The fun never ends, now chipmunks...

9 years ago

Oh, for the love of pete- I have a chipmunk invasion.

Some little bugger ate one of my 'Junes' a night until all six were gone, then started in on the 'Halcyons.' Ate two new clematis, a hardy geranium, and one of my newer Cercis is looking funny. Every morning on my first inspection walk I am now looking for plants that look like something laid down on them- they just look flat. When I go poking I see that the roots have been eaten away and the tell tale hole.

They tunnel around- that's bad enough, disrupting roots and making air pockets everywhere. But eating my roots entirely? Some of the smaller plants just... gone. From inside a plant cage, had to have been done from underground.

I am the world's biggest animal activist and I am just this close to kill traps. Husband and I have been sitting outside for days tearing our hands up making hardware cloth baskets for the hostas. I won't get them all done this year but will do the smallest and most precious and work my way up.Hopefully some of my larger hostas can fend for themselves? It's only the smallish ones that I have lost.

So. Much. Work.

I am putting repellent in the holes and trying to drive them back into the woods, and have given the dogs permission to hunt without censure. But by and large think that physical protection is more reliable, so will continue digging and putting wire baskets around roots. I'm considering traps/soapy water buckets but prefer not to kill things. I have an acre of wild woods we maintain purely so critters have somewhere to go- why don't they just go there????

SO frustrating.

Featured Answer

susanzone5 (NY)

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

I feel your pain and frustration. I think you have voles. They're the ones that tunnel and eat the roots. Use mouse traps next to the holes, covered with a bucket with a rock on top to hold it.

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Comments (9)

Kindness Matters (NE Ohio 6a)
9 years ago
I too have chipmunks, along with moles. While they do some damage, they don't seem to do quite as much as you describe. I'm with Susan in that your damage is more likely to be from voles.

Our moles dig tunnels, some along bigger shrub roots, but don't damage anything unless it's accidental. The chipmunks dig smaller holes (not tunnels) and partly uncover hosta roots that way, but haven't yet eaten any of the roots. They do eat rose buds, and few newly emerging astilbe and hosta pips. (I've only seen one big hosta leaf bitten off inside the fenced in area, meaning that it wasn't from rabbits.) Voles, on the other hand, would use the tunnels that moles dig to go completely underground and eat everything.
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky) thanked Kindness Matters (NE Ohio 6a)
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cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
Original Author
9 years ago
Don't know why but I was under the (apparently) ridiculous and mistaken impression that we didn't have voles here.

Oh well, I shall educate myself posthaste.

Still, wire baskets are the solution. I got several dug and replanted this morning then sat and made some more baskets. Slowly but surely.
Kindness Matters (NE Ohio 6a)
9 years ago
For Eastern Kentucky, it could be Meadow Voles or Pine Voles, but not likely to be Prairie Voles.
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky) thanked Kindness Matters (NE Ohio 6a)
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
Original Author
9 years ago
Yeah, I've had some cockamamie misconceptions in my life but this might take the cake. To be fair I've only gardened in this climate for ten years.

Who knew?
miles10612
9 years ago
I've had lots of chipmunks but luckily no damage. They seem to coexist well with my gardens. Good luck with the voles.
almosthooked zone5
9 years ago
I have both Chipmunks and Squirrels and have never done damage to the hosta but they do get sunflowers . I really don't mind and I and don't actually eat that many. They do drive my two weiner dogs crazy but they sit on a perch in the house and watch them like tv. Quivering with excitement until we let them out. Cheap insurance
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
9 years ago
Cayenne pepper works wonders. I have two or three hosta that the chippies love and leave the rest alone. A couple of applications of pepper stopped them and they haven't returned even though it has been over a month since the last pepper application.

tj
zkathy z7a NC
9 years ago
Can you take a picture of the wire baskets you're making? I have at voles infesting at least half my garden. I don't think I'll ever have big hostas because the voles are constantly root pruning, and that's the good news. Sometimes they just eat the whole thing.