Squirrel in the attic

[WebLady]

So I got up this morning and was about to go make some breakfast when I hear the alarm panel chime like a door was opened. Hubby is still in the bedroom, so WTH?! Then I hear some rattling around and freak out thinking somone is on the roof trying to break in the house or something :bbeek:

So hubby comes out and we both stand there trying to figure out what is going on; we hear the noise again and he thinks it is coming from the attic and it is a squirrel or something up there.

He goes up in the attic to have a look around and there is a 2 foot section of the alarm wire missing! The little bugger chewed through and stole a whole section of wire! We also found another wire that had been chewed.

So it seems we have at least one nasty squirrel in our attic. Of course he has to go cause he is damaging things and it could even start a fire if he chewed through the wrong wire! So we set a trap for it.

Now I feel bad about how to deal with it when we catch it. We caught one before and just let it out a few miles down the road, but that one did no damage. Hubby and I were talking about it and first I was like "just let it go somewhere", but we found out that apparently that is illegal and you can be fined if caught. Plus we read some stories online saying they often find their way back! Or they will just starve in a strange area.

Then we found a website that listed all kinds of ways to kill it, from shooting it to drowing and such and it all sounds sort of cruel to me. Plus there are posible risks to you in all this too.

Of course we would rather not have to spend the money on an exterminator, and they would probably do the same thing, but I'd almost feel better if it wasn't me or hubby that had to deal with it.

Anyone else ever delt with this sort of thing; what did you do?

[bichonlvr]

Oh that stinks...you will have to put poison or traps!

[MrsGrady08]

A few months ago we would hear some kind of scratching noise about ever yother day in our attack, it didn't sound like anything big so we just thought it was a Squirrel. DH knew there was a small hole two parts of the roof met and was going to fix it soon. Well a few days later DH was in the shower and he hears A LOT more scratching. He decides to get up there, our attack doesn't have an access door so its not easy to get to. He gets up there and its a HUGE mama raccoon with three babies. Mama had to be at least 30 pounds!

We had to call a conservation agent to come out and set a live trap. Because we were NOT going to mess with a raccoon with her babies, they are not nice:bbeek:. once we go mom we took her out to the woods and set here free. Then took it back and reset the trap and did the same with all the babies.

If you call you local animal control Im sure you could rent a live trap. Then just find where they are coming in and fix that.


And for fun heres a pic of one of the babies.They were so cute!
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z304/kikle17/CIMG3963.jpg

[Hope75]

Could you trap it and then call your local animal control?

Or do you have some sort or wildlife rescue in your area?

Personally I'd just release it at night 10+ mile from your house somewhere in the woods. Squirrels are not dumb, they can live anywhere there are trees and they can find food.

[WebLady]

Animal control won't do anything about squirrels, they are just everywhere. The recommend getting an exterminator; but an exterminator will put it/them down some way or another and just charge you a lot to do it.

We have read stories where these people caught and tagged squirrels and let them go 10-20 miles away and they found their way back. Some died of starvation cause the local squirrels in the new location didn't accept them or something.

[Hope75]

Animal control won't do anything about squirrels, they are just everywhere. The recommend getting an exterminator; but an exterminator will put it/them down some way or another and just charge you a lot to do it.

We have read stories where these people caught and tagged squirrels and let them go 10-20 miles away and they found their way back. Some died of starvation cause the local squirrels in the new location didn't accept them or something.

I worked as a vet tech and I hand fed baby squirrels (4 of them) and turned them loose in my yard when they were old enough to be released, some 30 mile from where they came from. They did fine.

They have a chance if you release them wheras if you kill them they have no chance.

I really don't see them journeying 10's of miles if they have trees and a food source. JMHO.

[StarCoveter]

Can you find where he's getting in from? If you can, patch/block it up and then let him out, and he won't come back in.

Please try and find some way of fixing the problem without putting him down! After all, he has no clue what he's damaging, ya know? I mean, from your posts, it sounds like you don't want to hurt him, so that's good, but I still feel a little bad for the bugger.

[WebLady]

We patched up where we thought it/they were getting in and set a trap, but have not caught anything. Maybe they got the hint and just went away *hoping*

I feel bad for having to put it down, but it can't get back into the house. DH read some stuff that once a squirrel gets into a house that they will keep coming back, even looking for other ways in or making other ways to get it.

Anyway, lets just hope they don't come back!

[caligal85]

Aggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!! I hate things in the attic! We used to live near the county fairgrounds and every summer when they opened the buildings we would be inundated with bats no matter what we did. The worse was when they flew in the chimney. I'm glad that you got rid of the squirrel and hope he finds a very nice home somewhere far, far away.