If you’ve ever had the unpleasant experience of squirrels living in your attic you know it is something to avoid altogether. Once your attic becomes a squirrel den, you are open to a number of problems such as exposure to disease and structural damage. Expert removal is recommended as it involves the use of safe and effective humane squirrel repellent techniques that ensure that squirrels stay away from your attic.

Why Squirrels Come to Your Attic

Squirrels are attracted to your attic because it provides a warm, safe place to live. Squirrels have adapted to urban living and one example of this is seen in their ability to travel along telephone and power wires to get to the roof of buildings. The furry foragers are quite adept at breaching roofs by using their powerful teeth to chew through wood, plastic and aluminum parts. Once a hole has become wider than two inches, a squirrel is able to get inside.  Unfortunately for you, the hole will not only let in the squirrels but also the elements such as rain and snow as well.

Squirrel Behaviour Inside Your Attic

Upon moving in, squirrels start to make themselves comfortable and this translates into further damage for your property. These damages can quickly escalate into thousands of dollars in repair costs.

Very often the squirrel that has taken up residence in your attic will be a nursing mother. Squirrels give birth twice each year and each litter, which arrives after 44 days of gestation, can contain 2-6 babies. Baby squirrels are quite delicate as they start out immobile, blind and without fur. They do not leave their dens until after about 8 weeks and during this time, your attic will be their world. This means a lot of mess will accumulate up there and structural damage will continue.

You can tell that squirrels are living in your attic by the sounds that you hear during the day. Unlike many other attic invaders, squirrels are most active in daylight and when they start to move around in the attic you will hear chewing, scratching and scurrying sounds.

Expert Squirrel Removal

If baby squirrels are involved, your squirrel problems in the attic are way too complicated for DIY removal attempts. You should never try to remove baby squirrels without expert assistance because mother squirrels can be quite aggressive in defence of their babies. Since the baby squirrels are also vulnerable at this stage of their lives, all attempts at removal should be gentle, allowing the best chance of survival.

Experts like those at Skedaddle are trained and experienced in the art of safely and humanely removing of squirrels from your attic. We know how to humanely lure a mother squirrel outside in order to get to the babies without being attacked. After doing this we will gently remove the babies, place them in a specially designed heated box and place them outside so they can be reunited with the mother. Usually, squirrels establish multiple den sites and as such, they will move their young to another site once one has been compromised.

In order to prevent the return of squirrels, your Skedaddle wildlife technician will seal the access points and change the odour of the attic using squirrel repellents to reduce its appeal to squirrels in the future. If baby squirrels are not in the picture, they may use one-way doors (that allow squirrels to exit but make it impossible for them to return) to cover the access points established by the animals. To ensure your home remains squirrel free for years to come, we offer a lifetime guarantee on all materials used for exclusion methods.