Outdoor Animal Control - Major squirrels in attic.What to do?

I have just noticed a 6' piece of rake edge is missing from the corner of the house.Wind damage I assume.It has exposed a6"x6' section that goes up into the attic.Im going to replace the edging and probably put some screening up in there.My concern is getting all the little buggers out of there.Any suggestions?You guys have never let ma down before,and I thank you all in advance for the advice you give. Dan

I should also point out that the house is about 125 years old.There is not alot of walking around space up there.Im thing some sort of baiting is called for.

I found a few previous posts that may help you

http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=166735&highlight=squirrels

http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=251205&highlight=squirrels

http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=222392&highlight=squirrels

:)

You will want to trap the squirrels. Do not seal up the entry until you are sure that they are all out. Squirrels are rodents and rat traps can be effective. On a more humane side, you can live trap them with traps like Havahart. Some areas have restrictions about relocation, so you may want to check in with local authorities about those.

Hi Dan,

You've already gotten some great advice about removal from the links and the other posters. What I want to share I hope you will take VERY seriously.

In the house behind mine I watched daily as squirrels went in and out of my neighbor's attic. I went to his house and told the elderly gentleman about them. He did nothing. A year later he passed away and someone new moved in. They remodeled the house with new siding, windows, paint, carpet, etc. We became friends and she even brought a couple of toads from her yard to live in my garden. Then one night about a year later I couldn't sleep and got up to watch tv in the living room. As I entered the room there was a lovely orange glow. Their house was on fire and the flames were leaping out of the roof!!! I began screaming out the door and my hubby called 911. It was 2 am and the coldest night of the year. Luckily all got out safely thanks to the smoke detectors. The firefighters said the cause of the fire was the chewed wires in the attic. PLEASE have every inch of wire checked in the attic once the squirrels are removed. I warned someone else and they did find chewed wires.

Newt

I work for a landlord that has (had) two such squirrel-infested attics. But at least now he only has to worry about ONE house as the other one was 'razed' to make way for a church parking lot expansion. In that particular house, I was up in the attic checking on some wiring and discovered the squirrels (or could it coincidently been mice?...or even bats?) had eaten all the romex sheathing off every electrical wire that came from the panel box and up in the attic and crossed over the wood cutout opening that connects two separate sections of attic. By the very nature of romex's construction, the bare wires were only like 1/32-1/16th inch from touching each other! I told the landlord, and to save money he went up there himself (he in his own right is handy) and separated each strand of wire and wrapped electrical tape around them. But...he don't have to worry about this house anymore, as stated.

On the other one? I tossed handfulls of mothballs in there and I think I overcame one of the big adult squirrels (they were even having babies up there as you could hear them squeaking) and I found it dead up there. It showed no outwardly visible cause of death, so I presume he was overcome. Although it could be it died of old age.

We called out an abatement expert who tried livetrapping them but the squirrels were too smart to go into the trap.

You can also make sache's filled with mothballs and hang them from nails on the rafters up there.

Thanks very much for all the replies.Especially about the dangers.I recently set my parents up with a computer,and started this thread for my Fathers benefit.Unfortunately he hasnt been able to navigate back to it yet.However once he gets it down he will learn to love this particular forum,as I do now.Every one here has given me so much insight into jobs I never believed I could do.I will definitely warn the old man about the dangers of fire. Dan

Hi Dan,

If your father is a registered user and you can get to your father's computer and come to this thread, you can click on 'Thread Tools' and you'll get a drop down box. Then click on 'Subscribe'. He'll get a notice everytime there is a new post to the thread.

You can add DoItYourself.com to his bookmarks or favorites.

Newt

The trick I used to get the squirells and their young'ns out of a rental home of mine was that I closed up all the access holes and then used a hav-a-hart trap and used water for the bait. In a hot attic an animal will get pretty thirsty. I caught 1 adult and 5 young'ns and just released them outside.

That's what worked for me.

Mattison, what a great idea! I do hope you read my story about my neighbor and carefully inspected all wires.

Newt

Is there a way to forward this thread to my Father?Hes still having a hard time navigating through the forum,but I really want him to see it.

Yes there is. Just go to the first page of the thread and you can can send the link from there, or copy and paste the link into an e-mail. Here it is.
http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=268063

Newt