A Belated Solution to a Fuzzy Problem

In early April of last year I wrote about a squirrel problem in our attic but never quite wrapped up how things turned out. We decided it best to hire on the rodents as help around the house and have been enjoying home cooked meals and pressed laundry ever since. ;) If only. A KFnet friends from here in town emailed to find out how our story ended because he's got a similar problem. I emailed him back directly but figured I'd share with everyone just in case it happens to you.

Quick Review

We had a squirrel in the peak of our roof just above our home office. Not much it could do up there so we left it until Spring. Well, turns out it had babies (4 if I recall correctly) that all made it down the roof line through some insulation and into our side attic storage area.

Solution

Mama could move to and fro with ease but once any of the babies were in the lower attic they couldn't get back up. We used 1/4" wire mesh to seal up their path between the areas of our attic so mama could no longer come to the lower attic. We then scared her out by pounding on the ceiling above the office. Once it was confirmed by my wife outside that mama had left we sealed up the vent at the peak of our roof on both sides with a triangle of 1/4" and some heavy duty staples.

There were a couple ways we managed to get the babies from our lower (and accessible to us, mind you) attic. First I went in with thick gloves and a cat carrier and caught some by hand. Depending on where I managed to corner them this worked find. I was careful to only hold them briefly then toss then into the carrier and promptly lock it up.

A couple of the little ones wedged themselves into places I simply could not reach but I didn't want them to be separated from their mom and food too long. The next step was to get a trap. It's illegal to kill squirrels in this state (not that I wanted to anyway) so even a pro would need to set it and forget it and wait. Thinking "I could do that" I got a Havahart 1025 no-kill, no-springs trap at the local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes, etc -- just call to see if they have 'em). It's got a cool lever system that snaps shut at the slightest touch of the little pad where you put the bait. This sometimes made setting it up a bit of a chore but the thing worked. Over the next couple days any remaining babies took the peanut butter bait and got caught.

The best part about this story is when we released any of the baby squirrels. The mother was very in-tune with what we were doing and would often stay near or even kinda' follow me when I went outside to the car or to empty our recycling. When we brought a baby outside most were too scared to run when I opened the cage or trap. Instead, I'd stand back 10' or so and mama wouldn't hesitate to scamper up to her baby, bundle it up under her chin, and head to their new home in a nearby tree.

Closing Advice

Even though we were able to get everybody out and seal off their chance to get back in we got lucky. No one chewed through any wires or ceilings which would've caused a huge headache for us. Plus, had we acted sooner to get the single squirrel out sooner we would've avoided the baby problem all together. Some websites encouraged the "wait until it's warmer" passive approach but that's when it really became a pain with the babies being born and getting into different parts of our attic.

Hope this helps! Feel free to share your stories for all the benefit from in the comments below.