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A Little Piece of Flashing. A Lot of Patience. Flying Squirrels Found.
Some jobs are textbook. You show up, you find the hole, you get to work. This was not one of those jobs! This week’s profile job is a flying squirrel removal that started frustrating and ended up fulfilling.
The moral of the story is twofold: 1) Nuisance wildlife removal has challenges for us and customers 2) persistence pays off.
A few weeks ago, Ryan was called out to a home for a suspected flying squirrel problem. He went over the whole house. Checked everything. Nothing looked wrong — the exterior appeared solid. He did find some old squirrel exclusion work but it seemed solid enough. His best guess at the time was that the homeowners were hearing mice running inside the plaster walls. He placed a trail camera in the attic and came back to check it.
The camera did have photos of mice. But, he let it sit a little longer. A couple weeks later, the camera caught something else: a flying squirrel. That meant something was missed. Ryan came back out.
The takeaway from this job: Flying squirrel entries can be extremely difficult to find. Sometimes the first visit doesn’t crack it. Don’t give up — and don’t underestimate what a trail camera, a patient homeowner, and a climbing stick can do.
What Made This Entry So Hard to Find
Ryan came back and looked at everything he had looked at before. Still nothing. The entrance was hidden. But the homeowner had been paying close attention, and that turned out to be the key detail that broke the case.
The homeowner consistently reported hearing noise near their bedroom window — something crawling up and down the wall right next to it, every night. That bedroom window sits directly alongside the chimney. That’s when Ryan knew exactly where to focus.
Homeowner tip
Pay close attention to where the noise is coming from — which room, which wall, what time of night. That specific detail is often what narrows a search from the whole house down to one spot. This homeowner’s description was what pointed Ryan straight to the chimney.
Getting eyes on the problem area wasn’t simple. A ladder wouldn’t work — the roofline was in the way, and the pitch was steep. Ryan used a climbing stick to get down low enough to look up underneath the chimney flashing from a different angle. That’s when he spotted it: a small piece of metal sticking out.
He climbed up for a closer look and found that the step flashing next to the chimney was loose — flexible, wiggling. When he bent it up, there it was. A hole. Not obvious, not dramatic — just a gap about an inch and a quarter between the flashing and the chimney where the flashing had pulled away over time. Inside, old spray foam, chewed up. A tunnel, worn smooth from squirrels going in and out.
“Who would have thought just a little piece of flashing like that could be problematic? But it is.” — Ryan
To make things more confusing, someone had done repair work on the lower section of the same chimney at some point — hardware cloth and sealant were visible from a previous attempt to keep squirrels out. That earlier work drew Ryan’s attention to the wrong spot, and the actual entry — higher up, on the other side of the chimney — went undetected across multiple visits.
Watch Ryan Walk Through It
The video below covers both parts of this job — the frustrating search and then the payoff the following day when the trap produced results. Ryan explains exactly what he found, where it was, and why it was so easy to miss.
A Quick Note on Flying Squirrels
Most homeowners in the Akron, Canton, and Kent area know gray and black squirrels well — they’re out during the day, visible in every yard, and well-known for chewing into homes.
Flying squirrels, on the other hand, are less familiar. Most people have never seen one, because they are small, nocturnal, and spend most of their lives in trees. You are far more likely to hear them than see them — usually late at night.
They don’t force their way in like gray squirrels do. They don’t need to. Because they are so small, they find existing gaps and exploit them. Things like:
- Step flashing that has pulled away from a chimney
- Unscreened or damaged gable vents
- Loose or missing soffit sections
- Gaps where flashing was never properly sealed
- Deteriorated soil stack systems on the roof
- Any small gap at a roof-to-wall transition
That last one — the chimney flashing gap — is exactly what this job came down to. An inch and a quarter of separation, loose metal, and old chewed foam. That’s all it took.
What Happened Next
Once Ryan confirmed the entry, he set a trap — and the next day, there were squirrels in it. Two visits of fruitless searching, and the resolution came within 24 hours of finding the right spot. That’s how these jobs work. The entry is everything.
After removal, the repair work closes the loop. The flashing gets properly secured against the chimney, the gap gets sealed, and the rest of the exterior gets a thorough going-over to make sure nothing else was missed.
Most homes have more than one small vulnerability. This one already had a history of repairs on the chimney — which means it had been a target before. Getting it right the second time meant addressing every gap, not just the obvious one.
Worth knowing: A previous repair on the same chimney actually complicated this inspection — it drew the eye to the wrong spot. If a home has had animal issues before and repairs were made by someone else, that history matters and needs to be factored into the inspection.
We Have Covered This Kind of Job Before
Difficult flying squirrel entries are something we run into regularly in Summit, Stark, and Portage Counties.
If you want more background on what the search process looks like and how entries are typically found and sealed, check out this earlier post on finding flying squirrel entrances. It walks through the process in detail and includes video of the squirrels themselves — worth a look if you’ve never seen one up close.
Flying Squirrel Removal in Akron, Canton & Kent, Ohio
If you are hearing something in your walls or attic late at night — something small, quick, and active after dark — flying squirrels are worth considering.
The most important thing is not to assume the problem is simple just because the animal is small. This job took weeks to crack. Finding the entry is the hard part, and it is the part that determines whether the job is done right or done twice.
Give us a call. We’ll come out, do a thorough inspection, and give you an honest read on what’s going on. If flying squirrels are involved, we know how to handle it — even when the entry doesn’t want to be found.
Hearing something in your attic or walls?
Frontline Animal Removal serves homeowners throughout Stark, Summit, and Portage Counties. Call us today to discuss what’s going on.
Serving Akron, Canton & Kent, Ohio Serving Stark, Summit & Portage Counties