How to Stop Chipmunks From Digging Holes in Your Yard

Chipmunks dig where there is cover and spilled food. Remove both, use gravel barriers and hardware cloth under beds, and skip the repellents.

By Salma October 28, 2026 2 min read Save to Pinterest

An eastern chipmunk standing upright holding a peanut in its forepaws — Photo: u_nup441m90e, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay

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Chipmunks dig where cover hides the entrance and food sits nearby. Remove those two and the burrowing stops; fill the holes without removing them and it does not.

The short answer

Chipmunks burrow where there is cover to conceal the entrance and food close by — retaining walls, rockeries, woodpiles, dense foundation planting, decks, and above all spilled bird seed. One animal digs several entrances in a twenty to thirty foot system, so it looks like more animals than it is. Exclude them with 1/4-inch galvanised hardware cloth under raised beds and around bulbs, use coarse gravel rather than soft mulch along bed edges, and collapse and backfill problem burrows with gravel. Repellents, predator urine and ultrasonic devices do not work.

Clean up spilled bird seed — the biggest single draw
Remove cover: woodpiles, dense foundation planting, deck gaps
1/4-inch hardware cloth under beds, cages around bulbs
Gravel, not soft mulch, along bed edges
Skip repellents and ultrasonics

Step 1: cut the food

Spilled bird seed is the leading cause. Move the feeder, fit a seed tray, or stop feeding for a few weeks
Fallen fruit cleared daily
Pet food never left outdoors
Bulbs planted in cages, or with mesh laid over the bed

Step 2: remove the cover they build under

Woodpiles off the ground and away from walls
Rockeries and retaining walls — pack voids with gravel rather than leaving soil pockets
Dense foundation planting thinned so there is open ground against the wall
Gaps under decks and steps closed with hardware cloth skirted into the soil

Step 3: make the digging hard

measure	where
1/4 in hardware cloth lining	Base and sides of raised beds
Mesh laid flat under mulch	Bulb plantings, new beds
Coarse gravel band, 6–8 in wide	Bed edges, along foundations
Wire bulb cages	Tulips, crocus and anything they dig up

Chipmunks prefer loose material they can shift. Gravel is unpleasant to tunnel through and shows the digging immediately.

Filling a hole on its own achieves nothing

They reopen it or dig a fresh entrance within a day. Collapse the tunnel, backfill with gravel, compact it — and then remove whatever made that spot attractive, or you are back next week.

When it is worth escalating

Burrows under a retaining wall, patio slab or steps, where washout can undermine the structure
Burrows against a basement or foundation wall
Repeated damage to the same bed despite mesh

Those cases justify a professional, who will remove the animal and, more importantly, pack and compact the void left behind.

Common questions

Why are chipmunks digging holes in my yard?

They are building burrow systems, and they do it where there is cover to hide the entrance and food nearby. Retaining walls, rockeries, woodpiles, dense foundation planting and the gap under a deck are the classic sites, and spilled bird seed is the single most common food draw. A chipmunk burrow can run twenty to thirty feet with several chambers, so one animal produces several holes and the appearance of an infestation.

Are chipmunk holes actually damaging?

Usually cosmetic, occasionally not. The entrances are small, about two inches across with no soil mound, and the tunnels are shallow enough that lawn damage is minor. The real problems are burrows undermining a retaining wall, patio slab, or steps where repeated tunnelling washes out the bedding material, and digging in raised beds and container plantings where they take bulbs and seed. Foundation burrows near a basement wall are worth addressing promptly.

What keeps chipmunks out of flower beds?

A physical barrier is the only thing that holds. Line the base and sides of a raised bed with 1/4-inch galvanised hardware cloth, or lay it flat under a new bed before filling. For bulbs, plant them inside wire cages or lay mesh over the planting and cover it with mulch. A band of coarse gravel rather than soft mulch along the bed edge also discourages digging, because they prefer loose material they can move easily.

Do chipmunk repellents work?

Mostly not. Capsaicin sprays give a few days of deterrence on treated surfaces before washing off, predator urine products have weak evidence, and ultrasonic devices do not work at all. Mothballs are both ineffective outdoors and an illegal use of a pesticide in most places. Habitat change and exclusion are what actually move chipmunks on.

Should I fill in chipmunk holes?

Filling alone does nothing — they reopen it or dig a new entrance within a day. If a burrow has to go, collapse the tunnel and backfill with gravel rather than soil, then remove the cover that attracted them to the spot in the first place. Where the burrow runs under a wall or slab, pack the void with gravel and compact it so the structure is not left sitting on an air gap.

Is it worth trapping chipmunks?

Rarely. Live-trapping removes individuals and the territory refills from the surrounding area, and in many places releasing a trapped wild animal elsewhere is restricted. It is also easy to separate a mother from dependent young in spring. The exception is one persistent animal burrowing under a specific structure, where a professional removing it and then sealing the void makes sense.

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A chipmunk looking out from a burrow entrance dug into bare earth under leaf litter

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