How to Get Rid of Squirrels in the Home

LESLIE: Cathy in Kentucky has a roofing situation. Tell us about it.

CATHY: Yeah, I had a new roof put on my house. Part of it was ripped off by a tornado. And I have dormers. I don’t really have an attic.

TOM: OK.

CATHY: And the problem is I have something up there gnawing since they put the roof on.

TOM: OK.

CATHY: There’s something up in there and it’s in my walls and the other night it was up in my ceiling over my bed and I had to get up and pound on the ceiling.

TOM: Do you have access into this space, Cathy? Is there an attic hatch or something of that nature?

CATHY: No, nothing.

TOM: There’s nothing? There’s no way to get in there?

CATHY: No.

TOM: Well, obviously the animals found a way in. I think what you’re going to have to do is cut an access into that; you know, a small hatchway or something like that from an interior is probably the way to go.

CATHY: OK.

TOM: Once you get up into that space, one trick of the trade is to take some mothballs and throw it around because a lot of the rodents that infest don’t like that. The other thing that you could do is get a Havahart trap because if the animal is running around it’s looking for food.

CATHY: Right.

TOM: Get a Havahart trap and get one for like a squirrel size trap and you can – for bait…

LESLIE: Because it probably is a squirrel.

CATHY: Oh.

TOM: For bait you could use like an apple; half of an apple or something like that.

LESLIE: Wire it down.

TOM: Yeah. Trick of the trade; wire it down because the animal will knock it around and it won’t work.