From restoring a car to unclogging a sink, attempting difficult tasks on your own is always a noble and admirable pursuit. Not only can DIY projects save you time and money, but quite often they’ll leave you feeling accomplished. However, results often vary—especially when it comes to DIY rodent removal, such as squirrel trapping. In fact, there are many health risks and concerns to consider for both you and the squirrel before you attempt to trap any invasive animal on your own.
4 Side Effects of DIY Squirrel TrappingÂ
If you’ve noticed squirrels living in the attic or walls of your home, you may be tempted to handle the job yourself. However, the proper experience is always required to effectively engage with any wild animal—even squirrels. Here are a few side effects that could result from a renegade approach to trapping.
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Collateral Damage
One main concern that many DIY trappers overlook is that squirrels often move into a home to nest and give birth. Therefore, if there’s a squirrel in your home, there are likely also babies. Baby squirrels are totally reliant on their mother for up to six weeks. So, if you just trap and remove a mother squirrel, its babies will likely starve.Â
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Near-Constant Surveillance
Traps are not a set it and forget it type of situation. When you set a trap, you must also commit to checking it frequently. In a panic to get out, squirrels can easily injure themselves or fill your trap with waste. They can also overheat, become dehydrated, and die due to lack of water or food. Dead or alive, a squirrel stuck in one of your in-home traps can create quite a foul stench overtime—one that attracts other pests and predators.
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Relocation Issues
Relocation isn’t the solution many people think. Even if you manage to trap your nuisance squirrel on your own, what will you do with it next? If you simply toss it back outside, it will likely just make it’s way back inside your home. That’s why traps aren’t the answer to squirrel infestations. For a permanent solution, you’ll need to look into exclusion techniques.
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Physical Harm
You must be careful to wear proper safety equipment such as gloves, sleeves, and goggles when handling squirrels, as they will bite and scratch to avoid capture. The rodents can also spread diseases through bites and direct contact such as plague, ringworm, tularemia, and typhus, so take precautions or contact professionals to handle the job.
The Exclusion Solution
Squirrels come and go all day long. To effectively get them out of your home, wait until they leave and then seal off their re-entry point. This process is known as exclusion. To properly exclude nuisance squirrels from your property, seal all but one point of entry and install a one-way door on the remaining exit. The squirrels inside can go out as they normally do, but they can’t come back in.Â
One thing to consider, however, is that you don’t want to lock out a mother squirrel with babies still inside. The last thing you want is orphaned squirrels in your home. If this is a possibility, then you are strongly encouraged to call a professional wildlife removal company to deal with your squirrel infestation.
Have Squirrels Invaded Your Home?
At Critter Control® of Polk County, our licensed technicians won’t just efficiently remove your squirrel infestation, but they’ll also exclude more from returning. We’ll clean up any mess the squirrels left behind with our residential restoration services that include replacing soiled attic insulation.
