Catch and Release
We've had a "population" of chipmunks around the house over the past couple of years and, the occasional hole aside, they've pretty much kept to themselves. Had they maintained the status quo and not tried to move a metric ton of gravel that surrounds the foundation of our house or dig deep into our window wells, I would still be ignoring them (except, perhaps, to watch them nibble on seeds from our trees).
But they did not keep to themselves and did, in fact, decide to dig in all the wrong spots.
So, off to the hardware store for a no-kill trap. While these types of traps do not kill, the name belies my intended usage, which can only be described as: "deferred hawk kill." For you see, I have been releasing these mini excavators to their fate in the hopes that one of the area red tail hawks will have a little extra for lunch.
At the recommendation of the manufacturer I baited the trap with slices of apple which thrilled our many local ant colonies to no end, but did nothing to entice the chipmunks. I moved the trap and baited it with Townhouse (tm) crackers. Bingo.
Wishing to keep the stress levels low, I quickly moved the trap and occupant to the trunk of my car and drove a mile to the east. I dropped the first chipmunk off and he (or she, I didn't look too closely) headed right into the tall grasses near the bike trail.
All told I have trapped four chipmunks with the winning combination of Townhouse cracker and better trap placement. The second two were caught within an hour of each other, and the fourth (a more wily opponent perhaps?) not until Sunday evening.
While a mile away may not be very far (certainly they could find their way back if they wanted to) there exists another challenge: In order to get back to our neighborhood the chipmunks will have to cross about 1/2 a mile of open grass (literally: a sod farm) thus my belief that the local hawks will have a chance to grab an extra meal.
(As an aside, it only /now/ occurs to me that I should have photographed at least one of these captures for nothing more than illustrative purposes for this very blog entry. Oh well, perhaps there are more in the area.)