Squirrel Removal
Squirrel Removal
Found in virtually every region of the United States, squirrels are an ever-present threat to homes, businesses, and other buildings. In addition to their destructive habits, these little critters also spread many potentially harmful diseases. Continue reading to learn more about squirrels and how you can get rid of them.
Why are squirrels attracted to my property?
Squirrels are no different than many other common nuisance animals when it comes to why they are attracted to certain properties. While every situation varies, the most common and prevalent reason is that squirrels find your yard’s food supply attractive. When squirrels are roaming and looking for food sources, yards are often a great choice. Between the various pet and human food scraps left out, garbage cans, and vegetable and flower gardens, squirrels love any easy food source they can find. By simply limiting your yard’s food supply, you will effectively make your yard less appealing to squirrels.
What problems can squirrels cause?
Not only do squirrels cause a crazy amount of destruction to materials of your home, but they also spread all kinds of serious diseases. Squirrels can directly spread many different bacteria and viruses to humans and pets by biting them or scratching them. In addition, any hair or saliva that they leave in places can transmit infections as well, creating some very serious and hard-to-detect health threats to you and your family.
Now it is time to dive into the types of destruction squirrels cause to homes and buildings. One of their worst tendencies is also how they gain access to homes sometimes. Squirrels often chew right through a variety of building materials in order to enter buildings. Any wiring in your home or business can be chewed through, potentially causing electrical fires. A very costly and serious bit of damage they can cause is weakening the structure of your home. By chewing through virtually everything, they weaken structures and cause serious damage to homes, garages, and many other buildings. Any homeowner or business owner that has a chimney should also be aware that squirrels love to nest inside, creating a serious fire hazard that can bring your building down to the ground. If all this was not bad enough, squirrels often die in hard-to-reach places and this leads to terrible odors spread throughout your home.
How can I prevent squirrels?
Recall the paragraph about why squirrels are attracted to homes and yards. Oftentimes, a squirrel would never make it into your home in the first place if there was no food or shelter attracting it to your yard. A great, easy step to take is to secure any pet food and trash. Next, pick up any fallen fruit from fruit trees. Then work your way around your yard, cleaning up any piles of debris of any kind, as these are nesting and feeding grounds for all kinds of nuisance wildlife.
Once your yard has less curb appeal to squirrels, you can turn your focus to your home. The first step that should always be taken is a visual inspection of your home, from top to bottom. Be sure to pay special attention to the roofline, the roof, the attic, and the soffit and fascia, as these are all excellent entry points for squirrels. If you see any gaps, cracks, or holes anywhere around the interior or exterior of your home, you would be well-advised to seal them using a commercial-grade sealant, aluminum sheeting, or a variety of other squirrel-proof materials. A great way to prevent squirrels is always to be on the lookout for any damage squirrels are causing to your home as well.
How do I remove squirrels?
While getting squirrels out of your house might sound simple enough, there is actually quite a bit involved in this task. The biggest problem homeowners and other do-it-yourselfers run into are that the squirrel that got into your home was a mother squirrel. While in your home, mother squirrels generally have their nest of babies in a warm spot. Usually, this place is the attic. If you remove the mother squirrel with a cage trap, the babies will remain helpless and die long, slow deaths, not to mention they will make your home smell terrible. In addition to this, squirrels carry many diseases that are potentially harmful. These are the reasons that it is usually recommended to hire a professional wildlife control service to remove your squirrels.
Why hire C&C Wildlife Control?
C&C Wildlife Control is your best choice for removing squirrels, both young and old, if you live in Connecticut, specifically in Hartford and Tolland Counties. C&C Wildlife Control was created in order to help homeowners take care of all of their pest control needs, and we make it our effort to provide the utmost quality and value to our customers. Every squirrel we catch is treated humanely, and our integrity and ethics are the driving force behind us. A big benefit to hiring C&C Wildlife Control is that we also provide several additional services, such as preventing future infestations, fixing damage squirrels caused, sanitizing your home to prevent your family from getting diseases, and providing attic restoration services. If squirrels are giving you problems, contact C&C Wildlife Control, because we have years of experience with helping clients get the job done right.
How to Get A Squirrel Out of The Attic?
So, you suspect there might be a squirrel living in your attic. Well, that wouldn’t be at all surprising. In fact, the attic is probably the most frequented room in the entire house, when it comes to unwanted wildlife intruders. Why? Well, it’s a darkened room that offers ample space to hide out. Since it’s also often used as a storage space, it limits the chances of being detected by the property owners, and it’s easy to access from the roof. In other words, it is ideal for wild intruders like squirrels to set up a cozy home.
So what do you do if there’s a squirrel in the attic?
The first step is prevention
We can’t emphasize this enough, but it’s so much better to fix an issue before it becomes an actual problem, isn’t it? This is why we at C&C Wildlife Control recommend focusing and investing some time in prevention. This will include regularly trimming tree branches that may extend and offer access to the roof, as well as removing open sources of food and water on your property. This can include pet food that’s been left out, fallen fruit in the garden, or the food inside bird feeders.
You may also want to regularly clean out your attic. The neater you keep your attic, the harder you make it for squirrels, or any other wild animal, for that matter, to hide up there.
Call a professional
Call us biased, but we honestly think that the easiest and most efficient way of getting rid of squirrels is to call a wildlife removal professional company like C&C Wildlife Control.
While this may seem like a costly alternative, we recommend considering all the benefits you’re actually getting here. First off, a professional wildlife removal company will ensure that it removes the squirrel(s) from your property, whereas with a DIY method, it may work, or it may not.
What’s more, a wildlife removal company will also help advise you on future prevention methods, and fix up the squirrel’s entry point into the attic. Lastly, many wildlife removal companies also offer cleaning and repair services for the damage caused by the animal. So all in all, we think you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck, in calling a wildlife removal company.
Use a live trap
If you’ve decided to take care of your squirrel problem yourself, we recommend using a live trap. These offer a humane alternative for capturing the bothersome squirrel and then releasing it into the wild, where it won’t bother you anymore. You can choose from a vast array of baits, but we find that peanut butter tends to work best.
Set up the live trap along the squirrel’s natural path, ideally near the entry point into the attic, as this will increase your chances of entrapment. Make sure you check on the trap regularly, so as not to leave the squirrel to suffer needlessly.
We wouldn’t recommend attempting to poison the squirrel, as there are very few poisons on the market targeted at squirrels, and traditional rodent poison doesn’t really work. So this would be an inhumane alternative, that’s likely to cause you more problems in the future.
Pro Tip: Once you’re rid of the squirrel, take care of the entry point. We recommend stuffing the entry point with wire mesh, or other such materials that are difficult to chew or claw through. It’s not unheard of for wild animals to try to make their way through a stuffed entry hole, so you’re going to need sturdy materials to keep them out.
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