{"id":105,"date":"2006-09-17T00:34:18","date_gmt":"2006-09-17T05:34:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/?p=105"},"modified":"2006-10-10T07:28:48","modified_gmt":"2006-10-10T12:28:48","slug":"chipmunks-in-the-attic-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/posts\/2006\/09\/17\/chipmunks-in-the-attic-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chipmunks in the attic, pt 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing the story of the chipmunks<\/a> in my attic…<\/p>\n

I called Humane Wildlife Control<\/a> to take a look at the situation. The guy was able to find two possible entry points, plus a whole host of possible weak points.<\/p>\n

\"PossibleOne entry point was actually familar to me. It was an obviously chewed hole in the soffit(?) at the side of the house. Too small for a squirrel, but a chipmunk could easily use it. This is the one I had seen last year, but couldn’t find when I tried to show it to the roofing contractor. It can’t actually be seen from the ground… no wonder we couldn’t find it. I wasn’t losing my mind after all.<\/p>\n

The other possible entry point was a section of soffit that was not well-attached. It could easily be pushed open wide enough for a squirrel to get in. But there’s no obvious evidence that they have been using it.<\/p>\n

The wildlife-control guy seemed not entirely convinced that the little hole was the entry point for chipmunks, though. It’s fairly high up, and he says they usually stay close to the ground.<\/p>\n

I decided to try to prove the matter for myself. I secured a bit of newspaper over the whole with masking tape. If it was chewed through the next day, then I’ve found the entry.<\/p>\n

I also used a bit of paper and tape to put a “tamper-detection” seal over the easily-bent soffit section. If a squirrel tries to bend it to get in or out, it will tear the paper.<\/p>\n

\"ChipmunkAs the sun was going down, I camped out with a book, my camera, and a long 200mm lens. I watched a chipmunk climb a tree near my house, and then start a prolonged session of angry tittering. Perhaps he saw the strange new thing around his hole, and was rather upset about it.<\/p>\n

But in the end, he did approach the house and sniff around the hole for a while. I never saw him actually go in though.<\/p>\n

\"ChipmunkBut this morning I went to check on it, and sure enough, there’s a hole in the newspaper. We have a winner. The “tamper-detection” strip on the other weak point is untouched, however. I guess they just don’t know about it.<\/p>\n

Next step is to get them to secure a one-way door over the opening and wait until everybody has left the building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing the story of the chipmunks in my attic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thegatesofdawn.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}