Garden Poachers

[bwframe]

Can you wax chipmunks with mousetraps, or are they big enough to need rat traps?

I have rat traps to screw to trees and other high locations, mainly for emergency. I have daily visits from smaller neighborhood dogs and the occasional cat that I wouldn't want to harm. Same with snakes.

I take out a few Alvin and Theodore's with the air rifles, but the Havaheart's are the most reliable, after a few years of learning the trapping tricks.

 

[rhino]

I have rat traps to screw to trees and other high locations, mainly for emergency. I have daily visits from smaller neighborhood dogs and the occasional cat that I wouldn't want to harm. Same with snakes.

I take out a few Alvin and Theodore's with the air rifles, but the Havaheart's are the most reliable, after a few years of learning the trapping tricks.

Alvin & Theodore would probably succumb to a water bucket trap too, but I'm not sure how you could keep the bigger animals from tipping it over.

 

[GIJEW]

Can you wax chipmunks with mousetraps, or are they big enough to need rat traps?

No, chipmunks are way to big to kill with mouse traps. Get a rat trap.

I heard rodent traffic in my kitchen ceiling once, so I cut out a section of drywall to place some mouse traps. Closed it up and later heard a "SNAP!!! ka-klump ka-klump" as the critter ran off wearing the trap.

 

[Cameramonkey]

No, chipmunks are way to big to kill with mouse traps. Get a rat trap.

I heard rodent traffic in my kitchen ceiling once, so I cut out a section of drywall to place some mouse traps. Closed it up and later heard a "SNAP!!! ka-klump ka-klump" as the critter ran off wearing the trap.

This. And put the trap under a cover to keep things like birds out. I used a dishpan upside down on wood blocks so he could see it at ground level but anything above a foot high wouldnt see it.

The one I trapped several years ago was smart. He could take the peanut butter and sunflower mix off the paddle without tripping it. But he could NOT ignore the generous sprinkling of sunflower seeds all over and around the trap. After two days of finding an empty paddle, I spread a handful of sunflower seeds all over and around the trap. I found him upside down in the trap; he was feeding on the stuff around the trap on the side opposite the paddle and got distracted and wandered onto the trap itself, bumping something with his body or back leg.

 

[mom45]

My cat just killed a chipmunk outside the door. I guess she wanted me to know SHE did it so her brother didn't get credit.

We use combination panels (like cattle panels) for our garden and I tie walmart bags all around the top to blow in the wind. The motion and sound keeps the deer out of the garden. I feed the deer in the yard and they walk past the garden to get to their corn, but I haven't had one in the garden since I started using the shopping bags on the fence. It looks a little silly, but it is very cheap and effective. I just take them down at the end of the season and dispose of them. They then go in and eat up anything I didn't pull out and clean up what I left for them.

 

[bwframe]

Alvin and Theodore...

 

[mom45]

Cats got three today! It must be chipmunk season!

 

[bw210]

Our garden is about 90' x 120' without a fence (yet) and live in the middle of nowhere with lots of hungry wildlife. We cut our own hair and have two Chows we shave down twice a year. We save all the hair and place around perimeter. Works pretty good and little effort.

 

[Notalentbum]

Our garden is about 90' x 120' without a fence (yet) and live in the middle of nowhere with lots of hungry wildlife. We cut our own hair and have two Chows we shave down twice a year. We save all the hair and place around perimeter. Works pretty good and little effort.

Im just an ignorant city boy, why would hair clippings keep out wildlife?

 

[rkwhyte2]

Im just an ignorant city boy, why would hair clippings keep out wildlife?

Human and in this case dog scent. Wild critters shy away from the scent.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Our garden is about 90' x 120' without a fence (yet) and live in the middle of nowhere with lots of hungry wildlife. We cut our own hair and have two Chows we shave down twice a year. We save all the hair and place around perimeter. Works pretty good and little effort.

I had heard that years ago, and I wrote it off as a wive's tale. But, including you, I've heard from five different gardeners who have done that and have reported that it does work.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Human works best for scent. And also if you put hair clippings around the plants that snails and slugs like, they avoid them because they dont like the feeling of the hair.

 

[6mm Shoot]

The human hair will only work if the deer are not around people. Where I live they play and eat just on the other side of the fence while the dogs bark at them. Hair don't work in my garden. I have to use a electric fence. That is the only thing I have had work. I run it up between rows and around the outside of the garden. I run one strand 6" up from the ground and one about 18" and one about 30". The only problem I had was when one deer tried to jump the fence and landed on a strand that ran between the row. It took out some plants and wire trying to get away from the pain. That was the only time I had any problems with them. If it wasn't for the fence we wouldn't get any thing out of our garden.

 

[mom45]

My cat just killed a chipmunk outside the door. I guess she wanted me to know SHE did it so her brother didn't get credit.

We use combination panels (like cattle panels) for our garden and I tie walmart bags all around the top to blow in the wind. The motion and sound keeps the deer out of the garden. I feed the deer in the yard and they walk past the garden to get to their corn, but I haven't had one in the garden since I started using the shopping bags on the fence. It looks a little silly, but it is very cheap and effective. I just take them down at the end of the season and dispose of them. They then go in and eat up anything I didn't pull out and clean up what I left for them.

View attachment 67016

This set up with the plastic bags was so easy to do and even though I feed the deer not far from the garden and they have to go past it to get into the yard, I have had zero in the garden again this year so far. You could also tie bags to the tomato cages and such if you don't have a fence around the whole garden...that also has worked for me.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I'm going to tie up some bags this weekend. I'd like to keep the rabbits and deer away from my pepper plants this year.