How to Prepare North Carolina Homes for Squirrel Season
Squirrels are a year-round sight in North Carolina. These dexterous critters can often be viewed in backyards and city parks, clambering up trees, running along powerlines, and raiding trash cans and bird feeders. Although squirrels can be fun to watch outside, they can also be a major nuisance, especially if they get inside your home. Squirrels are destructive rodents that will gnaw on everything, including electrical wires, insulation, drywall, woodwork, ductwork, and roofing.
While squirrels may invade your home at any time of year, this becomes most likely during "squirrel season," when local squirrel species are preparing to seek shelter for the winter and breed. When this happens, thousands of homes across the state of North Carolina often have to contend with squirrel infestations. Squirrel season begins in late summer to early fall, carrying over into winter, when squirrels raise their young.
4 Tips for Keeping Squirrels Out of Your NC Home
By following these simple tips, you can reduce the risk that your North Carolina home will fall victim to an invasion this squirrel season.
Seal Squirrel Entry Points
The most effective way to prepare your North Carolina home for squirrel season is to close off any possible entry points that squirrels might use to access your home. Squirrels often get inside through holes in roofs and their eaves. Unfortunately, holes in these high-up places often go unnoticed by homeowners, allowing squirrels to expand them and use them as easy entrance and exit points while living in the attic and walls. Before squirrel season, it's a wise idea to get up on a ladder and inspect your roof - or hire a professional to do it for you. If you find any roof damage that squirrels could use to break in, conduct repairs to keep these critters out of your home.
Don't Feed the Squirrels
One of the reasons that squirrels love to hang around homes in North Carolina is that they often offer an abundance of readily accessible food. If you keep bird feeders full of seed or leave food waste in uncovered bins, squirrels will turn your property into their favorite buffet. When squirrel season approaches, be especially vigilant of leaving food out for squirrels to pilfer. Consider taking in your bird feeders for the season, or at least moving them farther from your house to avoid tempting squirrels. It's also important that your outdoor garbage cans be covered with tight lids so that squirrels cannot raid them. If squirrels can't easily find food on your property, they're less likely to invade your home.
Trim Overhanging Trees
How do squirrels get onto roofs in the first place? The most common answer is "trees." If you have tall trees growing next to your house, with branches that overhang or scrape up against the roof, then squirrels can easily climb these trees and use the branches to access your roof. Prior to squirrel season, make it more difficult for squirrels to find their way onto your roof by trimming off any tree branches that hang over the roofline or even reach too close. Squirrels may be able to find other ways to climb up, but a lack of convenient roof access can deter them from your home.
Hire Squirrel Control Professionals
To give your home the most thorough protection against squirrels during breeding and pup-rearing season, hire a professional squirrel control company in North Carolina. Certified wildlife management technicians are experts on the behavioral patterns of squirrels and can help you prepare your home so that it will not be targeted during squirrel season. If squirrels do manage to break into your home, you can also rely on your experienced squirrel removal technicians to get them out.
Expert Squirrel Prevention & Removal in Raleigh, NC
Stay ahead of squirrel season by working with your local pros to make your home squirrel-proof. Get in touch with Sustainable Pest Systems today if you'd like to learn more about our squirrel control services in the greater Raleigh area!