Chipmunks-Cute or the Pest

All winter long this winter my car randomly had issues where it would be going fine and then all of a sudden would jerk like the transmission wasn’t working. Well towards spring we took it in for its 30,000 mile check up and what do you know the mechanics found a cup full of birdseed in the engine. So next thing we decided was that we would put rat poison down in the garage thinking that would stop whatever was putting the birdseed there. It didn’t and we couldn’t find any traces of rodent in the garage. We were stumped. That was until one day we were sitting outside enjoying a spring day and next thing you know we see a chipmunk squeeze out from underneath our front steps. We assume that he had been frozen out of his home in the winter and crawled up a crack we have in our door and crawled into my car. Now the first time I saw him I thought he was very cute. That was until he started climbing our bird feeder and emptying it out weekly. Now the birds don’t come as often and we still have to fill up regularly. We figure under our step is full of birdseed by now. So my husband got creative and cut a milk gallon in half and wrapped it around the pole to get to the feeder. Only the chipmunk was smarter (it took him a day or two) and figured out if he climbed up the hanging basket pole we have like 3-5 feet away from the bird feeder and then fling himself towards the bird feeder he would sometimes make it. Now being an animal lover the first time he did this I was impressed until the second time then he hit the edge of the bird feeder with a clunk and fell to the rocks. That I didn’t like much as I didn’t like him climbing it I didn’t want a dead or knocked out chipmunk on my hands so we took that down. I don’t know whether to be impressed overall with the chipmunks ingenious or be annoyed we will have to see what else we can figure out to deter him.

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