LANSING – As the seasons change and brisk weather rolls in, Michigan residents prepare for winter, but so do other, smaller community members – and they can sometimes be heard scurrying inside the walls.

Michigan property owners are voicing concerns about property damage caused by none other than the chipmunk.

“A chipmunk is actually getting inside of my outside walls by crawling up under my siding,” said Michigan resident Debra Paulus in a recent Facebook post. “I could hear scratching and I’ve found bits of insulation scattered around the yard.”

Chipmunks are seen as a nuisance by many homeowners for causing damage by digging up their properties. 

“Extensive damage seems to be rare,” said Jared Duquette, the Department of Natural Resources human-wildlife interactions specialist. “Chipmunks are often a short-term nuisance, particularly if they are creating burrows or damaging garden plants.”

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Duquette said the main problems are the small burrows chipmunks create around homes and gardens. 

Burrowing may lead to erosion of dirt under patios and walking areas, creating a hazard. In some cases, they chew through wires and materials that block their tunnels, or insulation around wiring, particularly in vehicles.

“I have several and they keep going under my cars,” said Donna Volk of Linwood, a community in Bay County, in a Facebook post. “I am afraid they are going to start getting up inside the hoods and start chewing the wiring. My mom’s friend had that happen to her and she had to scrap the car. They are cute little buggers, but I don’t need them to damage my cars.”

How to deal with them raises many questions among Facebook groups of Michigan homeowners.

“How do I trap/relocate a backyard chipmunk?” Laura Bloom-Orlowski of Raisin Township asked in a Facebook post. “I do not want to poison it. We’ve enjoyed watching it scurry around, but now it’s burrowing all over, leaving giant piles of dirt and heaving pavers and bricks.”

With winter approaching, chipmunks are replenishing their food stores, and that’s when they may cause landscape damage, according to a Michigan State University “Gardening in Michigan” column.

Duquette said, “The public should be mindful that chipmunks may present a greater nuisance during spring and fall when they are working to gain maximum calories following or entering winter.”

Aaron Sullivan, the director of wildlife programs at the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy in Bath, said, “I generally encourage people to first determine what is attracting the animal and whether the conflict can be addressed through exclusion or habitat modification.”

Sullivan said finding the source of chipmunks’ attraction around the home is crucial to begin the process of best dealing with them, whether it be spilled birdseed, accessible food sources, openings into structures or available shelter.

“Addressing those factors can provide a better long-term solution than simply removing an individual animal,” Sullivan said. “Removing the animal doesn’t necessarily address why the conflict occurred in the first place.”

Sullivan said, interaction is inevitable because they are going to be present in neighborhoods and communities.

“One thing I would emphasize is that chipmunks aren’t inherently nuisance animals,” Sullivan said. “Conflict generally occurs when those behaviors overlap with our homes, gardens, landscaping or other structures.”

Despite best efforts from homeowners to take care of their chipmunk problem themselves, many are at a loss of how to deal with problems as they arise, turning to online communities like Facebook. 

Common tactics to get rid of them, according to community posts on Facebook, include: BB guns, relocation, extermination, trapping and patching up openings in houses with foam insulation.

Current hunting regulations for small-game set by the DNR list ground squirrels — including chipmunks — with a year-round statewide open season.

“The only conditions [to this regulation] being ‘the animal is doing or physically present where it could imminently cause damage as defined under the Wildlife Conservation Order,’” Sullivan said.

Landowners can choose how to address their problems with wildlife species that are generally common and doing damage, said Cody Norton, the DNR bear, furbearer and small game specialist.

“For chipmunks, a regulation change [in 2023] simply removed the need for landowners to obtain a physical permit,” Norton said. “Instead, if the type of damage a chipmunk is causing aligns with the definition of damage in the regulation package, the chipmunk can be killed.”

Under previous regulations, the landowner needed an animal damage and nuisance control permit or complete a hunter’s safety course and purchase a base license. 

“The regulation change was to make it easier for landowners to mitigate damage from chipmunks and other species,” Norton said. 

However, current guidelines don’t authorize landowners to trap and relocate them without a permit.

“A physical permit still has to be obtained directly from the DNR to temporarily take possession of a chipmunk or other wildlife species and relocate it,” Norton said. 

Relocation is a common discussion topic among Facebook groups.

Sullivan said, “I don’t think we should automatically assume that relocation is the most effective or humane solution simply because an animal is released alive.”

Duquette said the DNR doesn’t allow some species to be relocated because it can move the nuisance issue to another area and facilitate spread of disease, among other factors that put their survival at risk.

“Relocation is also more complicated than simply capturing an animal and releasing it somewhere else,” Sullivan said. “Displaced animals are suddenly placed in unfamiliar surroundings where they must locate food and shelter and interact with animals already occupying that area.”

The chipmunks’ presence at a home sometimes sparks a panic call by property owners, even when there’s no sign of damage, said Sullivan. 

However, “in many cases, having chipmunks around a property doesn’t necessarily mean they’re creating a significant problem,” Sullivan said.

This story was orginally published by the Capital News Service.

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