Red Squirrels IN MY HOUSE - HELP !!!

[Buxom Wench]

Okay, here's the problem -
I just heard "something" nibbling in my attic and went, with my Duchess (meow!), to investigate.
There, sitting pretty as you please, staring at me was a RED SQUIRREL.

It had the look of a deer caught in the headlights.
My question is:
how do I get him/her out of my house without using poisons or my gun? I don't like them in my house but I don't have to be cruel to them either.

ANY and all advise and suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. the little bugger had the nerve to wink at me -- cheeky thing! :shock:

[Rhia]

um....

They have those little boxes you plug into outlets that put off super high sounds.... doesn't bother cats and dogs, but drives rodents crazy... would a squirrel qualify?

I don't know, but it's a thought....

that sucks - they can do a LOT of damage chewing things if you don't get them out.

[Buxom Wench]

that sucks - they can do a LOT of damage chewing things if you don't get them out.

MY GARB IS IN THERE!!!!

[Rhia]

you DEFINITELY need to get rid of them!!


something like this maybe....?

http://www.biconet.com/critter/miniPestChaser.html

[Mairi the Herbwench]

Your best bet is to hire an exterminator - they can use live traps, but you want to make sure that all the squirrals are out and all the access holes are stoppered up - steel wool is recommended. It'd baby season, and you don't want mama trapped away from her babies...

Squirels are NOT a do-it-yourself job...

Good luck!

[Mistress Kath the Innkeep]

Try calling your local nature center. They usually have lists of pest removal companies that use have-a-heart traps. Good luck!

Kath

[AnnaFaerie]

Ok....we fought the damn things for two.......count them......2 years. If you don't get rid of them their babies will come back to your house....and so on and so on.

I won't go into everything we did to get rid of them it would take too long. Here are some of the things on the list.......we used live traps....they worked sometimes, but not always. We tried everything and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. We covered over the holes they used to come into the house and they came back and chewed on the holes to get back inside.

Speaking of chewing......they will chew the wires in your home. This is a danger to you.

I am sorry, but they are rats with furry tails. Do whatever you have to do to get them out and keep them out.

Call an exterminater if you can afford it. If you can't (I couldn't) then gear up for the biggest war you can imagine. Remember these are rodents....they are nasty little things to deal with and they will destroy anything and everything in their way.

[Lady Laurel]

I have heard of the animal society coming in and trapping them. Its sounds like you have a small problem. Good luck with um

[Absinthe d'Accalia]

AnnaFaerie - my Dad has always said that squirrels are just rats with good P.R.! :wink:

[Buxom Wench]

Thanks everyone for all the advice and suggestions.

We're going to try a few things and see what happens.

I'll keep you posted.

[AnnaFaerie]

AnnaFaerie - my Dad has always said that squirrels are just rats with good P.R.! :wink:

A brilliant man...your father! *laughing* I think I like his line well enough to steal it. *still laughing*

[rosefaeries]

Would a recipe for squirrel pot pie help? :twisted: I think I may have one.

[Isabelle Fawkes]

Here is a cheap fix.....MOTH BALLS!!! Scatter them around the attic and any openings you come across! When you no longer sense the little rodents, plug up the openings with whatever you can find (steel wool, wire mesh, etc.) to prevent future intrusions. This should take care of the problem.

[Buxom Wench]

Would a recipe for squirrel pot pie help? :twisted: I think I may have one.
Actually, I have a recipe, but thanks for the offer! :wink:

[Lucy]

And most importantly..... GET YOUR GARB OUTTA THERE!!!!!!!!!! Wholey Hera!

[Buxom Wench]

And most importantly..... GET YOUR GARB OUTTA THERE!!!!!!!!!! Wholey Hera!

Unfortuneately, I'm a little too late :cry:
Looks like they've been in there longer than we were aware of.
They have eaten through EVERYTHING and made a nice comfy nest out of the lot.

** needs to sit and have a good cry**

First I get sick and can't shake it.
Then I've got squirrels eating my house and garb.
And now some S.O.B. is putting pics on line that could be pre-surgery pics.

AM I BEING PUNISHED FOR SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW ABOUT!?!?!?!

**curling up in big comfy chair with favorite book and glass of wine and BIG box of tissues**

[Lucy]

:grouphug: :evil:

LITTLE BASTARDS....oops....pardon moi.

That's just wrong..... I'm so sorry hun. :(

[RichardMacHugely]

RED Squirrels?

Damn commie rodents. They're the worst kind. Sneaking into your attic, redistributing your wealth, taking control of your means of production, prosecuting the political struggle between the Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie.

The only good Red Squirrel is a dead Red Squirrel.

[Hoyden]

AnnaFaerie - my Dad has always said that squirrels are just rats with good P.R.! :wink:


:lol: That is funny. I just forwarded that to my bosses and they're howling. I work for an advertising agency, the office is attached to their house & THEY'RE HAVING A SQUIRREL PROBLEM too!! The little buggers.

And on that note.....
WE HAVE FOUGHT THE SQUIRRELS AND WON!! It was guerilla warfare, let me tell you. Get ready for a long post...

After making ourselves crazy and broke trying to block openings and putting moth balls into everything, we found that the little buggers were still coming in & moving the moth balls to another location and even taking them outside and dropping them into my garden!

Then I had an epiphany.... I DUSTED the attic with baby powder where I thought they were coming in so I could see if there were squirrel prints. None. So I dusted some more in a wider area and finally found where they were coming in. (Make sure you wear a mask)

Then we blocked the holes with thin sheet metal or thick metal screening (Both found at Home Depot) making sure that all the edges of the screen and sheet metal were at least 4 in. on either side of the opening (if we could) and then we nailed/stapled all the edges down really good. They pushed through in one place where we didn't staple it down good enough.

We stuffed holes with steel wool, but they just moved it. I found that used 'one use' brillo scubbie pads worked better (I was desperate and had no steel wool) I also secured it thumb tack or stable where I could and if we could, we covered the holes with steel or screen.

GET RID OF BIRD FEEDERS NEAR THE HOUSE!! And any other source of squirrel treats. Don't leave dog or cat food out either. They had PILES of dog food, bird food and suet balls in the attic!

CAYENNE PEPPER works good too!! After they got into a cardboard box of christmas stuff for bedding, I put the salvagable stufft into a plastic bin and ducked taped the lid down. They still got into it and ruined everything beyond repair. So in a fit of vindictiveness, I dusted the whole thing with cayenne pepper and they never touched it again! So I started dusting the pepper when I wanted to make sure they would stay away. It even works in the garden! (Buy it in a BIG plastic shaker at BJ's or Costco. And again MAKE SURE you wear a mask - it burns like hell if you inhale it in your nose or throat)

PREDATOR URINE doesn't work! We tried it in the garden, no go. They're too smart. They weren't afraid of our Pitbull either, they sat on the fence where he couldn't reach them, swore at him and threw things at him after he chased them down.

When all else fails, TRAP THE BUGGERS! We had one that we couldn't get rid of. So we had to finally set out traps to catch it and get rid of it. We think that it was probably a baby born in the attic that grew up in there.

I don't know if this actually helped at all, but I decided to make them like somewhere else better than my attic. So me being as crazy as I am, I had a few square bird houses nailed WAY up in trees at the FAR end of our property. I took the bird feeders and put them out there and filled them, I put the suet out there too. I leave old holey socks, single socks and towels out there for bedding too. I chuck fist fulls of dog food out there once in awhile. The houses have something living in them, I see squirrels in those trees alot, so I guess they moved in. The socks and towels disappear and have been seen hanging out of nests, so I guess some creature likes the new sub-division. ( I also put "chipmonk condos" down there too when they were a problem. Cinder blocks, stones and stumps with leaves and grass clippings dumped on them - They seem to be occupied too)

I hope this helps, feel free to IM or e-mail me if you'd like.

Good Luck!

[Jeannie Fitzgerald]

Here is a cheap fix.....MOTH BALLS!!! Scatter them around the attic and any openings you come across! When you no longer sense the little rodents, plug up the openings with whatever you can find (steel wool, wire mesh, etc.) to prevent future intrusions. This should take care of the problem.

Uh, isn't that a bit hard on the moths?

[Jeannie Fitzgerald]

Would a recipe for squirrel pot pie help? :twisted: I think I may have one.

My recipie for Irish stew could work here:

Irish Stew


Ingredients:

2 lb stew meat (any kind of meat will do; road kill must be fresh)
1 lb praties (potatoes)
6 large carrots
1 bunch green onions
1 white onion
1 can tomato sauce
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 12 pk Guinness beer

1. Chop meat into 1” cubes. Remove excess fat.

2. Sauté meat in a deep cast iron frying pan in ½ bottle of beer. Rather than waste the beer, drink the other ½ bottle before it goes flat.

3. Drain meat and put into stew pot.

4. Rinse onions with ½ bottle of beer. Drink other ½ before it goes flat.

5. Chop the onions and put into stew pot. To avoid crying while chopping onions, drink 1 beer (sometimes it takes more than 1).

6. Rinse mushrooms with ½ bottle of beer. Drink other ½ before it goes flat.

7. Finely chop the mushrooms and put into stew pot. Chopping is tedious; drink a beer to help pash the time.

8. Rinsh carrots with ½ bottle of beer. Drink other ½ before it goesh flat.

9. Finely shop the carrotsh and put into shtew pot. Chopping carrotsh ish even more tedioush; it may take two beersh to get the job done.

10. Peel and shop the praties. No…wait…tish too mush work. Jusht rinsh with beer…no…wait…don’t waisht the beer. Drink the beer and jusht tosh in the praties.

11. Open the can of tomato shauce…forget the tomato shauce…forget the shtew, drink the resht of the beer!

[Mum Tarts]

Oooh you poor thing! I knew once you said they were up where your garb was, that they were in it. :( they love clothing for nests and that is exactly what they are doing. And they will come back if you dont take care of them now. :powpow: Sorry but they are rodents. Good Luck!

[Queen Maggie]

Oh, jeez....
squirrels. They are the cheekiest things in creation, not counting rogues.
There's a great book out there titled "Outwitting Squirrels..." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1556523025/qid=1113619714/sr=8-5/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i5_xgl14/104-0621577-1023168?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
unfortunaetly, one of the first sentences states "you might as well give up now. You've got other things in your life to think about. Squirrels have nothing other than gaining your birdseed to want...." (roughly paraphrased)
Good luck.

[LashaLaRouge]

any kind of squirrels are monsters (hey watch the rodent bashing some of my favorite pets are my past and my sisters current fancy rats!)
they also dont seem to understand the difference between goodwill box and please gods dont hurt my garb box, im pretty sure they cant read!
however they ARE difficult to get rid of...as you can tell those that have won the war with squirrels spend ALOT of time trying to do so.
try live traps first but get traps LARGER than you need so the squirrels actually HAVE to go inside to get the food, (so many poeple get squirrel sized traps only to find the squirrels are very clever when it comes to NOT standing on the preasure pads on the smaller ones. and use large food itesm so they cant reach through the bars and pull it out.
before trapping though put babypoweder everywhere you think they might be comming from, this will help you figure out where there comming in. you can block holes slowly but make sure before you block the last that you have caught and removed all those in there.
this is the most human way to get the buggers. once your certain you have them all take them far away from your house and release into the woods. squirrels will try and return to the nesting sight so the further away your willing to take them the better lol.

to block the holes ive found the hardware cloth cut 4 inches square bigger than the hole and stapled with about a billion staples will work very well untill you can perminanelty patch the holes...the hardware cloth also works well for those areas you cant perminantly patch like ventilation holes and chimeny openings...

if howeve rthe traps and hardware cloth dont work it might be time to call an exterminator, you can specifically request that they be captured humanely whht most exterminators. animal control can usually supply you with a list of local help, sometimes animal control are incharge of pest removal.