Appreciating Ohio’s Squirrels
We missed it!
Apparently January 21 (this past Thursday) was National Squirrel Appreciation Day.
It’s hard to keep track of the daily “national” celebrations, but we are a little sad we missed this one. For sure, we appreciate squirrels!
In reflecting on National Squirrel Appreciation Day, we can assuredly tell you that many people here in the Akron, Canton, Kent Ohio area were probably not celebrating their appreciation for squirrels: namely, those who had squirrels get into their homes this year. The ones from which we have made many a squirrel removal.
When you get squirrels in your home, they are viewed with more annoyance than appreciation. And, each of the four types of squirrel we have here in out area can be quite troublesome.
In this post we’ll review the four types of squirrel that we remove from people’s homes.
Gray & Black Squirrels
The most commonly encountered squirrel of our clients is the gray squirrel.
Gray squirrels are in all of our neighborhhoods and get into people’s homes the most.
They are notorious chewers and when find a spot they like, they’ll put a hole in a roof edge or corner of the house in no time. Not only is it important to get the squirrels out to keep them from running around in the attic and walls, it is important to repair the damage they make like the hole pictured here.
Since gray squirrels have two litters a year, their numbers stay pretty high. And with higher numbers and the loss of trees in neighborhoods, it is easy to see why they like to chew their way into our homes.
Black squirrels in our area are mainly just gray squirrels in disguise. This is why we didn’t give them a category all to themselves.
The black pigment is a genetic variation and so they are not a species of their own.
In Michigan and Ontario, the black pigmented squirrel is more widespread.
In our area, probably thanks to the black squirrels brought to Kent State University in the 1960s, they are becoming more common in Summit and Stark Counties as well.
Flying Squirrels
While gray squirrels are the most commonly seen squirrels in our neighborhhoods, the most populous squirrel in Ohio is the flying squirrel.
This little known, nocturnal squirrel flys under the radar because of their size and habits.
They spend most of their time in the trees and since they are only out at night, they’d be difficult to spot anyway. Because they are so small and light, they don’t make a lot of attention getting like the bigger squirrels.
They get in houses through very small gaps. Therefore, sealing them out of houses is a lot like keeping bats out.
They are most noticeable in the winter because they congregate in large multi-family groups if the conditions of an attic space are right. While all the other squirrels are territorial and won’t live together, flying squirrels make winter communal living a calling card.
More squirrels equals more noise. And, it also equals more pooh and pee which they all do in one spot in an attic or soffit. Staining on the side of a house under one of their toileting areas puts them on the not wanted list. The streaking to the left of the picture in the house above is caused by flying squirrels.
Red Squirrels
Not too many people are super familiar with the red squirrel because there aren’t a crazy amount of them.
Their preferred habitat is in woods with a lot of pine trees as pine cones are one of their chief foods. To underscore this point, the red squirrel is also called a pine squirrel or piney squirrel in certain areas.
And while there are certainly some near you, more so than gray squirrels and a lot like flying squirrels, they spend the majority of their time off the ground in trees. Being in trees most of the time makes them a lot less visible as well.
Like gray squirrels and flying squirrels they are opportunistic. If there is attic or wall access nearby, they’re more than willing to move in. They normally nest in hollows of trees whether natural or made by woodpeckers. They don’t just chew in as readily as gray squirrels will do, but if they find a small opening they’ll exploit it.
Yet, what sets them apart from other squirrels is the way they store their food and get rid of the food debris. This is because red squirrels are stockpilers of food. They gather their nuts of cones and store them in one or two large piles in their territory. Unlike a gray squirrel that buries nuts all over the place and then finds them later by smell, red squirrels keep all their food in caches.
Then when they go to eat, they always go back to the food pile and eat close by. They usually eat in the same place and all the discarded cones or nutshells accumulate in a pile as well.
When we are inspecting for red squirrels, we look for lots of nuts or pine cones in an attic. This is a hallmark of red squirrels. Also, we often find the pile of discarded food scraps as well. Finding one of these piles of debris is also a good indication of red squirrels.
Fox Squirrels
The last type of squirrel we ahave here in Northeast Ohio is the fox squirrel. They are the biggest of our species of squirrel but not as common as the grays. They can have a black variant as well.
Like grey squirrels, they are active during the day and spend a lot of the time on the ground.
They find openings inot houses or can chew their way in.
But, except for a pocket around Canton, these squirrels tend to avoid neighborhhods. You’re more likely to see them in a park or on the Towpath trail.
Squirrel Removal Professionals| Akron, Canton, Kent
We hope this rundown on the squirrels that live in Northeast Ohio gives you a bit more appreciation for them.
But, if they’ve worn out their welcome and appreciation at your house and you want them gone, we can help.
All four of these species get into people’s homes and we have the experience to get them out.
Please give Frontline Animal Removal a call about your squirrel problem today.
And be sure to check out out numerous blogs and videos about squirrel removal. You might see that we’ve encountered a squirrel job very similar to yours.
