Marmots (also known as rock chucks) are indigenous to the western half of the United States. Cousins to the east coast woodchuck, Marmots are more likely to reside in elevated landscapes and have been found throughout most of the northwestern states. They readily occupy rock piles and will dig deep descending burrows around these protective objects.
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MARMOT PROBLEMS ^
Since marmots will readily claim a 4 to 5 acre territory, they’ve proven to be comfortable traveling great distances to find food. This is when they can become a nuisance. Marmots love most any garden grown vegetable and if given the chance, they’ll readily graze leading to rapid crop loss and damage.
MARMOT BIOLOGY ^
Marmots start reproducing at 2 years of age. Colonies can support 10-20 individuals and though they’ll hibernate during cold winters, marmots can remain active during this time if temps are mild.
New colonies develop when teenage males (1-2 year olds that leave established colonies) move to a new territory and dig a new home. Once these bachelors have their new home, they’ll aggressively seek multiple females as mates. Male marmots will try to get at least 3-4 females to live with him and once they move in, breeding will start and continue all summer long.
Females will produce 3-5 pups per litter so as spring turns to summer, they’re food requirements can become quite substantial. This is when conflict with man can occur. Especially in dry arid regions where succulent plant food is limited. In such areas, marmots will travel as far as is needed to find a decent food supply for their young.
MARMOT REPELLENTS ^
Marmots have natural predators like coyotes, fox, bobcat, cougar and timber wolf. Because they’re naturally afraid of these predators, one can use the urine of these animals as a barrier to keep marmots off your property.You can also use sound to keep them away. Marmots have a keen sense of sound and our ultra sound devices are super effective at keeping them away.
PREDATOR URINE CAN REPEL MARMOTS ^
If you want to use animal urine to repel marmots, use one which is native to the area. In other words, if you have cougar or bobcat in your region, their urine will work. But if you don’t have timber wolves, it’s not likely marmots will be afraid of the scent.
So if you know of a nearby marmot population that lives just off your property and you’d like to keep them from burrowing on your land, apply some COYOTE, FOX, BOBCAT, COUGAR or WOLF urine to create an invisible “fence” over which marmots will not travel.
Do this by applying 1-2 oz of urine every 10-15 feet along the side of your property boundary where marmots are most likely enter. Applications will remain active for 30-45 days and should be applied late winter through the spring and summer months since these are prime time for marmot migration.
To enable urine placements to last longer, make your placements using either CAPSULE GUARDS or LIQUID GUARDS. Either of these protective devices can be placed on the ground and when filled with urine, will protect it from the sun and rain. This protection will enable the urine to remain active for 60-90 days so that over time, either of these urine guards will pay for themselves many times over.
MARMOT SPRAY REPELLENT ^
Since marmots will sometime target specific plants in the yard, the use of urine alone may not be enough to chase them off the land. For extra protection, apply PEST RID GRANULES around the plants, flowers and shrubs you want to protect or if you have reason to believe the marmots might target them for some reason. Pest Rid has an odor rock chucks don’t like and will avoid where its been applied.
After applying the Pest Rid granules, spray over them with PEST RID SPRAY. This will magnify the odor and keep it active for 30+ days. Also spray the plant making sure you cover all low lying sections rock chucks can reach. This is usually the bottom 2 feet of the plant.
BEST MARMOT SOUND REPELLER ^
Another effective way to keep marmots off your land is to install our ULTRA SOUND REPELLERS. These units have many features making them particularly effective on marmots.
First, they use ultra sound by default. Ultra sound is particularly irritating to marmots who have a keen sense of hearing. They do not like the sound and will stay away from where its heard.
Second, our units also have an audible sound which includes predatory birds. Known to spook a range of animals, marmots are not comfortable hearing this sound when openly foraging or traveling.
Third, our units can be remote controlled to turn “off/on” as well as to sound the alarm. So if you have a repeller set up on your yard but see a marmot active not close enough to set off the motion sensor, you can use the wireless remote to turn it on. This will trigger it to sound which in turn will chase away any target animal.
Each unit can protect up to 5,000 sq/ft easily. The ultra sound will be effective for up to 75 feet out and the audible sound can be heard up to a football field away depending on the volume setting used.
Powered by batteries, you can use these effectively along property borders where marmots are likely to enter your land. Expect to get 3-6 months of life from any set of batteries and be sure to have enough in place for complete protection of your yard.
The best marmot settings for our device is to set the “Operating Time” to any of the 3 options depending on when your target marmots are most active. Generally this will be “Day”. Set the “Ultrasonic” switch to “Motion Detector” and the “Motion Sensor Sensitivity” to “30”. Lastly, set the “Sonic Sound” to “80” assuming this won’t bother neighbors. You can also use the included AC power supply to power the unit via electricity. The Frequency (yellow knob) should be set in the middle. In general, using batteries and motion detection will keep them away and out of the yard but you may have reason to keep the unit on all the time.
Units should be placed 1-2 feet above ground and pointed in the direction where animals are entering as well as “over” the turf you want to protect. 
For easy installation, MOUNTING BLOCKS are handy. They can accept 1 or 2 repellers (picture to the right) and have a 1/2″ hole on their bottom so they will easily fit over a 1/2″ piece of rebar or any other wood or plastic stake. Ultra Sound Repellers will work fine by themselves as long as you have a good place to set them up. But we highly recommend getting the Units with Mounting Blocks in the kits we offer. Mounting Blocks allow you to place units anywhere and they will save time too.
We also feature several accessories for our sound repeller including POWER CORD EXTENDERS (33 FEET AND 66 FEET), CIGARETTE LIGHTER POWER ADAPTER, ALLIGATOR CLIP POWER CORD and AC POWER SUPPLY REPLACEMENTS.
MARMOT LIVE TRAPS ^
If you have a marmot feeding in your garden but not living on your land, the use of urine alone will probably not be strong enough to chase him away for good. This is because the lure of food is so strong most marmots will take the chance of passing through the regions where predator scent is located because they need to feed. In situations like this, the use of a live trap is the preferred method of control.
Marmots are easy to trap and the LT111230RD is usually large enough to trap any marmot that might be foraging on your property. Place the trap where you see marmot trails, footprints or entry ways to your garden. Use a small amount of any plant or vegetable as lure (what the marmot has been targeting) and you should be able to trap them within a few days.
Kim says
Hi. Do you have a sensor rthat will deter beavers and marmots? If so are dogs sensitive to the sound? Where are you located?
Tech Support says
Kim,
This post is about Marmot control and if you scroll up, you’ll see that yes, we have a sound repeller for them. This link will get you there too:
https://bugspray.com/marmot_control.html#best-marmot-sound-repeller
This same device will work on Beavers:
Beaver Repeller: https://bugspray.com/articles99/beaver.html#beaver-sound-repeller
Pets will NOT be affected as detailed on our product page here:
Pets and Sound Repeller: https://bugspray.com/repellents/sound/usd-animal-repeller-wireless-remote-led.html#pet
Our Location details can be seen on our site here:
Our Location: https://bugspray.com/get-directions