Question
Help!  my veggie garden and fruit trees/plants/bushes are being destroyed by chipmunks.

I have a small 1/4 acre lot, but use it to its fullest capacity.  I have a good size veggie garden, several blueberry bushes and lots of strawberry plants and the chipmunks have deemed this place as Heaven!
They are cute, but just too destructive.  They will take 1 bite off EACH strawberry and leave the rest, those darned  things!

I've tried everything on the market to repel them and it doesn't work.  Every kind of predator urine, granule, repellant, etc and they've been totally ineffective.  I even put my strawberries in pots and hung them from the trees and the chipmunks are climbing the trees and sitting in the pots eating them.  UUUUGGHHH!

I have 3 different size have-a-hart traps.  I planned to capture and humanely euthanize the chipmunks, but those buggers refuse to go in the traps.  Yesterday I saw one sitting on top of the trap and reaching down into it to get the peanut butter with its paw!  They will go on the trap, around the trap, but not IN the trap and i'm frustrated!

I thought that it might be the human scent scaring them away, so I've tried cleaning the traps then only handling them with gloves while I bait and set them and its still not working.

What do I do?  Why are they not going in the traps?  Can you please tell me the best bait to use in the trap?  I've used peanut butter, pecans, fruit, etc and have had no luck.  These same foods left out of the trap would be devoured.  I've put the traps in all the places I see them the most and have not caught any.  I know I have at least 10 on my property, but probably more and they are breeding.

Do I need to disguise the traps in some way?  Am I using the wrong bait?  Do I need to spray them with something to change the scent?

Geesh, I've managed to handle the fox that was being a nuisance and the black bear that thought my garbage was his dining room, but I cant catch a 5" long rodent!  Hanging my head low.....

Please help.

Lisa.

-also - if there is another way of ridding them beside traps, including any repellent that actually work, i'm open to those ideas too.

Lisa

Answer
Sorry you wasted money on repellents. We try to educate the public that they rarely fulfill expectations but its hard to fight the marketing as a nonprofit.

If you want to know what works visit http:ICWDM. Org
There will be plenty of info there. Just be sure to follOw state and local laws.