Chipmunks
Tamias striatus & Neotamias spp.
Striped ground squirrels that dig up bulbs, take seed and sample one bite out of each ripe strawberry. Mesh over the bulb bed and netting over the fruit is the whole answer.
How to know it
A small ground squirrel 20–25 cm including the tail, reddish-brown with five dark stripes down the back and two pale stripes on the face — the stripes on the head are what separate it from a young gray squirrel. It runs with the tail held straight up and vanishes into a hole at ground level with no soil mound around it.
What you'll see
- Newly planted bulbs and corms dug up within a week, with small neat holes.
- One bite taken out of many ripe strawberries or tomatoes rather than a few taken whole.
- Seedlings pulled up and left, and sown seed lifted from the drill.
- Small burrow entrances the width of a golf ball with no mound of earth beside them, often under a wall, step or patio.
- Sunflower heads and hazelnuts stripped just before they ripen.
Where it comes from
Active by day from spring to autumn, spending winter in a burrow living off a stored hoard rather than truly hibernating. Two litters a year in most of the range, in spring and late summer, so numbers climb through the season. Autumn hoarding is what drives the bulb digging.
Gardens with stone walls, retaining walls, patios, decks and rockeries offer perfect burrowing, and that is where they concentrate. Bird feeders and spilled seed will support far more chipmunks than a garden would otherwise carry.
Dealing with it
- Lay wire mesh flat over newly planted bulb beds and pots, pinned at the edges, until the shoots come through.
- Plant bulbs in wire baskets sunk in the ground where the digging is chronic.
- Net strawberries and low fruit with the mesh held clear of the fruit on hoops.
- Move or remove the bird feeder, or fit a seed catcher — this alone often halves the population.
- Live-trap and relocate only where it is legal, and expect the vacancy to be filled by autumn.
Keeping it out
- Choose daffodils, alliums, fritillaries and camassia for problem beds; all are left alone.
- Clear spilled birdseed, fallen nuts and windfalls, which are what carry the numbers.
- Seal gaps under steps, decking and dry stone walls where you can do it without harming anything sheltering there.
- Sow direct under mesh cloches until the seedlings are established.
- Accept a share of the strawberries and net the rest; this is a nuisance rather than a threat to a crop.
What it goes for
Tulips, crocuses and other bulbs, strawberries, tomatoes, sunflower seed, peas, beans and freshly sown rows.
See also
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's bestiary at cottagegardencompanion.com