Half-dollar size holes...who are these critters?!

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mlm01 St. Louis, MO(Zone 5b) Sep 15, 2005

I wish I had a digital camera, but I don't, so I must describe the holes at the edge of my flower bed.

They are about half-dollar size, and go down quite deep. I have seen chipmunks in the vicinity but I don't know what kind of holes they make.

My question is, do chipmunks eat plant roots? I normally have no problem with them but if they are eating my plant's roots, we will have a problem!

Thanks,

Maureen

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kneff Dearborn, MI(Zone 5b) Sep 15, 2005

You are indeed describing chipmunk holes, though they're usually concealed under plants. Chipmunks don't eat plant roots, but they can do a lot of damage by excavating all around them. They do eat flower bulbs, though not as aggressively as squirrels. They like berries, nuts and grains, too. They'll excavate under porches, rock walls, stepping stones, etc. I've stopped colonies under the porches by continuing to plug their holes with large rocks, but there's a whole city around the pond filter box. They're quite unafraid--I've had them run across my feet! You may need to block their access to certain areas, but in general they're more of a nuisance than a real threat in my garden during the summer. One winter, however, we had very deep snow that lasted until spring, and the chipmunks made a mess of a huge bed of pachysandra by colonizing under the snow but above ground. It took two seasons for the bed to recover, and I was NOT happy! I thought they hibernated completely--wrong! They're usually out and about here by March, and I guess they found the snow easier to tunnel in than the hard soil.

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