Outdoor Animal Control - cute chipmunks or rats?

I know that I have (cute) chipmonks and rats around this New Jersey house. I see that I have about 6 holes in the ground at the edge of the foundation of my house that are maintained by some four footed creatures.

I do NOT want to kill the chipmonks, but do want to eliminate the rats. Any ideas if chipmonks live in the ground and more importantly, how to get rid of the rats without killing the chipmonks?

Chipmunks do create burrows and live underground. I'm so glad you don't want to harm them. ;) You may want to keep an eye on them as they may become a nuisance around your home.

This previous thread should help you with ridding the rat. I wanted to refer to you where I got the information b/c I don't want to take credit for it :)

http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=274798&highlight=rid+rats

As one of our member's (chandler) stated in that thread, ..."You will have to get rid of the rats, their food, and then their habitat. There is a safe poison on the market that I have used with good success around barns, etc. It is non poisonous to pets, children, or other wildlife, such as hawks or other carrion eaters. All it does is prevent the rat from intaking water. They become comatose and die. It is systemic, so when it does its job, it remains inert for others. This will take care of the existing rats. Move anything they can eat to sealed containers."

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your response, they do not actually name that substance that they use, I can ask them offline I guess for that.

But I could just as easily put out rat traps. Problem is for Chipmonks and rats, both would get caught, just as both would probably eat that poisen.

I am not aware of where they get their food in this area, but obviously they are, just am not aware of it.

I was even thinking of putting out the traps when it gets dark, and when I awake in the mornging, around 6, take them up, thus only getting the nocturnal critters and leaving the chipmonks alone. Maybe later in the fall when 6 am is still dark....

Another option to id your critters is to put down a good bit of flour near the holes and check in the morning for tracks. Rats will have a tail trail through their tracks. Here's what the different tracks look like.
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/animals/track/3969.html
http://dirttime.ws/Notebook/Chipmunk.htm
http://www.bear-tracker.com/chipmunk.html

Once you know what you have you'll know how to proceed.

Newt

You could also try a small "have-a-heart" trap.

common rodenticides are either coumarin or indandione.
They do not make the rat go look for water.
They interfere with the animal's blood's ability to clot and they simply bleed out

There are safER for pets and non target animals because an emetic, usually ipecac, is added to induce vomiting, which rodents cannot do. But there is a potential for accidental poisoning or secondary poisoning.
In 25 years I have never been responsible for any that I know of

If you do a search for Brodificoum or Chlorfacinone you will find a number of rodenticide products.
I believe that D-Con is now coumarin based.

If you want to go the natural route try tomatoes leaves with a little sesame oil sprinkled in to entice them
There is a product called BioRat that is rodent specific and supposedly will not cause harm to non rodents and is extremely effective.
It's a form of salmonella, that effects only rodents, mixed in with rice
But I have never used it to make any recommendations



Hi Yield also makes a smoke bomb product that we have used in the past for gophers that worked well

Thanks to everyone, especially newt and ocoee...

I like the flour on the ground next to the hole trick, thank you. And the rodentcides to try.

I really want to avoid killing the chipmonks.

Thanks again.

dave

Dave, you are so very welcome! If you want to live trap them I prefer this brand that I use in dog and cat rescue. If you ever get one for cats or dogs just don't get the collapsable one. It's awful. I prefer the single door ones.
http://www.livetrap.com/cgi/loadpage.cgi?user_id=8403&file=../index.shtml

They have a good humane live trap for mice and other small rodents.
http://www.livetrap.com/cgi/search.cgi?user_id=8403&database=dbase1.exm&template=products.shtml&2_option=1&2=Mouse+Trap

Newt