It is officially spring

Our resident rodent, Simon, has awakened from his long winter's nap. I was wondering if he would still remember me, but it is business as usual. Just call: Simon, good stuff, and he appears on his "porch" like a flash.

 

I need your expertise about chips since you're on a first name basis. I have a chippy under my deck. He's welcome to the unused real estate however he keeps burrowung through my gardens. I've lined a few with hardware cloth (1/4" aluminum mesh) but somehow he keeps undermining, literally, my efforts. I've been fighting brown rats and am worried about hurting the chipmunk.

How do I get the little chip to stop tunnelling and do they co-habit with rats?

 

Lori,
Are you sure it is the chipmunk doing the digging? Simon has been with us since he was about six weeks old and I have never seen him digging in the ground, the damn squirrels yes, but not Simon. He does not bother anything at all, he is the perfect guest. Then again, he seldom forages anymore, but sits on his porch waiting for a hand out. Perhaps you could get the trail cam out of storage and make sure who the culprit is.

I had a mouse problem in the tool shed and placed mouse bait in there. One day in late September I opened the shed to find Simon in there and all of the mouse bait gone. The door had not been closed properly, so I was heartbroken thinking that Simon was going to hibernate and I would not see him again. I was so glad to see him today, as my granddaughter loves Simon. I guess they have nine lives also, as I assume he took the mouse bait to his den, and if so it did not affect him.

As for living with rats, chipmunks are solitary and territorial, so he will not tolerate any critter in his territory. They steal from each other and have awful fights over territory, so they would never share a nest with any other critter.

We spoil him rotten, as you can see.

 

This is excellent news. So, the rats are visitors not deck dwellers. Maybe I'll start putting out offerings to Chippie and dig out the gardens again....then watch what happens....

Thanks for thd heads up!