B.C.'s yellow-bellied marmot can be found throughout much of the Interior.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/ WildSafeBC

There are more marmots than usual showing up around residential homes in the Interior this year, digging tunnels under structures and eating gardens.

BugMaster Pest Control is based in Kelowna with branches in Vernon and Penticton.

“I don’t know that we’re having an increase of them generally but we’re getting more calls in residential areas than usual,” said company owner Steve Ball Sr. “They’re forever digging holes and eating gardens.”

Marmots have become an increasing problem in the Okanagan over the past few years and populations are expected to continue to rise, according to BugMaster Pest Control site.

The furry critters are herbivorous rodents and there are four different species of them in the province. The most common one the pest control team sees in the Okanagan is the yellow-bellied marmot.

All marmots are protected under the BC Wildlife Act. Trapping and relocating yellow-bellied marmots without a permit is allowed if they are causing damage on a person’s property.

“They’re easy to catch but there is no shortage of them,” Ball said. “You catch one of them and three more are waiting to take its place.”

While many could call the chubby squirrels adorable, they are also destructive. They can damage lawns and gardens, dig under foundations and transfer parasites. They begin mating in the spring and have litters of four or five pups every other year, establishing colonies of roughly 15.

Ball said the marmots are increasing in numbers because there are not a lot of natural predators like coyotes and wolves in urban areas. They find safety and food sources in parks and protected areas. The best thing for the general public to do is stop feeding them.

So far this year, owner at Broad Spectrum Pest Solutions, Candace Broad, isn’t seeing the same trend in the Tournament Capital.

“We haven’t had a lot of residential calls this year, which is good,” she said. “We’ve had numerous calls from other places in the city which is typical, but nothing out of the ordinary for residential areas.”

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Homeowners can help mitigate marmot activity by removing wood and stumps they use to file their teeth on from properties and make sure fences are at least three feet high, made with heavy-grade chicken wire and buried ten inches into the ground.

Useful repellants are hot pepper spray, talcum powder and coyote urine. Filling up burrows or spreading molasses at burrow entrances deter them as they don’t like getting sticky.

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Yellow-bellied marmots are common in south-central BC, found at lower elevations in arid conditions. They establish colonies at disturbed sites and near human infrastructures. This species is more likely to be in conflict with humans, according to Wildsafe BC.

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