Squirrel problems
I recently had some fun in an attic. Squirrel removal and squirrel exclusion or build-out. The squirrels were coming in through the roof vents. Most roof vents have very soft, light weight screen that is really easy for squirrels and even rats to tear apart. This is one of the reasons we always recommend for pest prevention that all vegetation be kept a minimum of three to four feet away from all roof, gutter, and eave areas. File this story under: Getting rid of squirrels or rats.
Squirrels were hopping in and out like mad. To fix this problem, I installed heavy duty 1/4 inch wire mesh known as hardware cloth and secured it with lath screws.
Sorry if that is hard to make out, the attic was rather dark. If you look closely you will see that all sides of the screen are pushed up into the roof vent to prevent the squirrels from just nesting directly under the vent. While I am sure that this will keep the squirrels and rats out of the attic, getting to the vent from the attic was problematical.
What you are looking at is the original attic of the house. It was first built with planks and some sort of membrane.
This membrane was covered over with an additional roof level of lathe and plaster. Later the home was given a new regular height attic of sheet rock below, but the upper attic with it's many layers was left in place. And why not, it made for a great squirrel condo?
So all I had to do was break through two layers of old attic while working in a three foot attic space beneath it. Piece of cake. Did I mention that the roof angle was really steep outside, or I would have rodent proofed this some other way???
I attempted to open about a 2 foot section through both layers. It took about an hour using prybars, hammers, hand axes, and power equipment. After I got the area opened up, the remaining lathe and plaster ceiling dislodged and fell the four feet onto the lower leel ceiling and about gave me a heart attack.
Squirrel removal, rat removal, no poisons or chemicals used. True organic pest control. Pest prevention is the corner stone of any IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Program.
Squirrels were hopping in and out like mad. To fix this problem, I installed heavy duty 1/4 inch wire mesh known as hardware cloth and secured it with lath screws.
Sorry if that is hard to make out, the attic was rather dark. If you look closely you will see that all sides of the screen are pushed up into the roof vent to prevent the squirrels from just nesting directly under the vent. While I am sure that this will keep the squirrels and rats out of the attic, getting to the vent from the attic was problematical.
What you are looking at is the original attic of the house. It was first built with planks and some sort of membrane.
This membrane was covered over with an additional roof level of lathe and plaster. Later the home was given a new regular height attic of sheet rock below, but the upper attic with it's many layers was left in place. And why not, it made for a great squirrel condo?
So all I had to do was break through two layers of old attic while working in a three foot attic space beneath it. Piece of cake. Did I mention that the roof angle was really steep outside, or I would have rodent proofed this some other way???
I attempted to open about a 2 foot section through both layers. It took about an hour using prybars, hammers, hand axes, and power equipment. After I got the area opened up, the remaining lathe and plaster ceiling dislodged and fell the four feet onto the lower leel ceiling and about gave me a heart attack.
Squirrel removal, rat removal, no poisons or chemicals used. True organic pest control. Pest prevention is the corner stone of any IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Program.
Comments