Chipmunks are usually considered to be cute, lovely and nice animals. There are multiple Disney cartoon chipmunks, as well as other animated ones that kids grow up loving. If you are a farmer, however, you’ve likely grown to hate these rodents with a burning vengeance in your heart and you are looking for the best chipmunk traps to use against them. Well, we’ve got your back.
Chipmunks don’t tend to carry around diseases the way rats do, and they don’t damage attics and walls as squirrels do. However, chipmunks can destroy an entire year’s worth of crops with ease, they can ruin your entire property by digging countless tunnels beneath it, and they reproduce like crazy, making them even harder to deal with as the time passes.
Traps are generally considered to be the best way to deal with a chipmunk invasion. There are some good preventive measures such as chipmunk-proof fences, but those work for prevention only – they don’t deal with an already existing problem. A lot of people recommend shooting the little rodents too, and this can work if you are a good enough of a shot, but it comes with all the typical problems that come with shooting firearms in your own yard.
So, if you are looking for chipmunk traps, in this article we’ve compiled a Top 3 and a Top 10 list of the best chipmunk traps we could find. Most of them are live cage traps as these are what most people prefer – as much as farmers hate these rodents, their cuteness is simply undeniable – but there are several different lethal chipmunk trap suggestions as well if that’s what you’d rather use. After the two lists, we’ve also compiled a quick guide on how to use the traps efficiently and what to know and do when faced with a chipmunk invasion.
TOP PRODUCTS
Havahart Chipmunk Trap
We are kicking things off with this Havahart chipmunk trap. It is a one-door metal cage humane chipmunk trap with dimensions of 16 x 6 x 6 inches. You can buy a single cage or packs of x2, x3 or x3 traps. The 12-Gauge wire mesh is made out of Galvanized steel which makes the trap very hard to chew through, regardless of how desperate or ferocious the trapped rodent is. This chipmunk live trap’s door is gravity operated and is an excellent chipmunk removal tool. It is also ideal for catching squirrels, flying squirrels, rats, weasels, and other similar-sized nuisance rodents and animals.
This natural ways to get rid of chipmunks has a unique and patented design, plus it also comes fully assembled and ready to use, for your convenience. Another hidden benefit of this chipmunk control trap is that its trigger rod is placed on the outside of the wire mesh. This is very important because trapped rodents tend to attack and damage everything they can get their paws on in the cage. With the trigger rod being on the outside, this means that it is safe from chewing damage and the trap will serve you well for a long time.
Another factor which makes this one of the best chipmunk trap products on the market is the ultra-sensitive trip-plate that triggers the trap door and captures the rodent. A lot of trip plates of other similar traps don’t always activate which can make catching chipmunks and other rodents harder than it needs to be. One drawback of this trap is that while the trigger rod is safely outside, the locking mechanism – a strip of spring steel riveted onto the door – is on the inside and can be rather fragile.
Click Here for Price & More Info on Havahart Chipmunk Trap
Pros:
- This Havahart cage chipmunk live trap sports a unique, patented design which easily answers the question “How to trap chipmunks?” with its high capture rate effectiveness
- The Havahart chipmunk trap’s 12-Gauge wire mesh is made out of Galvanized steel, making it very sturdy against enraged chipmunks and other rodents
- The single gravity trap door is controlled by an ultra-sensitive trip-plate and a trigger rod that doesn’t fail to act on time
- The trigger rod on this Havahart chipmunk trap is located on the outside of the wire mesh, making it safe from the attacks of the rodents trapped inside
Cons:
- The locking mechanism is comprised of a strip of spring steel that’s riveted onto the door and it’s not as strong as we’d like it to be. After prolonged use and/or chewing damage, it can break, rendering the trap useless
AB Traps Pro-Quality Chipmunk Live Trap
Next on our list is another humane lice chipmunk cage trap, this time from AB Traps. Their Pro-Quality chipmunk live trap comes in dimensions of 10.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 which is smaller than our previous entry but is still big enough for chipmunks or other small rodents. The small size can also be seen as a benefit since it makes the trap safer for household pets such as small kittens and others.
The wire mesh has a classic design and is made out of high-quality steel, making it very durable against rodent chewing attacks. This ensures the longevity of the trap and makes it suitable for prolonged use. These AB Traps Pro-Quality devices live up to their name and come in simple but effective designs. You can buy either a single-door trap in the aforementioned dimensions or a longer, dual-door trap for almost the same price. The dual-door trap is made not so much with the intention of catching two rodents at once – although that also happens – to give the curious animals extra entrances, making it more likely that a rodent will enter the trap.
This humane device is easy to operate, simple to set up, and quick to empty, once you’ve taken it far enough from your home or property. One drawback of this trap is that the trigger hatch inside the trap is quite fragile and can be broken after several captures, rendering the trap useless.
Click Here for Price & More Info on AB Traps Chipmunk Live Trap
Pros:
- The AB Traps Pro-Quality chipmunk live trap is a great live rodent trap with a clean and simple design
- The trap is made out of durable wire mesh that offers a lot of longevity against the chewing attacks of the angered trapped animals
- The trap can come in either one-door or dual-door designs
Cons:
- The outside corpus of the trap is sturdy enough thanks to its high-quality wire mesh, but the trigger hatch that’s inside is very fragile. The trap catches mostly smaller or medium-sized animals but even they can eventually break the hatch after several captures
- The trap has dimensions of 10.5 x 5.5 x 4.5 inches, which is big enough for chipmunks and small squirrels and mice, but not big enough for large rats. On the bright side, it’s also not big enough for your cats or small dogs
PAWMATE Trap for Catching Chipmunks
If you are looking for a chipmunk bucket trap, look no further than the PAWMATE Trap for Catching Chipmunks. The great thing about high quality rolling chipmunk and mouse traps such as this PAWMATE product is that they are great both as humane traps, as well as lethal chipmunk traps. Whether you want to catch chipmunks to release them later far away from your property or you just want to create a chipmunk bucket of death, PAWMATE has got you covered.
The rolling rod on this trap is made out of high-quality steel and the soft middle of the trap is very comfortable for placing bait on it. All you need to do to use this trap effectively is to set it up on a 5-gallon bucket, put 2 laths on the sides of the bucket for the rodents to climb on, and voila – you’ll have a 5-gallon bucket chipmunk trap. You can make a water bucket trap for chipmunks or fill it with sawdust to prevent the chipmunks from escaping. Either way, by the morning you are very likely to find it full of multiple rodents at the same time, without having to reset the trap again and again after every successful capture.
What’s more, PAWMATE is also known for their great customer service – they offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the effectiveness of their rolling trap. Of course, the bucket, the laths, and the bait are not included, so you will have to get those yourself, but a bucket is hardly a specialized item that’s hard to find.
Click Here for Price & More Info on PAWMATE Trap for Chipmunks
Pros:
- The PAWMATE Trap for Catching Chipmunks has a straightforward and simple rolling design that works beautifully on every 5-gallon bucket
- As all bucket traps, this one can be used as both a live trap and a lethal trap
- The rolling rod on this trap is made out of high-quality steel, which makes it very durable and able to last for a long time
Cons:
- As all bucket traps, this rolling trap needs a bucket and laths to be used. If you don’t have a bucket of the appropriate size (5 gallons) you will have to buy one separately
- If you want to use a bucket trap as a live trap you can, but capturing several rodents at once – which is quite likely – can cause to some not-so-humane situations. Trapped rodents, particularly rats, can go into enraged frenzies and attack one another which doesn’t make for a pretty sight in the morning. Chipmunks and squirrels, however, rarely fall victim to their nature in such a manner
OTHER PRODUCTS TO CONSIDER
Obviously, 3 traps can’t possibly exhaust the hundreds and thousands of different chipmunk and mouse traps that exist on the market – glue traps, snap traps, zap traps, bucket rolling traps, plank traps, cage traps, and more – there are almost as many ways to catch chipmunks and rodents as there are rodents. Well, maybe not as much but the variety is still quite impressive. So, to give you a few more options, as well as ones from different types of traps, here are our next 7 suggestions that didn’t make it into the Top 3 for one reason or another.
This StarMiUp Humane Cage Chipmunk Trap has a very simple and classical cage design and is made out of heavy-duty wire mesh with nice, thick edges, ensuring that the rodents won’t break free, as well as that the trap will have a long and successful history. The trap has dimensions of 11.8 x 4.7 x 4.3 inches which makes it big enough for medium-sized rodents. One key drawback that a lot of customers mention is that the trap is a bit tricky to set up, particularly when it comes to setting the bait inside it.
If you are looking for a rodent zapper instead of a live trap, take a look at this Abco Tech Electronic Chipmunk Control Zapper. It has a classic design and the tunnel’s dimensions are 3.23 x 3.42 inches. The zapper discharges 7000 volts at once on the animal that triggers its ultra-sensitive bait trigger plate, killing it almost instantly. The trap does have a couple of drawbacks, however – the trap’s alert isn’t consistent and doesn’t always signal off when the trap has been sprung. Also, like any other electric shock rat trap, the Abco Tech is a pain to clean after each kill.
If you want to try a plank chipmunk bucket trap, take a look at this FABUTA Walk The Plank Chipmunk Bucket Trap. It has a simple and classic design, and it is made out of high-quality materials. The oak wood, in particular, is very durable and will last you for a long time. As all good plank rodent traps, it auto-resets after each rodent falls in the bucket, and if the bait was placed well-enough on the trap, it will be ready to attract and capture multiple rodents per night. Still, as any bucket trap, it needs to be set up properly to work, you’ll need to have a suitable bucket, as well as to remember to place a lath on the side of it.
Back to classic cage live traps, here we have the Trapro Humane Trap Cage for Chipmunks. It has dimensions of 10.5 x 4.5 x 5.5 inches and it’s great for most small or medium-sized rodents such as chipmunks, mice, weasels, and others. The wire mesh is highly durable, as are most of the mechanisms inside the trap. One major drawback that tends to garner the criticism of its customers is that the trap has a lot of sharp edges and it is easy to cut yourself when setting it.
If you don’t care about keeping your chipmunk or mouse unwanted rodent guests alive, you can also use this Guarden Effective No Poison Rodent Trap. This modern version of the classic snap trap has a hair trigger sensor and powerful jaws that kill with a single snap without breaking the rodents’ skin. The trap is set safely with a removable bait cup and a foot pedal. Unlike the classical wooden snap traps, this one is stain free, hygienic and clean. It must be noted, however, that the corpus of the trap is made out of plastic, so it isn’t likely to serve you for that long of a time.
An alternative of the previous entry, this Kat Sense Chipmunk Trap works on the same principle – it’s a modern-day snap trap. The precision string is made out of stainless steel, it is easy to set, and has a precise and responsive trigger mechanism that ensures that chipmunks and other rodents won’t manage to escape unharmed with the bait. It also has a removable bait cup that can hold all kinds of solid or liquid baits. The trap is quite small, however, particularly its bait cup, and you need to be very careful with its jaws when setting it up.
We started our list with a Havahart trap and we’ll end it with one too. This is the Have A Heart Chipmunk Trap with dual doors. Just as their other cage traps, it has a durable wire mesh, a sensible and fast trigger mechanism, and its trigger rod is located on the outside to keep it out of harm’s way. The only reason this trap didn’t make it in the Top 3 is that the other Havahart model did and it made no sense to include both of them there.
GENERAL INFO ON CHIPMUNK TRAPS
A quick breakdown of the best chipmunk traps
In their essence, chipmunk traps are not too different from regular rodent traps – they serve the same purpose in the very same manner. What’s crucial about using rodent traps for chipmunks, you could say, is the fact that other conventional methods of rodent control are less effective on chipmunks. Add to that the additional facts that these animals reproduce like crazy, they design their underground fortresses with multiple hidden exits, and they tend to have “storage rooms” in their tunnels that can contain up to 9 gallons of food, and it becomes pretty evident that these rodents represent quite a problem for farmers or homeowners that use their yards to grow things.
Put all this together and it becomes clear that dealing with unwanted chipmunk guests needs to be done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Using multiple traps at once is strongly advisable, as is the use of multi-catch traps such as bucket rod or plank traps. Speaking of the different types of traps, however, let’s go over the most popular ones:
Snap traps. Infamous for their brutality as well as for their effectiveness, snap traps are still used today. They are as effective on chipmunks as they are on mice, and there are newer models on the market that you can buy instead of the old wooden classics. The drawback of snap traps is that they are a tad too bloody and brutal, which can be annoying to deal with even if you don’t particularly care about the rodents’ wellbeing.
Zap traps. Electronic rodent zappers can also work on chipmunks. All you need to do is set them up in a good spot and place a delicious bait inside. Rodent zappers typically discharge around 7000 volts of power once the rodent is inside and has triggered their bait plate. 7000 is usually enough to instantly kill a chipmunk, so they can be considered “humane lethal traps” for chipmunks. They are less so humane against rats, as rats can often survive the 7000 volts and the traps often zap them continuously for minutes until they slowly cook them alive. Chipmunks are smaller and weaker, however, so they usually die quickly.
The drawbacks of using zap traps against chipmunks are that they do leave quite a mess and need to be cleaned meticulously after each kill. Additionally, chipmunk traps usually need to be placed outdoors which can be a problem for an electronic trap.
Bucket rod traps. These work on a very simple principle – you place a cylindrical rod over a 5 bucket and place some bait in the middle of it. As the rodents try to walk on the rod to get to the bait, the rod rolls sideways due to the rodents’ weight and they drop in the bucket. The bucket can be filled with water to drown and kill the rodents, or its bottom can be covered with sawdust to prevent them from jumping and escaping. The good thing about such bucket traps is that they are surprisingly effective and they can catch multiple rodents per night without needing to be emptied and reset after each successful catch.
Bucket plank traps. These work on a very similar principle as the bucket rod traps, only instead of a rod they use a wooden plank set on the side of the bucket. As the rodent tries to walk on the plan to the bait at its end, the rodent’s weight lowers the plank and the animal drops in the bucket. After that, the plank’s counterweight straightens it back up, ready to cheat more animals. As with rod traps, the bucket can be filled with either water or sawdust, depending on how you want to deal with the captured animals.
Another drawback of both bucket trap types is that you usually need to get the bucket yourself, as well as prepare a couple of laths for the rodents to climb on.
Glue traps. These glue traps are known for their brutal effectiveness. They work on a very simple principle – the animals walk over a glue-covered sheet to get to the bait on its other end. They get stuck on the super-powerful glue, they can’t break free, and they die. The captured rodents are often known to break or chew off their limbs in attempts to escape or even break their own necks in the struggle. If not, they often die of dehydration. Either way, it’s a gruesome way to deal with a simple chipmunk, which is why most people avoid these traps.
Cage traps. The good old, reliable cage traps. Rodent cage traps come in a lot of different shapes, sizes, and designs. Depending on what exactly you need you might want to go for a single-door trap, a dual-door trap, or a multi-catch large cage trap. Either way, when they are made well, with a good design and out of quality materials, cage traps can serve you faithfully and effectively for years. If they are poorly designed – for not so long. The best thing about cage traps is that they allow you to catch the animals in a humane and safe way, giving you to the opportunity to dispose of them however you like – typically by driving them away from your property and releasing them there.
These are the basic and most well-known types of chipmunk and rodent traps. If you don’t want to use traps, however, what are some of the other methods you might want to employ:
- Taste repellents such as ones containing bitrex, thiram, or ammonium soaps of higher fatty acids are often used to protect flower bulbs, seeds, and foliage. They can be very expensive, however, and they require multiple applications. Even then, they don’t guarantee a 100% success rate
- Toxicants such as the ones used against rats and mice can also be used against chipmunks. However, you don’t really want multiple toxic chipmunk corpses lying in their underground tunnels right beneath your veggie garden
- Fumigants are generally considered to be ineffective against chipmunks because of how difficult it is to locate all the openings/exits of their underground burrows
- Shooting can be a way to deal with chipmunks, as long as it’s legal where you live. You can use a small-gauge shotgun or a .22-caliber rifle with birdshot, as well as C.B. cap loads. However, keep in mind that chipmunks are hyperactive and nervous animals, which makes them very difficult targets to hit
CHIPMUNK TRAP BUYING GUIDE
Buying a chipmunk trap is a simple but important process since you want to get the most effective device for your particular situations.
The quality of the trap is obviously of the utmost importance – reading as many customer reviews, as well as industry professional reviews is always beneficial in order to get a better picture of which product is worth buying and which – not so much. Customer reviews can unfortunately often be subjective, unclear, incomplete, and simply wrong, while professional industry reviews are sometimes biased. However, when reading in conjunction and in large enough quantity, they can serve their purpose.
Something else to check out when looking for quality is the brands of the traps you’re comparing. Some of the better brands we’d recommend include: Havahart, Kat Sense, Guarden, FABUTA, Trapro, StarMiUp, Abco Tech, AB Traps, PAWMATE, and others.
Aside from simply looking for quality, however, it’s important to get the right type of trap for your situation. Are you dealing with dozens of chipmunks at once? Consider using multi-catch traps like bucket traps or large cages. Do you lack a sufficient way to transport live chipmunks away from your property – you might have to use a lethal trap then. Will all the taps need to be set up outdoors? Avoid electronic traps in this case. Are the surfaces you’ll need to place the traps on too uneven – be careful with dual-door cage traps or other traps that don’t function well on uneven surfaces then.
Asking all these and other similar questions will help you decide which device is most suitable for your situation and will help you the most in your quest of ridding your property of chipmunks.
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT CHIPMUNK TRAPS
Most chipmunk traps need good bait to function properly. Fortunately, chipmunk baits are not bizarre in any way – the easiest way to attract chipmunks is with things such as peanut butter, oatmeal, various nuts you have in your home, as well as seeds. You can also add some berries if the trap allows for it, but nuts and seeds are generally the way to go.
As you can see, neither of those is too expensive or rare, and there is no need to look for some special commercial bait, which usually tends to be overly expensive and ineffective. If you feel like the bait isn’t working chances are that it’s not the bait that’s the problem but the location of the trap. Also keep in mind that different traps can reduce the effectiveness of the bait – zap traps, for example, make the bait harder to smell because they are covered from all but one side. Cage traps, on the other side, are open, so the chipmunks are able to see and smell the bait easily from afar.
Another problem with zap traps and other lethal traps is that they can smell like dead chipmunks if they are not cleaned properly. After prolonged use, even if they are cleaned as well as possible, they can still repel the chipmunks away from them, regardless of what bait you have inside.
In short, don’t be hasty to blame the bait if a trap isn’t catching enough rodents. There are usually other factors to consider first.
LIVING WITH & USING TRAPS FOR CHIPMUNKS
Using chipmunk traps depends entirely on the exact type of trap you’re using. Each type of trap has its own nature and ways it needs to be maintained, as well as precautions that need to be taken.
Generally, as with all other types of traps, choosing the right location and setting is key. Placing your traps in the wrong location can render them ineffective even if the place is overflowing with chipmunks.
If you are not sure exactly where and how to set the traps up, consider deploying one or several night vision cameras around your property to see where exactly the chipmunks go through more frequently and where they don’t seem to go at all. This can tell you a lot about the habits of your unwanted rodent guests and help you deal with them.
Also, keep in mind that chipmunks are very fearful and careful creatures – more so than even mice and rats. This means that they are likely to avoid new and unfamiliar things, so it often makes sense to first place the traps without setting them up for a night or two. This will give the rodents a chance to get used to them and not associate them as something dangerous. Then, when you set the bait and the trap, the pests will be more likely to enter. The drawback here is, of course, you don’t really want to waste time, so try and see what’s best depending on your particular situation.
Another good idea is to use several different types of traps at the same time – like cage traps and bucket traps, for example. This will make sure that your rodents will have a variety of options to get themselves captured, which is always nice.
If one or several of your traps seem ineffective, don’t be quick to chalk it as a “bad” trap – maybe it’s not placed well. Try putting the trap somewhere else, where it might attract more rodents. Also, consider changing the bait every once in a while to spike their curiosity.
And that’s more or less it. As long as you use the traps properly, you maintain them well, and you reset them regularly, you should deal with your chipmunk problems relatively quickly.
TO CONCLUDE
In conclusion, as far as traps are concerned, regular rodent traps can work relatively well for chipmunks. Since traps are the best way to deal with this pesky rodents, however, where you can deal with mice and rats in different ways, it’s important to pick your weapon carefully. A lot of classic rodent traps don’t work well for chipmunks because they need to be set outdoors, because they need to be set on uneven surfaces, and for various other reasons.
Single-door live cage traps are generally considered to be the best way to capture and remove chipmunks since dual-door traps can be trickier to set and need to be placed on a perfectly even surface. Bucket traps can work well too but zappers are harder to use as they are not made for outdoor use.
Regardless of what kind of traps you choose to use, it’s important to act fast. Chipmunks reproduce very quickly and when they settle in your property they settle for the long-term. Using multiple traps at once is often needed and the faster you deal with the problem, the better.
To wrap things up, here are our Top 3 suggestions once again:
The Havahart Chipmunk Trap is a great live cage chipmunk trap that works on all kinds of other rodents such as squirrels, mice, rats, weasels, and more. Its 12-Gauge wire mesh is made out of Galvanized steel and is nearly impervious to the chewing attacks of the trapped rodents. It has dimensions of 16 x 6 x 6 inches, which is enough for most common rodents, including larger rats. The trap sports a unique and patented Havahart design with its trigger rod being placed on the outside, where it is safe from being damaged by the trapped animals.
The AB Traps Pro-Quality Chipmunk Live Trap has a clean and simple design and comes assembled and ready for use. It can be ordered both as a single-door or a dual-door trap with both types being made out of durable high-quality steel wire mesh for extra longevity. The trap has smaller dimensions than our previous entry but it is still big enough for chipmunks or other small rodents. This means that it isn’t big enough for large rats, but on the flip side – it’s also not big enough for your cat or other small pets.
The PAWMATE Trap for Catching Chipmunks is a great bucket rod trap with multiple possible applications. It needs a 5-gallon bucket to work, so you’ll have to buy that separately, but once it is set up it can catch multiple rodents at the same time, without having to reset it. It can be used both as a live trap and as a lethal trap, depending on whether you fill the bucket with water or sawdust (or – depending on what you do with the captured live animals), and it can easily deal with your whole rodent problem in one night, without needing to be reset multiple times.
