Squirrels and chipmunks are invading my house! They seem to be climbing up the inside of the vinyl siding; we hear them running around above the drywall ceiling. I’ve got a pretty good idea of where they’re getting in (it’s in several places).
So, 1. how do I get them out, and 2. how do I keep them out? The spaces where they seem to be hanging out aren’t accessible, and I don’t want dead critters stinking up my house either.
We already have four cats, so evidently the rodents aren’t intimidated by cat smells.
did
Replies
The Mole Thread Revisited!!!
Rap music..crank it up real loud..that'll do it.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Not a chance. I'm pretty sure they're already breakdancing, and I don't want to encourage them.
Suppose I could just blow cellulose into the attic space they're in, and scare/blow them out?
didView Image
seriously, there is an ultra sonic device that creates a super high frequency squeal that will drive off most critters..even some bugs..the only other idea is a smoke bomb, or sulpher candle.
The insulation will just make em mad..and fuzzy, probly.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Burning his house down would fix the little basteges but it isn't in the equation...
Like Cap said...
Mole thread revisited...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
I went through this last summer, I had to evict about a million of the little buggers that were living in the eaves of my house.
What worked for me was catching them with a live trap. Put it out on the ground close to where they go in and out, and use peanut butter for bait. What you do with them once you catch them is up to you, but if you're gonna release them take them a LONG ways away or they'll find their way back home again.
Once you've eliminated/removed every squirrel in the area (at least temporarily, it's like trying to bail out the ocean), patch the holes they're coming in. You have to get rid of every single squirrel that has knowledge of the holes - if you just cover the hole up they'll chew right through the patch in no time flat.
I think the only sure way to permanently keep them from chewing holes is to sheath your house in 1/4" steel plate.
I've logged onto this forum to try and find solutions to my squirrel-in-the-attic problem. Well at least I'm not alone. There appears to be no real solution, though I have considered slipping a small-sized alligator into the crawl space above the kitchen. This house is over 100 years old and a recent attic tear-out showed no previous squirrel damage. Have trapped all the stupid ones already, but now more clever squirrels resist capture. What gives?
Wow, an old thread has been revived...
All I can say is to keep trying. Keep putting out the trap with some tasty bait (peanut butter on a piece of bread worked for me) and eventually you'll catch them. What are you doing with the squirrels after you trap them (I assume you're using a live trap?) If you're releasing them elsewhere, make sure you're taking them a LONG ways away from home - they can find their way back if you're only going a few miles. When I first started catching them at my place, I got one with a scraggly tail that made him easy to recognize; I took him to a park a mile or so away and released him, and the little bugger actually beat me back home.
Try brass wire snares fastened right along their access route.
First give the squirrels a nice long 2x4 ramp to ease their way to the eaves (assuming there are access holes in the eaves) by leaning the wood against the house, with the 2x on edge, and the bottom away from the house, so toward their favorite tree. Then fasten 3 or 4 squirrel head sized brass snares about 2.5 inches above the 2x edge, which is about the right height for them to run their heads right into the snare as they run up the plank. You might catch several in rapid succession. The snare tightens up, they'll pull against it and suffocate, which leaves them dangling from the plank ready to be harvested. Dinner is served.
Multiple snares on a pole wedged against a tree is an old bush survival method. YMMV.
alright...
new blood with new ideas...
that alligator ranks with the best of ideas...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
searh for the mole thread and there has been several on squirrels...
that'll give some ideas....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Go check out the bush gun thread for ideas...
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
For squirrels it's a toss up between a 444 Marlin and an MP9. Shotgun would takes up way too much time spackling.
an MP9
There's some right thinking. Though, a Czech Skorpion in .17 or the .17 mach2 might be even more fun . . .
The best squirrel recipe I know of actually makes erzatz alpo . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
ah....
addict the house pet to squirrel...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Catching them is one thing , you have to stop them from accessing your house . Sounds like you have some tree limbs that have to be cut away .
Remington subsonic, or CB's for tight neighborhood application. If cleaning outside, open the window, stand back aways and use the room for quietude.(not using true term)
or you can always go the anti freeze route.
Used powdered fox urine(do a google search), sprinkle in the area of thier entry into your exterior siding or up in the attic. Have used it to keep rabbits out of the flower beds, works great!!
Joe
What about liquid human urine? I've got pretty easy access to that.
Anyone tried lots of mothballs? I've seen a reccommendation for that, as well as for cayenne pepper powder, but they've also said that the beasts will get used to either after a while and will return, so you have to block their entry holes between a week and two weeks after you start with the offensive odors.
didView Image
Cayenne pepper works, but it tends to get washed away in the rain. Try red pepper flakes (a.k.a. pizza topping). We had a problem with some mystery animal digging up a wide patch of turf in the backyard. I spread a whole bottle of flakes, and the digging stopped. Unfortunately, they moved to the front yard and attacked an even larger area before I could treat it! Animal warden guessed that it was raccoons searching for cicada grubs.
I heard they taste like chicken
I tried the mothball technique when I was putting an addition on my house and squirrels moved in before the soffits were done.
I put several boxes of mothballs in the attic to drive them out. The next day, when I got home, the mothballs were all out on the ground. I guess the varmints liked my attic so much that pushing the mothballs out was worth it.
I then got a trap and caught the critters. It was a lot more work, but was effective.
Hello diddidit and all,
After lurking and finding many a thread that's helped me in my time of need, I've finally found one I've had direct experience with. Boy, have I had experience with it . . . but I digress. But at last, something I can share back with the board:
In my attempt to humanely evict chipmunks from my house, I've tried the ultrasonic device (zero luck); I've tried the mothballs (pretty much just asphyxiated myself); loud music? Beem there, done that, and I think they invited their friends for the party. Howling in frustation did nothing for eliminating the rodents, but hey, I felt better.
The only thing that's worked for me with the chipmunk invasion is placing live traps at the point of entry. I used sunflower seeds with great success.
However, a note on trap selection: the chipmunk-sized trap doesn't work with the squirrels; the trap closes on their tails, and they use it as a wedge to hold it open. Grab the snacks and go. If you find the trap closed and the sunflower seeds completely gone, the squirrels are the gulity parties. The chipmunks leave the shells behind. In that case you could start out with the larger trap, get rid of the squirrels, and then work your way down in size.
Good luck to you and happy hunting . . . nothing quite like checking your haul throughout the day. :) And after they're gone, you might want to check every now and then to make sure no new rodents have come to claim the "abandoned" homestead.
Sojourner
We dont have squirrels here, just possums. ( bigger than yours too....)
It seems with them that having the odd pee around the place puts them off, also having dogs now means I havent seen one in quite a while. I know the dogs havent caught any either. I assume the smell of them and the potential threat makes them nervous.
I have also heard that you can make them leave by doing this............get a male one, skin it and remove his nads ( the critter of course is dead ). burn them and mix the ash with 10 parts water. dilute 5 times with a 1 to 10 dilution each time.
Spray the final dilution around the place. Supposed to work, dont ask me why.
Other solution is...........kill the lil fuggers and eat them. You get a tasty free dinner and also remove the problem. If they taste anything like rabbit, they will be pretty good.
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
grew up on squirell pie, not too bad, as long as ya don't KNOW it tree rat.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
With a big fuzzy tail like that ya could call it what ya want, I would still eat it.
As for ordinary rats with long scaly tails......................aint nuff money in the world would make me eat one of those. :)
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
No tree rat problem here .... Ate 'em all...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
One thing that's often advised is to install a "one way valve" in the area being de-varminted, before sealing off the last few holes. This helps assure you don't trap any of the critters up there and have that lovely baked chipmunk odor.
The sonic rodent repellers are directional in nature and you will need more than one to annoy the squirles. I also reccomend that you add a stroblight or two. They work really well on bats too.
ya know, after reading this thread and the "cat from hell" saga, i'm thinking i could have gone outside the traditional construction related gift for you. maybe i should have shopped in the brownell's catalog...
m
Naw, I think my hunting days are behind me. My last victim was a cat though, and prior to that, a squirrel, so I do have expertise in the subject matter. ;)
Here's my trophy cat story:
The cat was a huge black feral cat that was terrorizing my housemate's cat. Each time they got into a scrap - always at the feral cat's initiative - the house cat got thoroughly punctured. It was so bad, the housecat could sense the presence of the feral one from inside the house, even though he could not see it, and would run upstairs to hide in a dark closet. My housemate asked me to kill the monster, which I reluctantly agreed to do. I love cats, and dogs too for that matter. She showed me where she kept a 12 gauge pump and ammo - we lived in a rural area with the closest neighbour some 800' away.
I stalked that cat four or five times over an 18 month period, loading the gun and heading out the door. Each time, when I got to where he was, he'd be gone, nowhere to be seen. One night, I saw him in the headlights as I parked my car; I ran in, got the gun and a flashlight, but once more he'd melted away like a ghost.
He showed up on the solarium deck one winter night. Our cat freaked out and ran upstairs. I opened the door (lights were already on) and threw 3 pieces of birch firewood at it. He stepped aside as the first log flew right where he'd been. He did the same for the next piece, stepping aside and then sitting there staring at me with eyes that were quite frightening actually. Quite rattled (is he going to jump me?) I missed with the 3rd piece and he disappeared into the night. Yikes.
Here's how I got him. One summer day I noticed him laying under the picnic table, on the rear deck. He hadn't seen me. I immediately turned my brain off (meaning I forced myself not to think about hunting him), loaded up and went out the front door. As I rounded the corner where I was expecting to draw a bead on it (all the while shutting my brain down so he wouldn't pick up the hunting vibes), it occured to me he might just be waiting right there to pounce on my face (the deck was at chest height you see). Heart going thump thump - talk about buck fever! Gabe, if I'd known you then, I have called you first to provide backup!
Anyhoo, I cautiously rounded the corner and there he was sitting straight up looking at me from under the table, his evil eyes looking right into mine. I immediately snapped the barrel down and sent 1 1/4 oz of #6 his way, from 30' away with a mod choke. This knocked him down on his side (knocked one brace right off the table too). He twitched a bit, so I fed him another round, and that was that.
There was no mess as the pellets pushed fur into the holes. This bad dude was beautiful, weighing in at 15 lbs of hard muscle. I lifted him by the back with both hands - the spine and back muscles filled the span of my hands. I have big hands. Phew, what a monster. Definitely a record book entry!
My squirrel story has much less drama. But it did take four hunts to git him. He was chewing the dovetails off the log house I was living in...sounded like a 35 lb porcupine he did.
mitch, the drill/driver kit you gave me rocks and I'm very happy to have it. Just what this remodeller/safari hunter needed. Thanks again.
i'm thinking if it took you a year and a half to bag a stray cat, maybe hunting wasn't really your long suit anyway... ;-)
m
LOL. I've no doubt this particular cat could read my murderous mind... A ghost he was. ;)
Pierre, you sound like a man I can relate to. After a year of trying to capture or persuade the possoms to leave that cat food alone, I set my son on them with a .22 rifle. (now we now you should never try to kill a possum with a .22 it took 11 bullets) then, a 9mm pistol ( at least the cats survived) finally, after several glasses of wine, I put on the gloves, literally, and started just snatching them off the porch railing by the tail and dumping them into to waiting pet carrier. Direct, no? I felt like Ellie May Clampett, but it worked. Until they found their way back from where I had let them go, about 3 miles away. The end of the story goes like this: the cats died of old age, the possoms vanished with the kibble, and now I trap squirrels for fun. They get taken a looong ways away.