What Not To Do When the Attic is Infested With Squirrels
It's happened. You've been hearing strange noises for weeks, and finally you climbed into the attic to investigate. What you found made you shake in your boots: torn insulation, chewed wiring, and animal droppings. You're positive now that you have a squirrel infestation.
It's understandable to want to take care of the problem yourself, but there are several moves many homeowners make that don't solve the problem and may even worsen it. When faced with a squirrel infestation, here are some things NOT to get rid of your "guests":
- Close up the hole they're using to get in. It seems logical. If you clog up the entrance while all of the squirrels are away, then they won't be able to come back, right? The problem is that the squirrels will likely chew through your patch, causing even more damage than before. If your patch does hold, the squirrel will either make its way down to your living room to escape, or it will die inside your walls and leave behind a very smelly carcass. Trust us, removing a dead squirrel is much more difficult--and more expensive--than removing a live one.
- Use mothballs. Mothballs aren't made to keep squirrels away, but moths, so using them doesn't guarantee they'll do anything at all. In addition, for an effective mothball treatment, you'd need to cover every square inch of the attic, which would cause a horrible smell leading to headaches, sore throats, and possibly even poisoning. Worse still, mothballs will inevitably settle into cracks and crevices, making their complete removal impossible. DO NOT USE MOTHBALLS.
- Trap or shoot the squirrel yourself. The dangers of shooting a gun within your own home go without saying, so please don't attempt it. Meanwhile, as difficult as it is to lay an effective squirrel trap, the real difficulty comes once you've trapped the squirrel. Few amateur animal trappers know the proper way to release a trapped animal or where to release them. Also, you should never trap an animal if you're don't know how to kill it in a humane manner, which can be necessary.
When you're faced with a squirrel infestation, the best move you can make is to call an expert who will take care of the problem quickly and effectively. Plus, we can perform exclusion repairs to help keep it from happening again!
Squirrel infestation? Call (215) 796-5177 or contact us for a quote.
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