Last year I read with great amusement the chipmunk swimming pool stories -- I didn't need a pool! I had superior trapping skills and a set of four rat "snap traps" and a jar old aged peanut butter. I caught six the very first day and 26 total in my garden over the next three months. No chipmunk problems after that!

This year was different though... I caught two the first week and lost an entire tulip bed worth of bulbs, all my pea and sunflower plantings (in spite of half a dozen replanting efforts) and the first grape tomatoes off my plants to these now wiser chips. They ran around my traps or sat next to them to enjoy their meals (compliments of my efforts.) The only two others I caught in my now EIGHT trap arsenal were two that happened to step on the trigger when running their paths over the next two weeks.

I finally decided to try the chipmunk swimming pool (I had no faith that it would work) but needed to catch the last two trespassers if I was to have any success with my snap peas this season. A good sign was the enthusiasm the chips displayed when digging up my newly planted sunflower seeds -- within an hour after planting the seeds I would have nothing but a bunch of empty holes in the soil ready for refilling...

Well the first day (yesterday) I caught FOUR -- and I thought I only had TWO trouble makers! Today I caught two more! The great thing about the pool is no snap traps to worry about when my kids are in the garden and no constant rebaiting. I also don't snap any birds, squirrels, possums, cats or dogs.

I used two 30" x 6" boards in between my raised beds right on the path the chips run (next to the peas and sunflowers) and have had great results.