This past week I found 2 holes alongside my driveway. One on each side up by the top (my drive goes up from the street). I haven’t seen any animals recently but during the summer we were seeing chipmunks and maybe a rat one night by the bird feeder. Is there is anything I can do to discourage these guys and make them leave? I don’t want to kill them but I’m afraid they’re going to cause my driveway to collapse!
Your concern is legit. Small rodents like VOLES or CHIPMUNKS will undermine cement drive or walk ways leading to damage. Basically the poured cement will crack under its own weight when dirt underneath is removed. This will lead to costly repairs; I know because I’ve had it happen.
My driveway is right on the edge of my property which is “above” my neighbors and so on his side, there is a retaining wall, about 4 feet high, and its made with stacked blocks that have big gaps in them. On his side, the chipmunks love tunneling through that wall and its causing me issues. Basically they tunnel from his side (which is directly under my drive) and then “exit” at the top of my driveway about 20 feet away. I can almost tell exactly where they tunnel because I have hair line cracks in my cement that start just above the holes on his side and lead directly to the holes they created on my side. There are two holes they were formed last year and now and after a year, two cracks started to form.
At first (last year) I was gassing the holes but found the treatment wasn’t strong enough. After 2-3 weeks, they’d push back out (after I gassed them and plugged them nice and tight. Plus my neighbor didn’t appreciate the smoke and smell that came out on his side. So when they came back a few weeks later, I tried a different approach.
Keep in mind what I was trying to do here was to repel them with something strong enough to keep them out of the tunnels yet not be offensive to my neighbor. So for round two, I went with our PEST AWAY and XEMPT GRANULES down the hole.
First I mixed up a gallon of Pest Away, 2 oz per gallon, and then poured a .5 lb bag of Xempt Granules down the hole. Next I sealed with a chunk of a tree branch and dirt. I then set out one of our SOLAR POWERED GROUND STAKE REPELLERS for a more a “permanent” solution and it worked.
The short video below shows the process and I recommend doing both for any holes you find around your drive. The Pest Xempt uses actives which are all derived from plants but their concentration level is high enough to chase off animals because it interferes with their ability to smell food, danger, etc. And my neighbor, who definitely doesn’t want to hurt the chipmunks, is fine with what I’m doing so its been a win-win so far.
Here are links to the products I used in the video:
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