Tips to Keep Your Home Rodent and Squirrel Free This Fall
Out with the old, in with the new- Are there broken or old and warped attic, dryer or gable vents on the exterior of your home? Now is the time to replace them. Rodents and squirrels have no trouble tearing through vents to enter your attic or home
Don’t hang bird feeders- Bird feeders are prone to both squirrel and mouse feeding. Squirrels are exceptionally good climbers, so breaking into bird feeders is a treat for squirrels. Even if squirrels don’t touch your bird feeders, birds will. Birds fling seeds around, leaving piles on the ground while they feed. Mice and rats flock to this easy food source, attracting them to your property. Next stop? Inside your house.
Seal it up- Take a walk around the exterior of your home. Look for cracks and crevices that can be sealed with foam or stuffed with steel wool. Mice are not able to chew through steel wool, so getting it right the first time is important. Mice have collapsible bodies and can fit through tiny holes and gaps as small as ¼ inch. Once they enter your home, mice nest in wall voids, insulation, attics, under refrigerators, under stoves, and under dishwashers. It’s better to take a proactive approach as soon as you find these vulnerabilities.
Stop using essential oils- They do not work for pest control. If it was this easy, pest control companies would be out of business. If mice or squirrels are getting into your home, the entry point needs to be sealed. Think about it this way. If a bird keeps flying through a broken window in your house, would you spray essential oils onto the broken opening or would you fix the window?
Keep it clean- Sweep up crumbs inside your home on a regular basis. Make sure that you pay close attention to the hard to reach spaces that are easily ignored such as under stoves and under dishwashers. In garages, move bird seed and grass seeds into heavily secured Tupperware or containers.
Choosing a Squirrel Removal Company
Sometimes the best and easiest way to remove a squirrel or exclude it from your property is to hire a company to do it for you. Wildlife removal companies are not well monitored or licensed, so it is up to you to ask questions about a company’s practices before hiring them
A good wildlife removal company should
Provide a customized plan of action and a firm price estimate before you are required to commit
Focus on long-term solutions, such as fixing potential entry points (as opposed to simply removing squirrels)
Guarantee their work (for at least one year)
Know about squirrel behaviour, such as when babies are born and where squirrels are likely to gain entry to a building.
Use only humane live traps (cage traps) or one-way doors to remove animals (rather than leg-hold traps or other harmful capture devices)
Physically check the space for babies, no matter the time of year
Release any live-trapped animals on-site. Never hire a company that moves squirrels to a new location: this is illegal and harmful to the animals. Instead, they should remove squirrels from the nest space and seal the hole to prevent return.
Squirrel Exterminators – Choosing a Pest Control Service
Squirrels look cute and cuddly… until they enter your home. Then they’re not so adorable when you hear sounds coming from your attic, find chewed up stuff, or worse, find droppings everywhere. Finding a company to remove squirrels from your attic, chimney, or other places in your home isn’t as easy as looking up a list of squirrel exterminators and picking one. It’s important to find a pest control service that is experienced with dealing with these quick and sometimes unpredictable little rodents.
The Use of Poisons
Some companies will suggest poisons as a means of squirrel control. Aside from being inhumane, toxic, and potentially dangerous for households with children and pets, consider what happens after the squirrel ingests the poison. It has to die somewhere – and that “somewhere” might end up being inside your house. You then end up with an entirely different problem of how to locate and remove a decomposing squirrel corpse. The smell could attract other wildlife or insects and, of course, is unpleasant to homeowners – particularly if the body is located near the home’s ventilation system. It could be very costly to try to remove the rodent if it has died somewhere particularly hard to access.
DIY vs Professional Help
Sometimes homeowners want to try squirrel removal themselves, before turning to the professionals for any type of extermination service. This is not as easy as it may seem. Even if the homeowner is able to convince the squirrel to leave and then seals up the squirrel’s entry points into the home… how can we be sure that all the squirrels are out?
Choosing a Pest Control Service
An experienced pest control service can help prevent these types of problems from occurring
How much experience do they have with squirrels?
There are many different rodent types, each with its own behaviors. A company that deals with squirrels regularly will be more familiar with what to look for and how to deal with it. Are they able to remove squirrels from different parts of the home – the attic, the chimney, the walls, etc?
WAYS TO ELIMINATE SQUIRRELS IN ATTIC SPACES
Find entry points around the home.They might be cute and fuzzy outdoors, but when you get squirrels in the attic or walls of your home, serious harm and injury can occur. Squirrels can cause damage to your house in places that are very difficult to reach, meaning lengthy and costly repairs. Further, they can transmit quite a few diseases, so an encounter with a frightened and trapped wild animal in your home could spell disaster for you and your loved ones. That’s why it’s important you not only learn how to get rid of squirrels in the attic, but also how to keep squirrels out of attic spaces
Seal up all entry points except one. Squirrels can squeeze through just about any opening in your home, so make sure doors and windows are properly fitted to your house and covered with fitted screens. Wire mesh can be placed over open vents and chimney tops (or you can invest in a chimney cap). Seal up other openings with caulk, steel wool or appropriate materials as needed (e.g., fill up holes with dirt, use bricks to fix a wall, etc.). A pest management professional can help suggest ways to shore up your home’s defense. Just remember to always leave one entry point open so the squirrels can leave on their own. This should be the most obvious and accessible entry point. Cover this last entry point with a single sheet of newspaper, and if it’s still intact a few days after you stop hearing signs of squirrels in the attic, it’s safe to seal it off for good.
Give the squirrels some incentive to leave. Unfortunately, you might have to learn how to get rid of squirrels in your attic by giving them a little push. Squirrels won’t always leave on their own, especially if they’ve already given birth to a litter. In this scenario, the adult will repeatedly leave and enter the home to bring food to the young. If you seal up the final entry point when the adult squirrel leaves while the baby squirrels are still in the attic or walls, they will need to be removed by a pest management professional, dead or alive. To prevent this, drive the squirrels out as soon as they make themselves known, before they can give birth or set up shop. Playing loud music and keeping lights on can be effective as a squirrel repellent. Attics should be avoided while squirrels are in them since they can be dangerous and may even get scared and run into other parts of the house, creating a path of terror and destruction along the way.
Learn how to get rid of squirrels in the attic with traps.Traps are a very effective weapon in the war against squirrels in the attic. There are a few different types of squirrel traps that you can use, as well as a few different places to set them. Live-capture traps do just what their name sounds like: captures the squirrel alive. Unfortunately, you will still have to deal with the live animal after trapping, either through euthanasia or setting it free 5 or 10 miles from your home. This is dangerous to both you and the squirrel and may require a permit based on your state’s wildlife laws. Kill-traps are actually more humane than live traps and much safer, since the rodent will be taken out of the equation quickly and safely. Live traps also have to be checked frequently, as it is inhumane to let the animal starve to death. Both of these types of traps (kill- and live-capture) are typically ‟box traps” and can be placed in attic runways where squirrel activity has been noticed. A third type of trap is called a ‟body-gripping” trap and can be placed directly outside of entry points to catch the squirrel as it darts in and out of your home. Box traps can also be placed outside in the yard, near burrows, to capture squirrels before they can enter your home.
Learn how to keep squirrels out of attics and your home in general. Finally, it’s vital that you take preventative measures to keep not only squirrels, but also pests in general, out of your home. Insects, arachnids, wildlife and reptiles belong outside in nature (unless kept as pets), so start by sealing up entry points around your home (discussed above). Trim any trees that overhang your house, as squirrels and other pests can gain easy access to your roof, windows and attic. If the squirrel population around your home is a problem, use traps to alleviate it. Take necessary precautions if you have children or pets, as they can get caught in the traps as well.
Squirrels
A problem squirrel can destroy insulation, strip the protective coating from electrical wires and can be incredibly destructive to furniture and woodwork (interior and exterior). Squirrel Control is not for amateurs and is best to be handled by a licensed professional. Similarly, raccoons and bats like to nest in the attics of homes and commercial properties and when left unchecked can cause extensive damage.
How long do squirrels live?
Depending on the type of squirrel, some can live upwards of 5 years
What do squirrels eat?
They mostly eat nuts, seeds and fruit
How do you get rid of squirrels?
The best way to get rid of a squirrel in your home (walls, basement, attic) is to trap it and release it somewhere else.