful after that when letting my hamster run around the yard. Just wanted to share my little story.

Karen

There is a lot of squirrels here, but I have never seen a live chipmonk.Not as many squirrels as use to be here, due to my cats.Altho my one cat don't go outside any more,but I still have one cat outside,that will kill a squirrel.Won't eat it, but will kill it and bring it and drop it at my front door.

Jean

My friend's cat likes to leave little 'presents' at her door too.

Karen

Karen, your hampster story is so cute! I'm glad it had a happy ending.

Your story made me wonder:

When we lived in our other house one day I saw something moving beneath our bushes. I looked underneath and it was a big rat! But it didn't look like a wild rat...it looked like a pet rat. White with a big black spot and a pink nose. ?? I was so worried this was someone's pet, I talked my husband into going and getting a live trap so we could capture it and...maybe re-home it?

As it turned out, the girl from whom he rented the trap loved white rats and she adopted it.

:D

Now I wonder, maybe someone just took their rat out in the yard to play like you did?

Careful with the chipmunk, I have heard horror stories about foundations ruined and wiring eaten. I hope yours is a boy and can't find a girlfriend.
Renee

Me too. I wouldn't mind one chipmonk. A mess of them is another story. My garage has no electricity. You have to open the door the old fashioned way, by hand. I never put my car in there, its a detached garage and the car would never even fit in there. Its just used for storage of gardening stuff and non power tools.

I saw one ofour Chipmonks yesterday for thr first time this summer. I put out a bowl of wild bird seed, with some extra sunflower seed and a few peanuts and they leave everything alone. They use the privacy fence as a freeway, and it drives my dog crazy. Sometimes it just sits on the fence watching the dog.

We have armadillos that dig up the beds here. They love freshly mulched beds because of the worms the oak leaves attract. I haven't the heart to kill them, but I may be changing my mind. They have really done some damage this year.

Sharon

We have loads of Eastern Fox Squirrels here which have displaced the native Western Grays and Douglas Squirrels but in sixteen years of living at this house we have had no damage from them and enjoy them immensely. Some have been tame enough to hand feed.

One would come to the windows and doors if she was hungry. Once she followed me across the lawn and out to the middle of the street when I was talking to the neighbor. I was telling her about this crazy squirrel following me around the yard and she pointed down at my feet and said "you mean that squirrel?"

My cats killed two rats and two moles in the last six months but never a squirrel.

John, those pictures are so cute. I could never kill them, so I guess distracting them like you do is the best idea.

Rita, let's cross our fingers that it stays to just one! They really are too cute. I've never lived in a place that had chipmonks - only squirrels.

In the cemetary where my parents are buried, the chipmunks got so bad they were undermining the tombstones. On Memorial Day it used to be so cute to see them playing around the stones.When the stones started to topple over, they had to exterminate them. People felt bad, but what else could they do?

My thinking on the subject is that in 52 years this is the first chipmonk so I just can not believe I am suddenly going to be overrun with them. My opinion from what I can gather of what other people say is that they only really become a problem if there are lots of them, or too many of them. I plan to just let the little guy/girl live here and clean up the mess it made in my garage.

Last year I had some baby bunnies show up for awhile. But they were so clueless, barely hopping away when I walked around the yard. I used to see at least one daily for about three weeks. After afew weeks they dissapeared never to be seen again. Either the foxes or an owl must have gotten them, they were really cute and really dumb.

The chipmonk pictures adorable. I didn't see the chipmonk yesterday but that's probably because it rained most of the day and I did not spend much time outside. Today I saw the chipper darting in and out of the stones in my low rock wall that is by the pond. I think it has or is making its burrow there. These rocks are just stacked, not cemented like the ones around the pond and they make perfect chipmonk hideaways.

I put out a makeshift chipmonk feeder of an oversize soup can with the bottom filled with birdseed turned almost on its side that wedges into some of the rocks there perfectly.

Well, now that I have had alot of time to think on it, I really do not think it was the chipmonk living in my garage all that time making a big mess. I think it just happened to run into that tunnel going under the garage door when I startled it. I think this because I never saw the chipmonk before that day and have seen it many times a day since then. I think it had just gotten here shortly before that and maybe was looking for a home.

Since then I do see it everyday. It has moved into the low stacked stone wall near my inground 300 gallon stocktank pond.

We had a huge chip monk population when we bought this house. I rarely see one now, and I know it is because Momma Cat, one of the rescues, is a talented huntress.

Chipmonks are very cute, but they do like bulbs.
kay

No one is going to have to worry about the chipmonk doing any damage around here. I found it dead on my driveway when I went out to take pictures today. Odd really, as I feel that if a cat or fox had gotten it they would not have left it there.

the chipmonks have made their way into my garden that i have spent countless hours working on. sure they are in fact cute. but they are not cute in my garden! the firearms are coming out today and there will be a mass murder of all chipmonks even close to my garden. anyone interested in free chipmonk skins can contact me, i will have plenty!

Chipmunks (it's spelled with a U, not an O)don't like to walk on grass, they like rocks, rocks, more rocks, and tunnels under rocks. So if you have a rock garden, or a brick terrace, you are the concierge of a chipmunk luxury hotel.

Their main source of food is crocus bulbs, the RUBY GIANT variety in particular. My observation. ;-)

Oh no, poor Chipper. :(