Some Squirrels are Hard to Stop
When squirrels want to get into a good nesting spot in your home, it can be pretty hard to stop them.
As rodents, their front teeth are always growing and they can sure put them to use on tunneling into homes here in the Akron, Canton, Kent, OH area.
Why do we see a lot of squirrel chewing right now? Good question. Read on, as this blog post is for you.
Squirrel Breeding and Birth in Ohio
Question 1 When do squirrels in Ohio breed? The textbook answer for this is that they breed twice a year: during the winter breeding season of December/January and during the spring breeding season of May/June.
Question 2 When do squirrels give birth in Ohio? Biologists tell us grey squirrels have gestation period of about 44 days. This means that most squirrels are then born in months of February/March and July/August.
And while the nuisance squirrels that we deal with can sometimes defy these typical time periods for a variety of reasons, this knowledge helps explain why there is so much chewing right now.
Here’s a picture Ryan took recently of a squirrel chewing it’s way into a home.
It’s such a great picture because the wood shavings from the squirrel chew are so fresh they are still sitting on the spouting below. The wind and rain haven’t taken away the evidence of this fresh squirrel chew.
What’s going on here? In all likelihood, this home was selected as a nest site for a recently bred female squirrel. She will be giving birth later this month or in March and is in need a secure nest site.
This may be her first time giving birth and has no old nest in which to give birth. She may have been looking for good real estate in the trees around this home, but because of the high population of squirrels, all the “natural” sites may be taken. She chose the next best thing to a tree hollow, a nice spot in the eaves and maybe even into an attic.
As you can see, this home was wood sided and didn’t stand a chance against this squirrel’s teeth. They can, however, also chew through aluminum and vinyl siding as well.
Here is another recent photo which shows a squirrel chewing through aluminum. In this case, a deficiency in the wood originally caught the squirrel’s attention but, the squirrel needed to make the opening a little wider and aluminum was in the way. Again, even light gauge metals aren’t a big deal for a determined squirrel.
Dealing with Chewing Squirrels
Once a squirrel has determined that your home seems to provide a good nesting spot, she can be very persistent.
Making a quality repair to the area is always a priority and a full service nuisance animal removal company like ours will do that for you. But, we highlight the need for squirrel removal prior to making the repair.
If you are going to spend time and money getting your home back to its pre-squirrel condition, we believe the offenders need to be removed through trapping.
We mention this for do-it-yourselfers and those tempted by a quick fix of merely blocking the hole off. The squirrel was there for a reason and will most likely be back causing new troubles. Blocking off its hole will most likely result in it making a new one somewhere else on your house.
Professional Squirrel Removal for Stark / Summit / Portage Counties
Removal. Exclusion. Solution. This is our mantra and what we can provide to homeowners with squirrel problems in the Akron-Canton-Kent area.
If you are not in our service area, please consider finding a professional animal removal provider who pays equal amounts of attention to removal, repair,and prevention strategies.
Squirrels in the home can be irksome and sometimes difficult to avoid, but help is usually only a call away.
For more on squirrel problems and removal please visit:
