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Posted: 1/23/2006 5:44:53 PM EDT
and he is kicking my ass.
He got in the attic, got into a wall and popped out in the basement. He seems intent on staying. I am not actually living at my house right now, which is making this a bit more complicated. On the plus side, I am not lying awake nights waiting for him to pounce on my face or some such thing. On the minus side, I have taken to walking through my basement slicing the pie and peering into the floor joists overhead with the expectation of being assaulted by a rabid screeching rodent. I walked into the house Saturday afternoon and saw a pile of wood shavings strewn about the door that leads to the basement. A closer look revealed a half moon shape carved into the bottom of the door. I opened the door to see lots more mess on the steps and serious wood removal all along the bottom of the door, culminating in this hole that I am quite sure the little bastard could crawl through. So, on the plus side, he is in the basement and not lying on my couch. I went down and we introduced ourselves in the second room in, which is the utility room. I had a serious bout of tourette's, and he jumped off a shelf, onto the furnace boiler, and crawled into the fresh air bell on the exaust vent, and ran into the chimney. The chimney is capped with wire mesh, so even if Rocky (I've named him) wanted to climb the forty feet to the top, he is coming back to the basement. We've played this game three times now, as I bring a newer, better trap and ever more temting baits. I walk into the room, he jumps for the vent pipe. Today I bought some .22 snake shot after I baited the new trap and beat on the vent pipe out of frustration. I went back after supper and stood there for an hour waiting for him to show himself. Never happened. I need to get this little punk out of my house, soon. Should I resort to airsoft? |
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I had a squirrel get in to where I work.
I had a live trap on hand, and sunflower seeds. He was used to eating sunflower seeds at a bird feeder, so he took the bait. Any idea what yours is eating? Should I start telling the story of when I was catching squirrels in the live trap and throwing them into the upstair's neighbors appartment when they weren't home? |
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+1 And post pics! |
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Wait, he is in the furnace chimney?
Smoke the bastard out. Turn the furnace on, and he will croak of carbon monoxide/dioxide poisoning. Or fill the chimney up with propane and light a match. You might send him into the next county, but at least he will be out of your hair. |
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A few years ago, my dad got home from work and walked into the living room. When he got there, he found a squirrel sitting on our couch like it was nothing. He chased it out the door and we've never seen it since. We never did find ANY signs of entry at all (or any other damage). I honestly have no idea how it got in our house. |
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I am warming up to the propane idea...
Sadly, the AR-10 is a bit much for this job. The only good thing I see coming from this is; now I know why I could use a .22 revolver. |
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oh that's always a fun couple of days when they get in!!!
all i can say my friend is raise the black flag, spit on your hands, strap on your explosive packed vest and declare gihad. i just do the pellet gun thing- works |
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Make sure you don't wound him. Nothing worse than having to go into the bush after a wounded squirrel.
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or wounding one and then having it die in your suspended ceiling and not finding him until the smell and blowflies alert you to his position- take my word for it |
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Things you should know,,
1- Its a gloryfied rat.. 2- More likely its a female and it already had babies in your house. 3- They love eating the insulation off your house wires. 4- It also brought fleas in your house. 5- You should be smelling the odor from its droppings 6- Remember that insulation you think you had in your walls.. Think again. 7- If your dry dog food is disappearing . Don't blame the dog. Its your new insulation.. 8- More about #7. That dog food is going to be noticeable by summer. Don't screw around.. Nuke it from orbit.. |
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One of the local talk show guys has sponsored air cleaning devices in the past. He was on the air the other day and mentioned he had a rat die in his house, so he installed another couple of air cleaners and then a whole bunch more from friends. Now he has 30 dead squirrels, they all died of ozone poisoning.
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Kill him brother, kill him NOW!!!
ETA: Use the Airsoft, it makes no noise. |
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Airsoft will not be enough to kill a squirrel. You need at least a good bb gun. |
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+1 mentioned above.
Rat trap + peanut butter = Problem solved (I think marshmellows and honey work good too). |
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I have fought this battle with 2 families of squirrels over the past 3 years. It has already nested and it is more than 1 squirrel. The babies have already been born and will remain silent until later. The mom will never leave the babies so if you drive her out, she will try with all her wits to get back to them. If not, they die and your house reeks. You are screwed just like I was. I drove them out in the spring with Fox urine. Squirrels hate/fear foxes, and the scent of the urine makes them run away.
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You should have bagged him when you had the chance at long range before he enveloped your encampment, at least thats what the survivalists would tell you. Now you have no choice, you need to channel him into a ring of claymores and, if that fails, be prepared to use small arms fire and hand to hand combat. I learned this first hand, lost a whole platoon of Seals in that one..........grassy knoll......polka dot dress......
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If you know where he's coming in simply put a door made out of plywood that opens from the inside but not the outside once opened.
You can make the close latch lock from a paperclip so that when you set it up, it rests on the clip but once the door is opened and closed with a little force, the clip holds it from opening again. Henges can be made from rubber or plastic strips. Usual set up is hanging with two henges and two clips at the bottom. The idea is he gets out but not back in. Of course, inviting him to breakfast with him the main course is always a good idea. Tj |
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That's ain't nothin'. We had a flying squirrel in our house once. Not sure how it got in. We eventually trapped it in a corner and caught it.
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Squirrels are nothing. I had a goose trapped inside my house once...
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That is quite a feat for Ohio... |
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Had a bat get in one time (figured it was through the HW vent) - just sittin there watching TV when HOLY SHEEEET THIS BAT DIVES AT MY HEAD Fucker was flying all around the house and there I am, in the living room, with a tennis racket, waiting for his next pass at me... Finally got him isolated in the porch and broke in from the outside to let him out. Honest to Pete, my pulse must have been 500... |
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a couple weeks ago i got a maintaince call for a squirrell trapped in an apartment. it was trapped in the back bedroom, so i wanted to first try and catch it, and not let it out in the other rooms where it could end up anywhere. after 20 minutes of that (im sure you know by now that it didnt work, but he DID no longer have a tail ) i decided to try and chase him out. closed off all the other rooms and only left hte front door open. he ran right to the front door, looked out, then decided to suicide rush me. ran right at me. i was still in the hallway, and i gave it one good kick and it flew about 15 yards out the door and ran off. FUN NIGHT of work.
it was an occopuied unit so i didnt get to try and shoot it. if it was my house the pellet gun would have got him in 5 minutes. |
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I suggest you hunt it down with a BB gun. Better yet a beagle or something that will tear it up.
Max |
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Nuke it from orbit ... it's the only way to make sure.
My folks who are in their 70s had a couple of squirrels living in their house. First you've got to seal up all the entrances (and exits ) so that they can't come and go as they please. I had found where there was a tree branch touching the eve of the house and the rodents had chewed their way in. I pulled the boards and replaced them and trimmed the tree and a bunch of others back from the house. Then it was hunting time. The best CO2 pistol I could find at the local gun shop was a fine .20 which has proven good enough against squirrel, rat, and even a possum at out to 40 feet or so. The rats and squirrels (really the same thing) are pretty timid ... especially when you drop the first one ... so you've got to wait for them to expose themselves. Here in California we can conceal carry in the house so the thing never knows where or when you're coming for them. You can also hunt over bait too. Once the interior is sealed and the interior residents ventilated just maintain a good seal on the building. We've got that damn virus that the rats carry and they'll also chew on electrical wiring (like my dish cable!) so they can be a fire hazzard. |
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Check your homeowners insurance policy. Most do not cover any damage that is done by animals. Example: squirrel eats insulation off wiring in your attic, house burns down, insurance comany proves damage from animal, no payment. They must be gotten rid of. If they are in your house, they will probably have to be killed. I had some in my attic and I put new 3/4 inch plywood over the entrance hole. It took one day for the squirrel to chew through the new plywood. I shot the ones outside the house with 22 CBs, and trapped the ones in my attic with rat traps and peanut butter. Good luck.
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Tractor Supply sells the live traps, and usually peanut butter will get them. They do love pumpkin seeds also.
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I had one fall down my chimney and crawled out of a small hole at the bottom. Son of a bitch tore up my room in my basement and shit all over my keyboard.
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Really, the havahart trap is the best. Never miss. Then if you want revenge, you can just torment the little rat a few hours before letting him go..
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Geez, they aren't dangerous, sissy. Here is the complete list of animals we've had in my parents' house (before I moved to go to college five years ago): 1 hummingbird 1 flying squirrel 2 bats 1 raccoon We also had an opposum, but he was our pet so he lived there. The bats were the coolest. We caught one of them and held it with gloves. They have very soft fur, like a chinchilla. |
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Had to do this last year. found 4 squirels total in the house. Got the mom and drove about 15 miles out so it could not find its way back. Caught the rest in the attic with the havaheart traps. The wife forced me to drive back out to the same place each time so we didn't seperate the family. Sucked big time. We used actuall walnuts and stuff with the shell on as bait.
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These things are what homeowners policies are designed to cover. |
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What about trying one of those big rat traps? The ones that look like a giant mouse trap. Just load it with a peanut or something. |
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Dont let the little pest play with your nuts,or he'll never leave.
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Day four, and I am losing ground.
I set a bigger live trap last night, and baited it with a half ear of corn, a third of an apple, and a half a can of dry roasted peanuts. I almost felt sorry for the little plague carrier. I went back today, and the apple was gone, but the trap was not sprung. Pissing me off!!!! I am done with the live traps. I am calling a trapper I know and have high hopes that I will soon see two halves of a rodent plopped on the floor. I'd use poison, but I can just see the little bastard crawling into a wall and chuckling at me with his last breath. I talked to my insurance agent, figuring he had heard similar stories to mine over the years. The first thing out of his mouth was "There is a rodent exclusion on your policy. Any damage you incur will not be covered. Do not screw around. Get rid of the squirrel NOW!" He is a good friend of mine, so the coverage thing was no bullshit. If Rocky burns the place down, it is on my dime. I also learned that squirrels do not birth in Winter, that is a Sring thing. So you guys who think I have a ready-made family hanging at my place, it hasn't come to that yet. |
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Get/borrow a cat. Not a kitten, an adult That rat will be a puked-up pile of guts on the kitchen floor in no time.
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