November 11, 2007
in which we reject a squirrel
We awoke Saturday morning to the scampering of a squirrel on the ceiling of the bedroom. The brave squirrel had discovered the gap where the wood has rotted behind one of the corbels across the front of the house, and had found a way to hang upside and then scoot into the attic space.
We made sure that he was out, and Ronni stood guard while I got the ladder out and climbed that high open space up to where the squirrel was getting in and out. I used the finishing nail gun to attach small pieces of wood to block the space, though it is in such bad shape right there that nothing wanted to hold.
We’ve been squirrel-free for just under 24 hours. We could hear him on the roof exploring the area, but he didn’t make it in.
WATCH OUT! We thought they were all out and there was clearly a little friend still in there. A little friend who ended up in our office.
We had a similar problem in our last house. Somehow, the squirrels kept making new holes in our siding even after we patched it. They were getting into the eves, where they would very noisily run the length of the house in the middle of the night when we were trying to sleep. Our second attempt to rid our home of woodland creatures was mouse poison. The plan worked fine, but had an awful side effect - the squirrels died in a place that was not easily reachable, so the whole house smelled like dead squirrel for weeks and no air freshener would cover it up. We wound up having to take out part of the eves to get them out. Not something I’d want to live through again. Anyway, word of advice - if the patching doesn’t work out, mouse poison isn’t a great second choice …
ick! We had an opossum die in an inaccessible spot under the front porch. It stank to high heaven for 2 weeks, enough so that I had to sleep in the back of the house.
What is it with the squirrels this time of year? It seems like they’re invading.
And the mice, too! It gets cold out a little and something switches for them.
The other day I heard a big BANG! and the power went out. The utility guy who worked on it told me it was squirrels “getting in where they shouldn’t be.”
Don’t read this if you like squirrels….The other day one of the guys I work with told me he was smoking outside his firehouse, heard a POP! and saw something on fire streaking through the air a few feet from him. When it landed, he walked over to investigate. Fried squirrel. Apparently it was running along the power lines and its little tail touched something it shouldn’t.