SQUIRREL BLOCKERS?
Lately squirrels(or mice?) have been visiting my Park Slope brownstone. Every night they scuttle over the top floor tin ceiling, rustling and scratching. It’s spooky, plus they can do damage. The “trapper” I called said I’d need someone with a scaffold–not him!– to get up near the roof,locate the squirrels’ entry point(s), then block them…
Lately squirrels(or mice?) have been visiting my Park Slope brownstone. Every night they scuttle over the top floor tin ceiling, rustling and scratching. It’s spooky, plus they can do damage. The “trapper” I called said I’d need someone with a scaffold–not him!– to get up near the roof,locate the squirrels’ entry point(s), then block them off. Problem is, they’d have to know about squirrels in order to know what to look for. My trapper didn’t know who to suggest. Can anyone out there recommend a scaffolder/roofer with squirrel expertise?
Tinarina,if you could find the name of your friend’s exterminator, that would be great. The exterminator I asked said he’s not allowed to kill “wildlife”, while the “trapper” said we’d need a squirrel expert with a scaffold, and he doesn’t do scaffolds. (Unfortunately, the squirrels presumed entry-points are too far down from the edge of the roof to be reached by hand.)
We had squirrels in our roof in PS. Someone suggested dried animal blood, which is sold in gardening stores. It needs to be dampened and stuffed in the holes. My husband leaned over the front of the roof and stuffed it into some holes behind the flashing, in the general area where we had heard the squirrels. They moved out and never returned. Good luck.
My neighbor had squirrels in her roof, and she did find an exterminator to deal with it. I’ll try to find out the name, but I think it was someone she found in the yellow pages. good luck.
I’m the person who sent in the query. And I do have a cat. Unfortunately, the squirrels are unreachable and unseeable, somewhere between the top floor ceiling and the roof. And my cat is totally unresponsive to the scuttling.
BM is right. Actually, many different types of terriers were originally bred as ratters, so rodents are their natural prey. I have a 5.5 lb yorkie, and she turns into a banshee whenever she sees a squirrel. Effective!
It might well be mice. Several years ago, when we were between cats, we’d hear footsteps on top of the tin ceiling in our ground floor kitchen. They stopped almost immediately after we got a new cat, even though he was a tiny kitten at the time. AFAIK that cat only cought one mouse in his lifetime (leaving disgusting evidence behind), but his mere presence made a big difference. Until the other day, we though our present cat had never cought a mouse,but it turns out that he’s a VERY neat eater leaving NOTHING behind. In any case, cats are very effective. If you’re one of those people who don’t like cats, I’ve heard thatg fox terriers are almost ase effective as mousers.