How to Get Rid of Squirrels

Aww… They are so cute; until they invade your home and become a nuisance to deal with. Needless to say, squirrels might look cute and cuddly but they can turn into pests if they see your home as a nesting area. If that wasn’t enough to make you wary of the pests, they also carry diseases.

Why Are They Pests?

Why would squirrels ever bother you? Here is why –

• They damage structures

Squirrels need space to nest, so a cozy corner in an air vent is a perfect spot to start a family. Any wiring that comes in their way is chewed off. The bare wires can spark and cause fires that are difficult to detect until it is too late. In addition, the pests can also walk on utility power lines in order to get in your home and end up damaging them in the process.

• There goes your plants

Squirrels often dig up lawns in their search for nuts. No vegetable garden or fruit tree is safe from them either. They can eat any planted bulbs and will not hesitate to look for any planted seeds.

Squirrels are also known to infiltrate homes and sample anything that might smell appealing to them. A plastic jar of maple syrup or nuts is no barrier to the sharp teeth of a hungry squirrel that also has other mouths to feed.

How Do I Get Rid Of Them?

If you are like most animal lovers, you wouldn’t want to use inhumane methods, such as pesticide or rat poison to eliminate the pests. Fortunately, you can get them off your property –  the humane way.

Find Out Where They Are Hiding

Also, find out how they are coming in your home. Check for any visible entry points. Remember, the holes may be smaller than you think. Any hole in the attic might be an entry point. Check for other possible entry points as well. Once you have located all of them, seal them shut with cement or wooden boards.

Make sure the pests are out before you look for their nests. Squirrels usually go out to forage at mid-morning on sunny days.

Live Traps

Live traps make humane pest control look easy. You can set up live traps in places you suspect the pests might be hiding. The traps close when a pest steps onto a metal plate inside. Check your trap the next day. If it has managed to trap a squirrel, take it to the nearest forested area and set the squirrel free.

Also make sure that you set the trap up with bait that they like. Squirrels love peanut butter, peanuts

, walnuts, slices of apple and even bread crusts. The bait should be dangled further than the pests can reach, otherwise they will just snatch it through the sides and be on their merry way.

However, using live traps might not always be a good idea if the squirrel in question has babies to feed. According to the Humane Society of the United States, wild squirrel babies often die of starvation after their mother has been trapped or relocated.

What About The Babies?

Of course, you can’t always judge whether the pest you trapped had a family. Abandoning the litter is inhumane, so if you do happen to find the nest its best that you try to evict them yourself.

The babies are also very fragile so it’s best that you call on the expertise of a pest control service for the job. Make sure that you hire a service that is experienced in evicting squirrels from homes and use humane techniques to do so.

Anyone who has ever dealt with a squirrel knows that, behind that fluffy façade lies an opportunistic pest. Squirrels love to chomp on seeds, wires and will even uproot your prizes petunias for the fun of it.

Every little chitter they make is a part of a larger scheme to make you think they are harmless and steal from the bird feeder when your back is turned. Fencing in your garden might seem like a good idea but it won’t work if the pests figure out how to scale it.

But that doesn’t mean that they deserve a horrible demise. Fortunately, there are easier, and not to mention humane, tricks that you can use to ensure that the pests never trespass on your property.