Our Upstairs Tenant
Two winters ago, as well as three winters ago, we had a problem with skunks living in the crawl space under our house. That problem became so miserable that we had to evacuate the house for a few days when the stench became unbearable. Eventually, I caught many skunks and managed to secure our crawl space effectively. This past winter we had no skunk problems. I can't begin to tell you how much of a relief it is to be rid of those stinky skunks!
We did, however, have a little tenant living in our attic space and in the ceilings all winter this year. I knew this little critter was a squirrel since I had seen him going in and out of a little hole at the peak of our roof. I wasn't sure how many squirrels we had living up there though.
Every day and night we could hear the pitter-patter of little squirrel feet running across our ceilings. At different times we could hear him scratching away at either the ceiling or support members. I don't know if he thought he was digging to hide food, or if he had a more logical purpose. What I do know is that this noise became annoying and, at night while we were trying to sleep, it was quite frustrating. I had visions of fiberglass insulation being torn to shreds and scattered all over the attic. Worse yet, hearing this squirrel always reminded me of the previous problems we have had with skunks and those are not pleasant memories!
Thinking about it realistically, however, I figured there was very little damage this squirrel could do in an empty attic space so I was not too enthused about jumping into another big extermination project. Besides, my health was quite miserable all through the winter this year so jumping into any project voluntarily was a last resort. Relocating a squirrel was not high on my priority list.
By April, our teenage son, Adam, had had enough of this little critter keeping him awake at night. He came out of his bedroom one morning, exhausted from lack of sleep, ready to declare war on our little resident living upstairs. I have a lot of other projects awaiting my attention so I figured this might be a good project for Adam. I also knew he was angry and frustrated enough to want to jump right into this project rather than take the usual teenage lackadaisical approach.
Thankfully, Sheila's dad has a small "Havaheart" trap which he loaned us for this project. Now we needed to come up with a plan. We certainly didn't want to trap the squirrel, release him, and then have him return to the attic. So, we needed to find all ways of entry to the attic space before we trapped the squirrel and let him loose again.
I also didn't want to close up all entries to the attic and end up trapping the squirrel up there. That could result in having a frantic squirrel or a frantic family of squirrels. Damage would be more likely in this scenario so we needed a plan.
When we borrowed the trap from Sheila's dad, I let Adam know that this was his project. We talked about a plan so that he could accomplish things in the right order and as effectively as possible. The first step was to figure out how the little scampering feet gained access. Then we needed to figure out how to block this access, and at what stage of the project.
The one access point that was easily visible by us was at the peak of our roof. We often would see the squirrel just sitting up there, the upper half of his body poking out the hole, watching life go by like he was sitting on his own personal balcony. Other times we would see him run up the roof, over the edge, and into the hole in the facia at the peak like he was defying gravity. We needed to ensure there were no other access points though. Eventually I found another access point where a piece of soffit was missing between two adjoining roof structures.
I had Adam get up on a ladder to access the hole at the peak. Adam drew a template of the peak and the hole on a piece of paper. I had him then cut out a piece of 1/4" plywood to match the template. This piece of plywood would then be nailed to the facia around the hole. The hole in the soffit would be covered with another piece of 1/4" plywood after Adam captured the little squirrel.
Adam baited the Havaheart trap with peanut butter, climbed the ladder to the attic space, and carefully set the trap. We checked the trap the next day and could see tongue-prints and footprints in the peanut butter but the trap never tripped. The squirrel came, ate, and left.
This time Adam baited the trap with peanut butter smeared across the bait tray and then poured some granola on top of the peanut butter. He again climbed up the ladder to the attic space, trap in hand, and reset the trap.
The following afternoon I heard some commotion in the attic space from my desk. It sounded like a frantic animal trying to get out of the trap. I didn't want to listen to that for the next few hours until Adam came home from school so I climbed up there myself and retrieved the trap. Our winter upstairs tenant was a small, young squirrel.
I placed the trap in the yard and waited for Adam to come home from school so he could finish the job. As I worked in the yard over the next few hours, splitting wood and stacking firewood, I found myself talking to our caged squirrel every time I pushed the wheelbarrow past the trap. He would just watch me and seemed content. I imagined he was saying, "hey, bring some more of that granola... that was good!" I tried to share one of my potato chips with him, but he wasn't interested in any of that. I think he wanted more of that granola.
Before we released our newly evicted tenant, Adam and I patched the known access points to the attic. Adam then brought the trap to the far back end of our yard and lifted one of the trap doors. Our little squirrel quickly darted for the line of trees and shrubs another hundred feet across the grass.
So far, we hear only beautiful silence in our attic. And, Adam hasn't done any complaining about being kept awake all night by an upstairs tenant.
We did, however, have a little tenant living in our attic space and in the ceilings all winter this year. I knew this little critter was a squirrel since I had seen him going in and out of a little hole at the peak of our roof. I wasn't sure how many squirrels we had living up there though.
Every day and night we could hear the pitter-patter of little squirrel feet running across our ceilings. At different times we could hear him scratching away at either the ceiling or support members. I don't know if he thought he was digging to hide food, or if he had a more logical purpose. What I do know is that this noise became annoying and, at night while we were trying to sleep, it was quite frustrating. I had visions of fiberglass insulation being torn to shreds and scattered all over the attic. Worse yet, hearing this squirrel always reminded me of the previous problems we have had with skunks and those are not pleasant memories!
Thinking about it realistically, however, I figured there was very little damage this squirrel could do in an empty attic space so I was not too enthused about jumping into another big extermination project. Besides, my health was quite miserable all through the winter this year so jumping into any project voluntarily was a last resort. Relocating a squirrel was not high on my priority list.
By April, our teenage son, Adam, had had enough of this little critter keeping him awake at night. He came out of his bedroom one morning, exhausted from lack of sleep, ready to declare war on our little resident living upstairs. I have a lot of other projects awaiting my attention so I figured this might be a good project for Adam. I also knew he was angry and frustrated enough to want to jump right into this project rather than take the usual teenage lackadaisical approach.
Thankfully, Sheila's dad has a small "Havaheart" trap which he loaned us for this project. Now we needed to come up with a plan. We certainly didn't want to trap the squirrel, release him, and then have him return to the attic. So, we needed to find all ways of entry to the attic space before we trapped the squirrel and let him loose again.
I also didn't want to close up all entries to the attic and end up trapping the squirrel up there. That could result in having a frantic squirrel or a frantic family of squirrels. Damage would be more likely in this scenario so we needed a plan.
When we borrowed the trap from Sheila's dad, I let Adam know that this was his project. We talked about a plan so that he could accomplish things in the right order and as effectively as possible. The first step was to figure out how the little scampering feet gained access. Then we needed to figure out how to block this access, and at what stage of the project.
The one access point that was easily visible by us was at the peak of our roof. We often would see the squirrel just sitting up there, the upper half of his body poking out the hole, watching life go by like he was sitting on his own personal balcony. Other times we would see him run up the roof, over the edge, and into the hole in the facia at the peak like he was defying gravity. We needed to ensure there were no other access points though. Eventually I found another access point where a piece of soffit was missing between two adjoining roof structures.
I had Adam get up on a ladder to access the hole at the peak. Adam drew a template of the peak and the hole on a piece of paper. I had him then cut out a piece of 1/4" plywood to match the template. This piece of plywood would then be nailed to the facia around the hole. The hole in the soffit would be covered with another piece of 1/4" plywood after Adam captured the little squirrel.
Adam baited the Havaheart trap with peanut butter, climbed the ladder to the attic space, and carefully set the trap. We checked the trap the next day and could see tongue-prints and footprints in the peanut butter but the trap never tripped. The squirrel came, ate, and left.
This time Adam baited the trap with peanut butter smeared across the bait tray and then poured some granola on top of the peanut butter. He again climbed up the ladder to the attic space, trap in hand, and reset the trap.
The following afternoon I heard some commotion in the attic space from my desk. It sounded like a frantic animal trying to get out of the trap. I didn't want to listen to that for the next few hours until Adam came home from school so I climbed up there myself and retrieved the trap. Our winter upstairs tenant was a small, young squirrel.
I placed the trap in the yard and waited for Adam to come home from school so he could finish the job. As I worked in the yard over the next few hours, splitting wood and stacking firewood, I found myself talking to our caged squirrel every time I pushed the wheelbarrow past the trap. He would just watch me and seemed content. I imagined he was saying, "hey, bring some more of that granola... that was good!" I tried to share one of my potato chips with him, but he wasn't interested in any of that. I think he wanted more of that granola.
Before we released our newly evicted tenant, Adam and I patched the known access points to the attic. Adam then brought the trap to the far back end of our yard and lifted one of the trap doors. Our little squirrel quickly darted for the line of trees and shrubs another hundred feet across the grass.
So far, we hear only beautiful silence in our attic. And, Adam hasn't done any complaining about being kept awake all night by an upstairs tenant.
Yay! You got him! :-)
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