Our facilities were inundated with chipmunks to the point that their burrows were becoming dangerous.  The critters were destroying our flowers, bushes and multiplying at a horrendous rate. They created holes in the flower beds and tunneled around our foundation and under our concrete walks.   Under these circumstances, they could gain access to the interior of our facilities.  The problem became serious.

So we designed a simple trap to kill the critters and anyone can do this.  We trapped about 4 - 7 "demons" each day and have the property under proper control as we write this article.

(L_R) Front View, Rear Top View, Side View of Trap

Construction Items: are easy to procure at places like Home Depot, Lowes, etc.  Each trap you elect to build consists of:

1) One - Home Depot 5 Gallon Homer Bucket .. you will fill this bucket up to the 50% level.
2) One - 3/8" X 3/8" X 4 ft. wooden stick. Press notch this stick approximately 5" from one side.  This is the bait trap.
3) One - 3 ft. X 2" wide piece of an old dish towel.
4) One - 2 ft. piece of 4" diameter Drainage Pipe.  We found ours at Home Depot.  You will also have to cut a notch about 2" in from one end of the pipe and wide enough to snuggly fit on the Homer Bucket.  This piece also makes our wooden bait stick impervious to rain.
5) An adequate supply of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds .. the bait.  They float.

System Setup:

Item 4 is placed on Item 1 and at a shallow angle to a hard surface. 

Item 3 (the disk towel) is used to firmly hold down the drainage pipe.  We used a Lead Ingot (any heavy weighted item should work) and tied the pipe down to the ingot with the strip of dish towel.  This is prevent squirrels from disassembling our trap for the seed.

Item 2 is the bait stick.  We found that cheap creamy peanut butter is very oily. In fact, it is so oily that you can see the separated layer of oil and peanuts through the container.  We used this oily peanut butter to spread at 3 inch intervals down the ENTIRE length of the bait stick.  We also placed about 3 seeds on the very end of the bait stick and then one every 3" until the entire stick is fully baited.  From the bucket side gently insert the baited stick into the drainage pipe until the notch on the stick rests on the edge of the bucket.

After the first chipmunk ate all the seeds and left their scent, we found the next chipmunk followed the oily peanut butter to their "end".   Thus we did not have to repeat the baiting of the stick after the first application.  Apparently the peanut oil penetrated the wooden stick and provided the necessary incentive for future chipmunks.

Fill the bucket up 50% with water and throw ENOUGH Black Oil Sunflower Seeds on the surface of the water to cover the water.  This is to persuade the chipmunk that the bucket is full of seed and not a pool of water.

Trap Information:  You will be successful and you will observe that sometimes the chipmunk eats the seed to the end of the trap and then backs out of the pipe.  Patience, the chipmunk is a glutton and will return and go to the end of the pipe and take the plunge.

Sometimes a squirrel will mount the edge of the bucket and try to dip into the seed so please remember to keep the water level at 50% to prevent the squirrel from eating or at least make it very hard for them to eat in this position.

You will find that some chipmunks drown quickly and some swim around for hours.  If the chipmunk is a swimmer do not re-bait the trap until it drowns.

Some chipmunks will bloat and float to the surface.  Actually we find that this entices the new chipmunks to jump into the bucket.  They apparently think that it is safe when they see the floating body.

Remember that chipmunk families are always scrounging for new food.   So when you think that you have eliminated the problem you will inherit the next door neighbors chipmunks.  Also chipmunks reproduce in litters of eight and sometimes twice a year.

Lastly, we found that the chipmunk is a "NIGHT FORAGER" therefore, leave the trap in place all night.