Critters in the Attic

If personal experience counts, squirrels can do tons of damage.

Thanks dys.
Nothing better than personal experience.

Squirrels are just rats with bushy tails and better press.

Bats, on the other hand, are pretty cool mosquito eaters.

Get some warfarin and toss it up in your attic. The squirrels/roof rats/mice will be gone in about a week. Try to find their point of entry and screen it or fill it with that foam gunk you can get at any hardware store. Get a cat. If you own a pellet or other gun safe to use where you live, shoot the damn things.

Don't hurt the bats - you want to keep those, but do try to find a way to keep them out of your attic. Both they and their guano carry disease.

Yes, bats are good but their guano isn't -- at least inside your house. Stinks and is corrosive. My experience matches dyslexia's, squirrels can do a lot of damage. They will multiply, especially when they find such a comfortable, safe home. And they'll provide a path for even better critters -- such as raccoons, who really know how to live it up!

Get the trappers, the humane ones. Fumigate (fleas, etc.) and seal all possible access points. Do this before they breed because the trappers will never find the babies before you'll have to seal it up. Make sure the trappers guarantee that all critters are out of the attic before sealing. Also from personal experience -- you don't know revolting until you have the stench of a dead animal permeate your home. Depending on weather conditions and season, a dead squirrel takes approximately 1-2 weeks to completely decompose and a raccoon takes over a month. And then there's the flies that help with the decomposition .... >shudder<

Do all this as soon as possible. And don't forget to provide a bat house on a nearby tree or post!

Those "humane" trappers live trap the animals then go euthanize them once out of your sight. A problem animal relocated is just someone else's problem.

We just paid a pest control $600 a few months ago to get rid of bats. One night we had a bat in our living room. We had no clue how it got in the house. My husband got the bat out and looked in the attic several times to see if any bats were roosting in there and saw nothing. About a week after that, we heard scratching in the wall. That did it for me, time to call in the professionals. I read on the internet that bats will come back to the same roost for years and their droppings have an odor that draw other bats to the roost, so I wasn't going to take any chances.....I wanted whatever it was out!

The pest control company didn't see any bats in the attic but said they can curl up and if there's only one or two, they can be hard to find. They did say there were a few bat droppings, but it wasn't bad. Our attic isn't the easiest to get into so we took their word for it. All they did was put "Bat Scat" in the attic and came back every few days to "fumigate". I'm not sure what they did the few times they came back to "fumigate". The purpose of the Bat Scat is that the bats don't like it and will leave. After a week or so, the pest control company sealed all the little cracks and crevices where bats can get it. Bats are like mice and can get into very small holes. We had a small opening where two roof lines meet on the house.

Here's a link to where they sell "Bat Scat". The exterminator said he put the bat scat in pantyhose and hung it from the rafters.

http://www.guardianpestcontrol.com/Bat_Control_supplies.htm

I'd try this and save the money that having a professional do it would cost.

Good luck!

I'm not about to go up there.
And hubby doesn't seem too gungho about it either. I've already called wildlife removal. They will be here on Friday.

Get rid of those squirrels - and make sure the house is sealed up tight-tight-tight.

They can do a disturbing amount of damage - and the bacteria in their crap is of no benefit to you.

It going to cost 50.00 just for the initial inspection. I'm so afraid that this is going to run us a small fortune because we've had critters winter after winter and didn't take care of things like we should have so, it will be our punishment. The price we pay for neglect.

For $200 you can get a really nice pump shotgun. Might as well have some fun with it.