7 Methods To Hold Chipmunks AWAY From Fowl Feeders! (2022)
How do you retain chipmunks away and off your chicken feeders?
With their cheeks stuffed stuffed with meals, many individuals discover chipmunks extremely cute and welcome them to their yard. However whereas squirrels get a lot of the consideration, these striped rodents can change into a bit annoying close to your chicken feeding station, particularly in giant sufficient numbers.
The most probably place the place you will notice chipmunks will likely be beneath your feeders, consuming the chicken meals that has fallen to the bottom. However with out a little bit of prevention, these critters are identified to climb into your chicken feeders, which prevents the songbirds you really wish to see!
Under are 7 easy methods to forestall chipmunks at your chicken feeders!
And ensure to take a look at all the issues it is best to NOT do to cease chipmunks, that are situated on the finish.
#1. Hold the realm beneath your feeders clear.
The most probably place that you will see chipmunks at is consuming the chicken meals that falls to the bottom. These mammals are identified for filling their cheeks with as a lot meals that can match, which they take again to their underground dens to eat later or retailer for winter.
So it shouldn’t come as a shock that to maintain chipmunks away, that you must attempt to cease birdseed falling from above!
To forestall meals on the bottom, pay shut consideration to your feeders.
Most birds are messy eaters and can poke by and throw birdseed round, in search of the meals they wish to eat. You’ll want chicken feeders that don’t enable birds to do that!
Most hopper feeders and trays are in all probability dangerous choices since birds can sit on a platform and have loads of room to throw meals round, resulting in some ending up on the bottom.
Search for feeders the place birds should attain inside to seize a bit of meals.
One feeder that I personal that will be a sensible choice is the Absolute II.
Absolute II View In the present day’s Value
The seed is enclosed within the meals reservoir and has a steel lip that forestalls (a lot) meals from spilling out.
One other solution to forestall meals from ending up on the bottom is to put in a tray beneath the feeders.
Many tube feeders have trays which you could safe to the underside. You may as well connect a dish or bin that catches fallen seeds.
The mix that I exploit is an Points tube feeder with a 8.5-inch Seed Tray connected to the underside.
You may as well attempt solely utilizing shelled sunflower seeds.
So far as chicken meals goes, sunflower kernels are the most well-liked. Nearly each chicken that involves feeders loves the stuff. The truth is, when birds are wanting by a birdseed combine, it’s sometimes the sunflower they’re trying to find.
If you happen to solely use shelled sunflowers, there will likely be nothing for the birds to look by, which suggests they’re much less more likely to throw seeds to the bottom. As one other profit, you will keep away from a multitude of shells that that you must clear up later since you might be shopping for the sunflower seed already shelled.
If any sunflower kernels do fall to the bottom, they need to be rapidly wolfed up by ground-feeding birds, which shouldn’t depart any for the chipmunks to eat.
#2. Forestall entry to your chicken feeders!
Imagine it or not, in the event you don’t take any precautions, chipmunks might climb into your chicken feeders. As soon as there, they may stuff their cheeks stuffed with meals, preserving birds away whereas they’re consuming.
However fortunately, chipmunks don’t have the identical athletic capacity that squirrels possess. Chipmunks can’t leap vertically or horizontally from a tree very far, or climb round baffles effectively, so it’s comparatively straightforward to verify these rodents can’t climb into your feeders. Belief me; it’s WAY tougher to maintain squirrels off your chicken feeders than chipmunks!
Regardless, listed here are some straightforward issues you are able to do to maintain chipmunks on the bottom!
A. Baffle your chicken feeder pole!
A baffle is merely a contraption that’s designed to forestall mammals from climbing up your chicken feeder pole. Whereas they’re principally supposed to cease squirrels, they’re distinctive for stopping chipmunks too.
Baffles might be bought individually (or made) and connected to your present pole. Basically, there are two completely different kinds/shapes of baffle you’ll encounter:
Torpedo Baffle Pictured Above (Additionally known as Stovepipe or Cone): Audubon Metal Baffle
Wrap Round Baffle Pictured Above: Woodlink Baffle
Each of those baffles are designed to connect beneath the chicken feeder. As chipmunks climb, they aren’t in a position to get across the baffle and, due to this fact, can’t eat your chicken meals!
For the whole lot that you must find out about baffles, try this text:
B. Purchase a pole that focuses on stopping rodents from climbing up!
If you happen to don’t personal a chicken feeder pole but or are in search of a brand new one, then I advisable shopping for one which has a baffle already constructed into the design.
For instance, I used to personal the Squirrel Stopper Pole, and never one critter EVER acquired previous the connected spring-loaded baffle. (Final 12 months, I constructed a extra heavy-duty chicken feeder pole because of the excessive variety of chicken feeders I used to be utilizing. 🙂 )
Try the spring-loaded baffle on the Squirrel Stopper pole beneath:
Squirrel Stopper Pole Examine In the present day’s Value
Not solely is that this pole nice at stopping chipmunks from climbing up, however it holds as much as 8 chicken feeders and appears “elegant” in backyards.
C. Dangle your feeders from a robust fishing line!
Lots of people that feed birds don’t use a chicken feeder pole to hold their feeders, however as an alternative, they droop them from a tree or different construction. The issue these fans face is that chipmunks can climb the tree and are available down onto the feeders from above.
A straightforward solution to cease that is to hold the chicken feeders from a robust fishing line!
The fishing line is just too small and skinny for chipmunks to navigate down, and they’re going to both have to make a leap of religion from the tree or head again to the bottom.
#3. Use spicy meals to cease chipmunks.
Do you take pleasure in having habanero peppers throughout your meals? Or does your face grimace simply enthusiastic about the warmth you’d expertise?
The explanation that we (folks) really feel the warmth of spicy meals is due to one thing referred to as capsaicin, which is the lively ingredient present in chili peppers that makes them scorching and worsening to eat.
However right here is the loopy factor:
Solely mammals really feel the results of capsaicin! Birds should not affected.
And in case you forgot, chipmunks are mammals. As well as, a chipmunk’s sense of odor and style is healthier than people. I’ve by no means been in a position to ask a chipmunk what consuming scorching chili peppers tastes like, however my guess is that the results are compounded much more than what folks really feel.
Cole’s Sizzling Meats View Price – Amazon
Utilizing chicken meals that has been coated in scorching pepper is value making an attempt. Chipmunks ought to take one whiff and never like what they odor. Birds, who don’t have a lot of a way of odor or style, received’t be bothered one bit by the spicy meals.
Utilizing spicy seeds ought to work at stopping all kinds of mammals at your feeding station, together with squirrels, raccoons, and bears! Try the experiment I did beneath, the place I examined to see if scorching pepper seed really works.
#4. Entice and launch your chipmunks!
If all else fails, you’ll be able to attempt to entice chipmunks and allow them to go someplace far-off from your own home.
Catching a chipmunk is comparatively straightforward.
First, purchase a small entice, just like the one seen beneath.
Havahart Small Mammal Entice View Value – Amazon
Then put one thing scrumptious inside that chipmunks can’t resist, like sunflower seeds.
Quickly sufficient, it is best to have a chipmunk. Now that you must drive a couple of miles away to let it go. Attempt to discover a park or a buddy’s home that has a wooded space for the chipmunk to dwell.
Whereas trapping can work, I don’t assume it’s a long-term resolution. There’ll ALWAYS be extra chipmunks. To resolve your chipmunk issues, I believe it’s a a lot better use of time to give attention to the best way to cease them completely.
Usually, I solely resort to trapping a chipmunk when one has began making a multitude inside my storage or shed persistently!
Additionally, I attempt to keep away from trapping and relocating chipmunks throughout spring and summer time, since they might have an underground burrow stuffed with infants ready for “mamma” to come back dwelling. I don’t have the center to know that I’m guaranteeing these younger chipmunks a gradual and painful demise.
Lastly, PLEASE don’t damage the chipmunk after it’s trapped!
These adaptable mammals are simply making an attempt to remain alive. Be variety and discover a appropriate place far-off from your own home to allow them to go.
#5. Feed chipmunks individually out of your birds.
This tip runs counter to virtually the whole lot else on this checklist.
To forestall and deter chipmunks from accessing and consuming your entire meals and scaring away birds, attempt feeding them at a separate feeder only for them!
For instance, beneath my chicken feeders, I’ve a tray that’s at all times stuffed with sunflower seeds only for the chipmunks and different ground-feeding animals!
Search for chipmunks beneath on the LIVE digicam in my yard!
*LEARN extra in regards to the LIVE cameras in my yard HERE!*
By offering an infinite provide of meals for chipmunks on the bottom, you might be hoping they received’t even hassle going by all the additional work to succeed in your chicken feeders. I exploit this identical technique to assist management Home Sparrows too!
And in the event you don’t need chipmunks hanging round your chicken feeders, then put this separate tray of meals in a distinct space of the yard to get them to relocate. 🙂
#6. Be sure you have correct seed storage!
You didn’t ask, however I’m going to provide you my private opinion concerning chipmunks. 🙂
General, I don’t thoughts them, and I’m completely satisfied they’re round. Chipmunks present loads of leisure for our household, they usually keep off my chicken feeders (because of my baffles) and assist clear up the seed that falls to the bottom. Additionally, I like the very fact they supply meals for owls and hawks, which I really like getting the possibility to see in our yard too. (Don’t hate me for that remark, hate the circle of life! 🙂 )
The one instances that I get aggravated with chipmunks are once they come into my storage and shed and wreak havoc on my saved chicken meals.
Chipmunk or squirrel injury on a 5-gallon bucket lid.
If I by chance depart a bag of seed on the bottom after buying it from the shop, I can rely on them to tear a gap within the aspect to get their fair proportion. I’ve additionally discovered injury from them as they attempt to chew their manner by onerous plastic in my shed.
Now, I notice that I can’t blame the chipmunks for inflicting this injury and mess, as they simply need an opportunity to get some straightforward meals. However they do hold me on my toes and be sure that I’m storing all of my chicken seed correctly.
My suggestion is to buy steel bins with a lid or discover storage containers manufactured from extremely onerous plastic.
Additionally, attempt to clear up everytime you spill any meals on the ground, as this discourages chipmunks, in addition to mice and rats, from coming again.
Tip #7: PLEASE Don’t Damage Chipmunks!
Sadly, out of frustration, many individuals have give you methods to maintain chipmunks away from chicken feeders that damage and even kill them.
I don’t agree with these strategies. There are too many efficient methods that work at deterring and repelling chipmunks AND hold these animals secure.
So my last suggestion is to keep away from something that can injure chipmunks. Attempt to recognize chipmunks as a part of nature and bear in mind they’re simply making an attempt to outlive just like the birds that go to your feeders!
Don’t Use THESE Methods To Hold Chipmunks Off Fowl Feeders!
Poison:
DON’T USE THIS STUFF!!!
Not solely will you be sentencing chipmunks to a painful demise, however what in case your canine by chance ingests some?
Additionally, it’s widespread for predatory animals, like foxes, owls, and hawks, to eat a rodent that has simply been poisoned, since, to them, it makes a straightforward meal. As quickly as this poisoned chipmunk has been consumed, there is no such thing as a hope for that predator both, and it’ll quickly die.
Glue or anything sticky in your chicken feeder pole:
It not solely needs to be extremely painful to have their fur ripped out, however it’s virtually not possible for chipmunks to take away the glue, they usually might ingest some as they attempt to groom themselves.
Petroleum jelly or grease in your chicken feeder pole:
Much like glue, that is extremely tough for chipmunks to get off their coat. They may ingest some and get sick, or their fur will clump collectively, leaving them inclined to chilly climate.
Taking pictures:
There may be nothing you’ll be able to shoot at a chipmunk that won’t damage it, besides a digicam.
Letting your cat outdoors to kill the chipmunks:
Cats LOVE to prey on and kill birds. If you wish to see extra birds at your feeder and fewer chipmunks, do you assume letting your cat outdoors is a superb concept?
Basically, don’t do something that can kill or hurt the chipmunks in your yard!
Killing the chipmunks in your yard is a basic instance of treating the symptom and never the issue. Chipmunks breed rapidly, so you’ll be able to at all times anticipate extra to reach. Utilizing a mixture of the ideas on this article will work a lot better as long-term options than homicide.
Remaining Ideas
By using a number of the suggestions listed above, it’s solely attainable to repel, deter, and hold chipmunks off your feeders and cease them from consuming your chicken meals!
However most significantly, attempt to be taught to understand chipmunks as a part of the extraordinary nature you get to look at in your yard! I’ve even heard of those that have skilled chipmunks to eat out of their palms! 🙂
Earlier than you go, I need your assist to make this text even higher. Are you able to assist reply a few of these questions within the feedback beneath?
What are the very best methods you will have discovered to discourage and repel chipmunks?
Thanks for studying, and good luck!
Scott