Squirrels may be cute, but when they get into your house, it can be a mess. Having grown up on a farm and been doing wildlife control for over 10 years, Jacob Lehman, owner of Destination Wildlife Control, has seen many a house with squirrel infestations – a common problem in Northern Virginia, where he works and bases his company. Squirrels and flying squirrels can get into your attic or in between the floorboards in many ways. Here are some tips and tricks from Lehman about squirrel removal.
First of all, remember: If you have an animal in your living space, it’s an emergency. Wildlife belongs outside. If you have any wildlife in your house, leave it alone, and if it’s in a room, shut it in and put a damp towel under the door. There are countless old wives’ tales about chasing critters away by blasting loud rock music, using strobe lights, and releasing smelly things like vinegar and ammonia. These are not effective. If you think there is a squirrel or other creature in your house, call a wildlife removal company such as Destination Wildlife Control, and we will come and get the job done for you in about a week. I usually come and do these myself. Here is what I do:
First, I conduct an inspection to figure out how the animal got into the house, and whether/where it can get in later. Then I set up a trap on the outside of the house in the area where I think they are coming and going. To catch squirrels, I use cage traps, baiting them with their favorite foods, peanut butter and peanuts. Throughout the week, I follow up every day to see if they have been trapped. On occasion, the animal is trapped and I have to break through a wall to get it out — in these cases, I always immediately conduct the repair for the homeowner.
After animals are trapped, in the state of Virginia, we have two options for how to deal with them:
- Release the animal on the property where it was trapped
- Remove the animal from the property and euthanize it. Normally, the animals are euthanized, because I would need written permission from a landowner to relocate them on their property, and usually this only makes sense for landowners with big properties. If anyone tells you they can just relocate the nuisance animal a few miles away, they are breaking the law. They could be moving a diseased animal to an area where the disease didn’t previously exist, or taking the animal away from their food source to an area where there is a high chance it would not survive.
And just so you know what you’re dealing with most of the time, there are two main types of squirrel pests: gray squirrels and flying squirrels. The eastern gray squirrel is one of the most common nuisance animals in Northern Virginia (and elsewhere in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, for that matter). They typically have two litters of babies per year, with the first litter born between early February and late April. In late summer, they mate again, and the second litter is born from August through the middle of October. The babies can be very difficult to find, but if the mother is taken away and the babies are not found, they will quickly die of starvation and then can be found only by the odor. We are diligent and rarely miss finding and removing baby animals.
Southern flying squirrels like cooler areas and typically enter attics from October through mid-May, depending on the weather. They are smaller than gray squirrels (adult flying squirrels are about the same size as chipmunks) and tend to live with their buddies (I have caught as many as 21 in one house!) while gray squirrels are mainly solitary, except during mating season. Also, gray squirrels are day creatures, while flying squirrels are nocturnal.
At Destination Wildlife Control, we perform emergency service calls, nuisance animal removal, dead animal removal, exclusion services, cleanup services, handyman services, home inspections, termite inspections, and general pest control.
