Friday, September 16, 2005

Squirrels - Cute little creatures, or Evil decorated rats from Hell?

When I first moved into my house a little over a year ago, I thought it was great that there were squirrels in the trees out back. I even got them a feeder and kept them happy with corn.... Awwwwweeee... How cute..... Yeah right. Little bastards decided that the trees weren't good enough for them. They figured since the guy with the food was so nice, he'd share his house with them too... so they decided to move in to the attic. And nooooooo.... One entrance isn't gonna cut it either.... they decided they needed about 20 different doorways... Nice, eh? So now I have a couple of problems. #1 I have squirrels in my attic! I need to figure out how to get them all to move out. #2 I have to fix all the soffit vents around the house... Not sure if I'll go back with the screen or if I should use something more durable (and expensive). Anybody have experience with squirrels? How did you drive them out and keep them gone? Did you trap em? Mothballs? Cats? Light and loud music? What works? Little friggin pretty rats are all these things are! I now aim for them on the roads when they run out in front of me (I used to slow down and swerve...) Death to squirrels!

8 comments:

Beanhead said...

Oh good luck with that little problem, they are a nightmare around here also.

Quitter said...

Maybe you can find a LARGE stuffed squirrel that you can put up there..maybe even have another small squirrel in it's mouth..That should scare 'em!! ;-)

Anonymous said...

never had squirrel problems in the house, maybe google on line for advice?

Unknown said...

Buddy, I don't want to put a damper on your day, BUT your in big freakin trouble. Yes, first off, seal up all of your holes with much sturdier mesh. Your Home Depot can point you in the right direction on that one.

DO NOT POISON! The critters will keel over in your walls and attic. THEN you got the odor to deal with. And I am telling you, the odor don't go away until you rip out the wall and find 'em. Trust me.

Set live traps. Cages with food in it, set to close when the critter gets in there. Either take it out back and do what you got to do or drive 100 miles away to dump them off back into the "wild". If that does not work, do call pest control.

If you have anything of personal value stored in your attic, GET IT OUT! My friend's attic was completely destroyed by squirrels. Almost every picture she owned was ripped to shreds, along with her wedding dress. These were carefully packaged items too. You can't even begin to imagine the destruction they caused.

Sorry for the lengthy comment, but I just wanted to offer some advice. I helped my friend when this happened. It was the most terrible thing, besides a flood or fire, that can happen to a homeowner.

True Jersey Girl said...

I HATE SQUIRELLS. When I live with my parents, my bedroom was in the attic so I had an air conditioner built into the wall (it was always so hot up there). We went on vacation for 2 weeks, I come home, and the freakin squirrels had chewed through the AC and built a freakin nest in my bedroom. Thank God it was the 80's and I always had Aqua Net on hand...I sprayed the little fuckers right outta there.

Anonymous said...

I had squirrils and rats in my attic, squirrils were easy to deal with because they are always out during the day so just plug the hole up and no more squrrils. The rats were another story :/ I had to lay poison out at night was the only way and ended up with a couple dead babies in between the walls :/ That was nasty.

Anonymous said...

Yikes. My brother has had a similar problem for years. He never really gets rid of the squirrels; the goal is to keep them manageable. He had heard that stuffing the spaces with steel wool and then covering them with steel mesh would keep them out, but his particular squirrels seem to enjoy chewing steel wool. Good luck! I'll be checking back to see how you manage this one.

Anonymous said...

Hahahah that tree is obscene! More pics of the tree!