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Chipmunk invasion solved with a $12 bag of gravel
Last spring my raised beds turned into a chipmunk highway. They dug under the fence, ate every bean seedling, and my dog spent hours staring at the ground. I tried traps, I tried mothballs, nothing worked. Then my neighbor mentioned they hate moving through loose stone. I put a 2 inch layer of pea gravel around the base of the beds and along the fence line. It's been 3 months and I've seen exactly one chipmunk, and it looked confused. Has anyone else used this trick, or do you have a better barrier that doesn't ruin the look of the yard?
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hugobarnes20d ago
That "hates moving through loose stone" line really hit home for me. It's like the same reason I stopped putting river rocks around my own flower beds for a different pest, it just makes their whole world unstable. Seems like so many critters are creatures of habit and they want the ground to feel solid and predictable under their feet, take that away and they just give up. Once you notice that pattern, you start seeing it everywhere, like how birds won't sit on a branch that bends too much, they want the steady one. It's a pretty clever trick because it's not about killing them, it's just about making your yard feel like a bad neighborhood for them. I bet the chipmunk that showed up was just casing the place and decided the effort wasn't worth it either.
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