The fastest way to catch a chipmunk in your house is with a small live trap baited with peanut butter, sunflower seeds, or nuts. Most chipmunks can be caught within a day or two if you place the trap correctly and use the right bait. If the chipmunk just got in and you know where it is, you may be able to guide it out an open door first, saving yourself the trouble of trapping entirely.
Try Guiding It Out First
A chipmunk that recently entered your home is probably panicked and looking for a way out. Before setting up a trap, close interior doors to limit the animal to one room. Then open any windows or exterior doors in that room and leave the area. Chipmunks are naturally drawn to daylight and fresh air, and a scared one will often find its way out within 30 minutes to an hour if given a clear exit and some quiet.
If the chipmunk is hiding behind furniture or appliances, you can try gently nudging it toward the open door with a broom or by slowly moving the furniture away from the wall. Avoid chasing it, which causes it to bolt deeper into the house. If this doesn’t work, or if you’re not sure where the chipmunk is, a live trap is your best option.
Choosing and Baiting a Live Trap
Pick up a small wire live trap designed for squirrels, rats, or chipmunks. These are widely available at hardware stores and typically cost $15 to $30. A trap roughly 5 by 5 by 16 inches works well for chipmunks.
The most effective baits are peanut butter, sunflower seeds, nut meats, raisins, and common breakfast cereal grains. Peanut butter mixed with oats and smeared directly onto the trigger plate works especially well because the chipmunk has to push against the trigger to eat it, rather than grabbing a loose seed and backing out. Scatter a few sunflower seeds or small pieces of nuts around the trap entrance and just inside the opening to create a trail leading to the trigger.
If the chipmunk has been in your house for more than a day and seems comfortable enough to move around, you can prebait the trap for a night or two by wiring the doors open so they won’t close. This lets the chipmunk start treating the trap as a food source. Once it’s feeding confidently, set the trap normally. For a chipmunk that just got inside, skip the prebaiting and set the trap right away.
Where to Place the Trap
Put the trap along a wall or baseboard in the room where you’ve seen the chipmunk, or where you’ve noticed droppings or chewed material. Chipmunks tend to travel along edges rather than crossing open floor space. Place the trap perpendicular to the wall so the opening faces the chipmunk’s likely path. If you have two traps, set them back to back with the openings facing opposite directions.
Quiet, undisturbed areas work best. A trap in a busy hallway is less likely to get a visit than one tucked along a wall in a basement, garage, or spare room. Check the trap at least every few hours. A trapped chipmunk can become dehydrated and stressed quickly, so don’t leave it sitting overnight without checking.
What to Do After You Catch It
Once you’ve caught the chipmunk, carry the trap outside and open it in your yard. The chipmunk will bolt for the nearest cover. Keep in mind that relocating it somewhere else, like a park or wooded area away from your property, is actually illegal in many states. New York, for example, prohibits releasing a trapped animal anywhere other than the property where it was captured. This isn’t just bureaucratic: relocating wildlife can spread diseases like rabies and Lyme, and it causes severe stress to the animal, which often doesn’t survive in unfamiliar territory. If releasing it on your own property isn’t practical, contact a licensed nuisance wildlife control operator in your area.
Health Risks to Be Aware Of
Chipmunks aren’t aggressive and rarely bite unless cornered, but they do carry real health risks. Eastern chipmunks are one of the most important reservoir hosts for the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. They don’t transmit it to you directly. Instead, ticks feed on infected chipmunks, pick up the bacteria, and then bite humans or pets. A chipmunk running through your home could drop ticks onto carpets, furniture, or bedding.
If a chipmunk has been in your house for more than a few hours, it’s worth checking yourself, your family, and your pets for ticks afterward. Dogs are particularly susceptible to Lyme disease and can develop fever, lameness, and joint problems from an infected tick bite. Vacuum thoroughly in the areas where the chipmunk spent time.
Sealing Entry Points to Prevent a Repeat
Catching the chipmunk solves the immediate problem, but if you don’t figure out how it got in, another one will follow. Chipmunks can squeeze through surprisingly small gaps. Any opening larger than about an inch is a potential entry point.
Start with these common access points:
- Foundation gaps and cracks: Seal these with quarter-inch mesh hardware cloth, copper mesh fill, or specialized exclusion fabric. Half-inch mesh isn’t small enough for determined chipmunks.
- Exhaust and dryer vents: Cover with professionally manufactured vent screens. Be careful with dryer vents specifically, since improper screening can create a fire hazard from lint buildup.
- Gutters and downspouts: Install gutter guards and cover downspout openings. Chipmunks climb downspouts and enter through gaps where the gutter meets the roofline.
- Open garage doors: Even leaving a garage door open for an hour while you work outside gives a chipmunk plenty of time to wander in and find its way into the house through an interior door.
Walk around your home’s exterior and look for any gap near ground level or along the roofline. Quarter-inch hardware cloth is the standard material for sealing these openings. It’s rigid enough that chipmunks can’t chew through it and fine enough that they can’t squeeze past. Secure it with screws or heavy-duty staples rather than just pressing it into place.
If you have bird feeders near your house, consider moving them at least 15 to 20 feet from the foundation. Spilled seed is one of the biggest reasons chipmunks hang around homes in the first place, and proximity to the house makes it far more likely one will find its way inside.