squirrel in my walls

[xotech]

My first post:

I had a similar problem at two different homes. After trying several types of traps and poison, I just waited til the squirrels went outside during the day and then closed the hole with a piece of wood that I had cut to fit. Metal fly screen can work too, along with a heavy duty staple gun.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

So I take it you don't like squirrels much......
I thought it was squirrel season 365
I have coons on my back deck regularly but they rarely make it off the deck. Dang things seem to have a thing for dry cat food and the cat it's set out for seems to want to share (scared of coons). The last one was around 15lbs or at least felt like it when I picked it up.

Deadeye, i love the avatar.

Yeah i hate squirrels. I didn't know you could hunt year round. I have really only hunted coyote, ground squirrel, rabbits, dear, and elk. But if i can kill squirrels year round, then i will be having a great time. They are all over where i live. I just don't like to shoot much as the neighbors will eventually get mad.

 

[CharlesAFerg]

I admire the passion. I feel the same way about raccoons. God i hate Raccoons.

In the metro area, you can't really do much to get rid of Squirrels or Raccoons, as both of these animals are so used to traps around here, they never go near them.

I'd like to share two episodes with all of you.

First, is my experience with a raccoon family. A few years ago, we started hearing scratching and odd animal purring type sounds in a particular place in the upper attic. Well, a week later we're having our roof pressure washed, and we get a knock on the door about a half hour after he steps foot on our roof. "I just saw the biggest raccoon that I have ever seen, right next to me up on your roof. I sprayed it with the pressure washer, knocked it clean off the roof. (Two stories high) The traps that a professional trapper were complete failures, regardless of the bait or where we put them. This was a trapper that our neighbor has used extensively for other animals.

Well, after weeks of this, and not being allowed to shoot them or poison them, we decided to blast them with air horns. We would blast in both upper attic entrances for a few seconds, multiple times per day. The trapper mentioned that the mother raccoon would leave with all of her babies at once, and we probably wouldn't notice her leave, because it would be at night. Well, a week or two later, she left in broad daylight. Cub by cub, she brought them out of the house.

Of course, she returned about a week later, this time to a different part of the house. Conveniently, right next to a wall with a ledge. We placed a massive speaker next to the wall, and blasted heavy metal every day for about a half an hour per session, many times per day. She was done in three days.

The squirrels came into the upper attic, on the other hand, were nasty. They kept coming and going, and I could not figure out where they were coming from. They scratched holes in the ceiling, and moved around tons of insulation. Regardless, we only disposed of one with a trap, while none of the others took the bait. Finally, it got really bad just before last year's snow storm. Then, the sound stopped, but we assumed that they left.
Wrong.

When it warmed up, I discovered flies in the upstairs bathroom. Lovely. I finally found their maggot-infested, bloated bodies, and disposed of them. Turns out they were chewing on electrical wiring, which come to find out, the covering of which is manufactured with some type of peanut oil extract.

Holes are now sealed with wire, bricks, and foam.

 

[RoJac]

Foster Feed Store on Se Foster (about 99th) Rents traps.The price isn't bad.
Happy hunting.



RoJac

 

[rvmichael]

How frustrating for you Friend.
One morning my wife's car wouldn't start, while opening the hood, one of our local squirrels jumped from the front tire and ran like ****, after getting the hood all the way up, two baby squirrels were running out of a nest that encumbered 1/3 of the engine compartment.
I spent several hours rewiring the car.

Friend, you actually may have saved some serious money.

While working for an RV dealer here in Oregon, a customer brought a high-end motor coach in for a refrigerator not working. The wiring was so chewed-up, the refer had to be replaced to the tune of $2000.00.

Two weeks later same coach came back in with the refer in-op again. Turns out, the squirrel had bailed out some time during the removal, and returned after install. Yep, it only took four grand for everyone to figure all that out. It was with a little help from another tech across the bay that saw the squirrel jump back into the "open" outside refer access panel while the tech was at lunch.

 

[rvmichael]

Quit the story Charles, love the rap music and horns as a remedy

 

[roguebowhunter]

had a problem w/ skunks and used the moth balls.. it took a little time and a quite a few boxes of em .. but they left and i buried the hole they where usin
Don

 

[DrDave]

Decon pellets and peanut butter!

 

[the4thshake]

If you boil the decon in a little bit of water it mixes with the decon real well. They will eat quite a bit before it kills them. Then you will have a horrible smell coming from the wall....but it will be quiet.

Rat traps won't kill a squirrel. Live catch doesn't work. There are traps designed to catch squirrels. A google search should point you in the right direction.

 

[michaels]

Kind of off topic, but for anyone who has ever had to deal with nutria.....

I found this inspirational video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47AzWR6Onnw

 

[ajf1]

Sounds like a terrible problem another suggustion would be to use coyote scent. It typically drives any prey away, if they think a coyote is in the area.. Plus any of the neigbors cats and dogs and the coons

 

[JC9995]

Well, look on the bright side..... you dont have squirells in your pants. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMxs0EZrFfI&feature=PlayList&p=687A13886F683B2F&index=0

 

[Oakley1wa]

Well, look on the bright side..... you dont have squirells in your pants. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMxs0EZrFfI&feature=PlayList&p=687A13886F683B2F&index=0

I think watching that killed brain cells... It was like one of those fatal traffic accidents, you just cant help but to stare...

 

[Frog]

OK, FriendOfEvanWilliams, here's my contribution to the squirrel problem.

Sounds like you know where the buggers home entrance is. Buy a cheap transistor radio. Set it to your favorite radio station with the volume set as loud as you dare. Tape both controls. Place the radio in the entrance. If you can get it down the wall, even partially, put some string on the radio, so you can retrieve it for next time. Make sure you tape the string to the radio. If not, you may never get it back, and you may have to listen to it till the batteries run down.

When you are sure the little bugger isn't 'home' (because of the sound of the radio), fill in the hole with a can of that expanding foam. (also cheap, from Home Depot).

Best metro 'backyard' round is 22lr Aguila Super Colibri. You will need a 22 handgun, (don't use a rifle!) but it's sounds like a cap or air gun when fired. It's powder-less with a speed rating of 500fps. However I believe, from experience, that it's much faster than that.

Finally, don't use a poison inside your house. I stupidly did, (because I didn't want my cat eating it, outside). Whatever it was, I got rid of it, but it stunk up my house for 6 weeks, and my house was buzz'in with the largest flies I'd ever seen, before it was all over!

Anyway, here's hoping you get rid of it.

Frog.

 

[gunnails]

It's a long story, but I found the sticky glue traps to be quite effective, the story ends with a drowning in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[Redstick]

I've used Sturgeon Hooks on the end of a piece of wire. Fish around inside the wall and when you hook a vermin they struggle less than a Sturgeon and you can drag 'em right out and smack 'em on the floor so good and hard they get a headache!

 

[RVTECH]

While working for an RV dealer here in Oregon, a customer brought a high-end motor coach in for a refrigerator not working. The wiring was so chewed-up, the refer had to be replaced to the tune of $2000.00.

Last year we had a customer come in the dealership I work for complaining of an in-op furnace an a "funny smell" After the tech removed the furnace we discovered what appeared to be a some kind of ground squirrel completely spread eagle between the squirrel cage fan (no pun intended) and the fan housing. We also had a motorhome come in with the customer complaint of "burning smells coming from the the engine". Opening the hood revealed almost every nook and cranny of the engine filled with nesting materials, weeds, twigs and the like. The engine was almost completely covered.

 

[Redstick]

We also had a motorhome come in with the customer complaint of "burning smells coming from the the engine". Opening the hood revealed almost every nook and cranny of the engine filled with nesting materials, weeds, twigs and the like. The engine was almost completely covered.

Lucky it didn't catch on fire! I saw a car run over a tumbleweed that part got stuck underneath the car, caught on far and burnt the car! Packrats build those nests in the engine compartment and it don't take one very long to get it all packed FULL! They go at it all night and if'fn the vehicle is parked near a bushy Elderberry Tree or similar, it's just that much quicker for them with shorter trips.

 

[RVTECH]

This one had been in outdoor storage (grassy field) for a while and had not been run much before it was brought in or the outcome might have been different.

 

[lcb97269]

squirrels can make a really bad stink when dead. capture alive then kill outdoors. pitch into trash.