Tag Archives: baby squirrels

Dead Squirrels in Wall

Squirrel (4)     I thought I’d take care of the squirrel in the attic on my own, but I had no idea I’d end up with dead baby squirrels in the wall.

I’d discovered I had a squirrel in the attic one day when I heard some noises, went to investigate, and found the evidence.  Some of the attic insulation had been pushed down to next to nothing, there were droppings everywhere and a nasty smell, and the boxes we used to store our stuff had been chewed through.  The quilt my grandmother made had some of the stuffing pulled out of it, and some of the books and papers we had stored up there were trashed.

My husband’s been stressed out at work, so a squirrel in the attic was the last thing I wanted him to have to deal with.  He’d survived his company’s layoffs, but he now had to work twice as hard without extra pay to cover the work that was normally done by three people.  I decided not to tell him about the squirrel in the attic until I’d solved the problem.

Early in the morning, about the time I usually heard the noises in the attic, I armed myself with a hammer, nails, and chicken wire, and waited quietly outside watching the roof line.  Sure enough, after about 25 minutes of waiting and watching, a squirrel squirmed out of a small gap next to the attic vent and jumped up into a nearby tree branch.  I grabbed the ladder, and spent the next two hours climbing, swearing, sweating and trying not to fall while I hammered ugly chicken wire over the gap.

Problem solved.  Husband none the wiser.

About two months later, I started to smell a nasty smell in my son’s bedroom.  I made him clean it, then I cleaned it properly while he was at school.  I still couldn’t find anything.  I spent the good part of an afternoon sniffing around, and finally determined the smell was coming from inside one of the walls.  Yet another problem I didn’t want to add to my husband’s burdens.

I ended up cutting away a small square of the wall, put the flashlight setting on my cell phone, turned its camera on, and stuck my phone inside the wall so I could figure out what was going on.

Dead baby squirrels were inside the wall.

I must have sealed up mama squirrel’s access to my attic, without knowing there was a nest with baby squirrels in there.  Apparently they squirmed around and fell down inside the wall.  I could only see two of them.  I hoped there weren’t more.

I think it just might be time to involve my husband.  Unless . . . I could get Allstate Animal Control out here in the next day or two and they could get the dead baby squirrels out of the wall.  Maybe, just maybe, my husband doesn’t have to deal with yet another problem.

Squirrel Removal

squirrel removal

I had no idea the baby squirrels nesting in the window well just outside my office would cause such a squirrel removal controversy.  I work for a gentleman who runs a business out of his home office in his basement.  There are two of us who show up at his house each morning, walk around back and let ourselves into the basement office. He runs his own small real estate company, and specializes in foreclosed or distressed houses.  Unfortunately, these homes are a lot more work for a real estate professional, which is why he needs help.  My friend and I both needed part-time work while our children were in school, and we consider it a bonus that we get to work with each other.  We do all the paperwork and handle phone calls while he is out talking with clients and generating more business.  It’s definitely a win-win for all of us.

Even though it’s a basement office, it’s nicely finished and I’m lucky enough to have a window casting light onto my desk during the day.  Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an accumulation of twigs, leaves and shredded paper in the grass-lined window-well bottom.  Then, one morning after a three-day weekend, I came into the office delighted to see three little baby squirrels wriggling around in the soft debris.  My friend was home with her sick child that morning, so I had no one to share it with.  I took some video of the cute little baby squirrels and the mama squirrel hustling around the nest taking care of them.  Then, I went to work, but kept my eye on them throughout the morning.

The next day, I was excited to share this beautiful sight with my co-worker/friend, and told her about it as we walked into the office.  She looked appalled, much to my surprise.  I had thought she’d ooooh and aaaah over the adorable little squirrel babies, but instead she talked about squirrel removal.  Before I knew it, she had our boss on the phone and asked permission to contact a squirrel removal company.

I grabbed the phone from her and pleaded on behalf of the squirrels.  I said they weren’t harming anyone, and since they were outside in the window well, they weren’t going to damage his house.  Our boss said he’d think about it and call us after he met with a potential client.

Needless to say, the morning’s work was shoved aside as my friend and I debated, but I eventually came around to understand where she was coming from.  She’d had a squirrel nest in the attic once, and it was awful.  Some big animal like a raccoon came in after the nest and ate a couple of them, leaving the remains to decay in her attic. As they rotted, her house got infested with bugs and flies.  She just couldn’t bear to go through that again, even if it was at someone else’s home office.  I gave in, once I was reassured the squirrel removal company would take care of the squirrels humanely, and would probably save their life, considering how many feral cats lived in the area.  In the end, it just made sense.