Types of Damage Chipmunks Can Cause To Your Home

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The biggest concern with landowners as far as chipmunks are concerned is the damage that the animals can do to the land. Burrows are dug and built underground for these animals to live, and in some cases they can be enormous — as long as 30 feet and as wide as 3 or 4 feet. With these giant burrows under your land, there’s a good chance that part of your landscape will collapse at some point, and if these creatures manage to get underneath actual structures — your home or outbuildings, for example, the structural damage can get to a point where it is beyond repair. This is most definitely not the kind of animal you will want burrowing underneath your home for very long, that’s for sure!



The good news is, chipmunks are quite noisy creatures. Although they keep their burrows clean and tidy, they can actually be quite messy creatures too. Despite what you might think, this actually works well in your favor. It enables you to first diagnose your nuisance wildlife problem, and then give you a hand to get rid of it again. The more concentrated the damage, the more the animal is hanging around. You will know where to focus your attention.

Of course, it's not just the damage underground that these critters are known for. Chipmunks like to eat. In fact, they don’t just like to eat, but they like to store food too. Up to eight pounds of food per year, per chipmunk. If you just so happen to have some of what they like to eat in your garden, there's a good chance that the chipmunk will come back, time and time again, stashing whatever they find on your land in their storage space within the burrow. The reason for all the stashing of food? It's because they go into a state of almost-hibernation throughout the winter. They need to fatten up, and they also need to stash food. They will wake up from time to time, even though the weather has heated up yet, just to have some food.

They eat a wide variety of foods, and many of which you will find in your garden somewhere. These includes foods such as insects, eggs, seeds, nuts, frogs, berries, fungi, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Many wildflowers will provide seeds, nuts and berries that these creatures like to eat, soil you have these, that might be what is attracting them in the first place.

Read my How to Get Rid of Chipmunks guide.
For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How To Guide: Who should I hire? - What questions to ask, to look for, who NOT to hire.
How To Guide: do it yourself! - Advice on saving money by doing wildlife removal yourself.
Guide: How much does wildlife removal cost? - Analysis of wildlife control prices.