Squirrel living in attic

[Victor]

Hi all, I have a co-member from another forum I belong to at Pigeon Life that has a problem with a squirrel living in her attic. Maybe someone here can give some good advice? Here it is:

Squirrel in attic

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We have had at least one squirrel feeding from our bird feeders for the past 6 months or so. We did wonder where this squirrel might be living, but assumed it had come from one of the numerous large trees surrounding our rented house. It was seen just over an hour ago feeding from the bird feeder then shortly afterwards, as I sat here at the PC, I heard something scuttling about near the hatch to the attic. After calling my sister to inform her that we had something live in the attic, we then heard 'it' loudly gnawing wood.

Our first thought was that this had to be the squirrel, so up I went into the attic with head-torch. Within seconds I caught sight of the squirrel as it scuttled out of the 'entrance hole', which we have confirmed from outside the house. There were at least 3 large bundles of insulating material that had been ripped off the rolls laid down between the roof supports that had been constructed to make nest-like mounds. There was also wood splinters and evidence of gnawing on and around a couple of the roof supports.

We have no problem with having a squirrel living there (although our landlady will)..but..we are worried about fire risk as there are a number of electric cables running the whole length of the attic. The attic is long and I was unable to check the whole area, but the cables and wires I did see were all intact.

I believe squirrels produce 2 litters a year Jan-Feb and again during the fall. We are also concerned that there could be young, although we could not see or hear any at the present time.

We would like to deal with this problem ourselves without calling our landlady as we do not want any 'pest' control people here. We have not blocked off the entrance yet until we are sure there are no young/ or other squirrels in hiding. We do plan to block off the entrance hole but have to make sure there are no squirrels trapped up there.

Anyone else been in this situation? Is there a real risk that a fire could be started if these cables are damaged? Any advice welcome.

Thanks,

Lindi

[Mars]

Excluding methods incliude making the attic seem an unssafe place to be. The can be by lights or a strob, sound such as a loud radio and by smell such as ammonia soaked rags or a soak with moth balls in it. Do not mix chemicals!!! :nono I would try to do all three. Once you are sure they have moved out stuff the entrance hole with steel wool and cover with hardware cloth so they can't crew back through.:)

[Victor]

Thanks ...I will forward your reply.:thumbsup

[TexanSquirrel]

Good luck!

[Victor]

Hi folks. This is a reply from Pigeon Talk member Rooster 2310 (Lindi):

Thanks everyone for the advice and thanks Victor for the posting of my situation on the squirrel forum that you belong to . I've just received your posts.

Having been busy over the last week with work etc., we have not been up to the attic again since last weekend. We have not heard any more gnawing or scuttling about and our house has not burned to the ground! We have 'squirrel eviction' on our to do list over the weekend and will let you know how things progress.

Many thanks again,

Lindi

[Victor]

and one from just this morning:

Ok...We are now hearing the cries of young squirrels up there, or one very noisy squirrel (I have never heard the noise of a squirrel before).....I have just been up for a quick peek in the attic again and saw a large grey squirrel close to the entrance like last weekend just staring at me as I shone the head-torch in that direction. It looked nervous but didn't run out of the entrance hole. Squirrel eviction if off for now till we know for sure what is going on up there.

Have to go for now, but will post later.

Lindi

[Buddy'sMom]

It sounds, indeed, like this is a mama with babies. It would be the kindest thing if they could put off the eviction for a while til the babies get a little older. If they got (or can get) a look at the large squirrel's underside, it should be fairly apparent if it is a nursing mama as her nipples will be quite visible down each side of her tummy area. :grouphug :grouphug

[Victor]

REPLY FROM PIGEON TALK MEMBER ON THIS SUBJECT: Today, 12:48
Charis
Matriarch Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 2,236
************************************************** ****

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rooster2312
Ok...We are now hearing the cries of young squirrels up there, or one very noisy squirrel (I have never heard the noise of a squirrel before).....I have just been up for a quick peek in the attic again and saw a large grey squirrel close to the entrance like last weekend just staring at me as I shone the head-torch in that direction. It looked nervous but didn't run out of the entrance hole. Squirrel eviction if off for now till we know for sure what is going on up there.

Have to go for now, but will post later.

Lindi
************************************************** ******
Great news! I'm glad you are waiting for the eviction.
I had a Squirrel in the attic of my garage and I was thankful it wasn't a rat.
My Squirrel had a baby and she chewed a hole through the sheet rock and would watch me from the hole. As the baby grew, sometimes the tail would hang out the hole. It was so odd. At night, when I turned off the lights I would wish the Squirrel momma and her baby good night. Once the baby grew up and moved out, I put screen over the hole she was using to access the attic and over that a Squirrel box. Now Momma has her own nest box to raise all the babies she wants. The baby has moved into the birdhouse on a pole in the yard.[The birdhouse is right next to the Squirrel feeder.]
The baby has the windows of the birdhouse lined with dried leaves and moss. I know he's in for the night when the windows are covered. On cold mornings I often will see his little face looking out one of the windows with an expression that seems to say, Is it morning already? I'm so cozy I think I'll just sleep in a bit longer.
I love watching them.
__________________
Charis

If all the beasts were
gone, men would die
from great loneliness of
spirit, for whatever
happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
Seattle 1736-1866

[Victor]

REPLY FROM PIGEON TALK MEMBER ON THIS SUBJECT: Today, 12:48
Charis
Matriarch Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 2,236
************************************************** ****

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rooster2312
Ok...We are now hearing the cries of young squirrels up there, or one very noisy squirrel (I have never heard the noise of a squirrel before).....I have just been up for a quick peek in the attic again and saw a large grey squirrel close to the entrance like last weekend just staring at me as I shone the head-torch in that direction. It looked nervous but didn't run out of the entrance hole. Squirrel eviction if off for now till we know for sure what is going on up there.

Have to go for now, but will post later.

Lindi
************************************************** ******
Great news! I'm glad you are waiting for the eviction.
I had a Squirrel in the attic of my garage and I was thankful it wasn't a rat.
My Squirrel had a baby and she chewed a hole through the sheet rock and would watch me from the hole. As the baby grew, sometimes the tail would hang out the hole. It was so odd. At night, when I turned off the lights I would wish the Squirrel momma and her baby good night. Once the baby grew up and moved out, I put screen over the hole she was using to access the attic and over that a Squirrel box. Now Momma has her own nest box to raise all the babies she wants. The baby has moved into the birdhouse on a pole in the yard.[The birdhouse is right next to the Squirrel feeder.]
The baby has the windows of the birdhouse lined with dried leaves and moss. I know he's in for the night when the windows are covered. On cold mornings I often will see his little face looking out one of the windows with an expression that seems to say, Is it morning already? I'm so cozy I think I'll just sleep in a bit longer.
I love watching them.
__________________
Charis

If all the beasts were
gone, men would die
from great loneliness of
spirit, for whatever
happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
Seattle 1736-1866

[Victor]

Reply from Lindi posted on Pigeon Talk at 640pm Feb. 16,2008:

Gosh! I hadn't expected so many replies since I last posted. Thank you all.

I'm still not exactly sure what the full picture is regarding the squirrel upstairs and whether there are any babies or not. After my walk on the beach this afternoon, I went back into the attic to investigate further. The squirrel was either outside foraging (late afternoon), or hiding quietly elsewhere along the length of the attic. There was no sound or movement from any of the 'dreys' it has constructed from the insulation material. It has certainly been busy ripping out large chunks of the stuff within the vicinity of the entrance hole. Just as well the landlady doesn't know !

It was very difficult/near impossible to get anywhere near to the entrance as the timber support angles are at their narrowest being at the far edge of the roof. I crawled flat out as far as I could in an effort to get closer to the entrance and to try and inspect the insulation mounds it has constructed but was unable to. I shall try again tomorrow if I get more boards to lie on to stop myself going through the ceiling!! I also came across a wasps bike at the same entrance. That explains the rather large 'queen' wasp that we evicted just a few weeks ago.....mmmm another reason to get this hole boarded up before we have a major wasp infestation next summer!!!!

I also tried googling 'squirrel calls' so that I could try to identify whether this was the sound we heard earlier. I'd never heard a squirrel call before so have no idea what we were hearing. I did come across a few on youtube that sounded similar. My first thought on hearing these cries were that it had caught a bird or something in distress. We then were concerned that it was hurt or caught in wiring or the like. My sister said it sounded like the cries of a young animal and not a bird. One of our cats bolted up onto the bunk-bed and just stared at the ceiling wanting to investigate what small furry could be making such a noise. I went up to check that it was alright and there it was absolutely fine just staring at the torch-light.

I'm not so sure there are young but will make absolutely sure before we proceed with eviction.

Thanks to all who have given their thoughts and advice from the squirrel board. I'll keep you posted via Victor.:thumbsup

Lindi

[Victor]

Installing a nest box within the attic wouldn't be too much of a problem, however, installing the box outside would be more difficult as the large trees in the surrounding area are not actually in our small garden. Also, since we don't own this property, we'd have to be careful about puting up nesting boxes. I will though, survey the garden area more closely to see if there is some way of discretely providing a suitable squirrel home.

Lindi