All the traits that make squirrels delightful to watch when they’re outside—their playfulness and resourcefulness—can become a nightmare when they wreak havoc in or near your home. That’s why the experts at Varment Guard have compiled a list of the problems squirrels can cause as well as ways to prevent them from entering your home in the first place.
Squirrel Damage
Squirrels cause problems by:
1. Sneaking Into Your Home
Squirrels are expert acrobats. Climbing surfaces, shimmying across beams and cables, even leaping long distances—they do it all! Unfortunately, these skills serve them all too well when they’re breaking and entering. Squirrels seeking food, water, shelter, or warmth often see houses as a golden opportunity. If they can find the smallest opening up high, they’ll use their unmatched dexterity to reach it.
Usually, a squirrel enters your home through damaged vent screens, uncapped chimneys, or peeling shingles and siding. They can also leap from nearby power lines, tree branches, or high plant life.
Unfortunately, if the opening they find isn’t big enough, they’ll simply enlarge it, damaging your home in the process. The hole the squirrel makes could become a passage for other kinds of pests, too. Plus, the squirrel may have other pests, like fleas, on it already.
2. Building Nests
When squirrels build winter nests, they’re relentless. They grab chunks of anything they can find, smashing, munching, and crashing through everything else in the process. Squirrels often slash up insulation, paper products, linens, and fabrics to scavenge nest materials.
The damage squirrels inflict on attics can lead to all kinds of other problems too. Damaged insulation can lead to drafts, other pest problems, and even safety concerns.
3. Gnawing on Cables and Wires
A squirrel’s teeth never stop growing. To keep their growing teeth sharp, they need something to gnaw on, all day every day. If they get into your home, they may end up gnawing on wires or cables. Soft, plastic-wrapped electrical wires are ideal for squirrel teething. They’re brightly colored, soft, and easily accessible.
Squirrels will often chew on wires until they break through the wrapping and expose the wiring itself. Depending on where the wire is, it could spark and start an electrical fire. Even if the wire doesn’t spark, squirrels could cause other expensive and annoying electrical damage.
4. Causing Structural Damage
Squirrels scratch up wooden surfaces, dig through insulation, pull wiring out of walls, break things, and defecate everywhere. The damage they inflict isn’t purely cosmetic. If you store anything in your attic, it could end up as nesting material for these rodents.
Drafts and holes in insulation created by burrowing squirrels could drive up your heating bill or lead to pest infestation. In rare circumstances, these pests could even damage the structural integrity of part of the building itself.
Keep Your Home Squirrel-Free With Varment Guard
Whenever you need help with rowdy squirrels in or near your home, contact Varment Guard. We can effectively remove squirrels and prevent them from returning.
