As a wildlife technician, the most exciting part of my job is to take action on the discoveries made by our wildlife inspectors. They arrive at the home prior to me, and inspect for the problem species residing in the home, as well as any structural deficiencies that may be permitting access to wildlife.
One particular job that comes to mind is one that we did last November in Milford, MI. The inspectors noted the presence of both bats and flying squirrels in the attic of the house. Flying squirrels are a challenge to catch and exclude from a structure and therefore one of my favorite problems to solve. Although most of the investigating has been done previously, part of my job is to make sure there aren’t any additional areas on the home that may have been missed and furthermore make our job more difficult in the future
When we arrive on site, we start by sealing up all of the secondary entry points on the home (areas not currently being used by nuisance species, but could be in the future) for both bats and flying squirrels. The areas that are being used by these animals are to be left open. This allows any animals inside of the structure to leave or be captured appropriately. For bats, we install what is called a bat one-way door (or bat valve) over the areas that they are using to access the home. Those areas are determined by looking for bat droppings (guano) or stains from urine or frequent traveling. Again, most (if not all) of these areas would be located during the inspection process, but my team of technicians thoroughly examine each area to assure that nothing will be locked inside the home. Once the valve is installed, it stays on the structure for a duration of time that gives the bats ample time to leave. Since this job was done in November, the bat valves will stay up until at least late Spring since the bats are likely hibernating inside. Typically, once insects begin to emerge during warmer weather, the bats will leave in search of a food source. This is usually about 2-3 weeks of consistent 50 degree weather at night.
For the flying squirrels, we use what is called a positive-set trap over any areas they are or could be using. This includes roof returns on eaves, soffits, roof lines, or even chewed holes through siding or the foundation. The reason we use this method instead of a one-way door system like the bats is because squirrels have a knack for creating new entry points. Once they have established this structure as their home, they will do what they can to regain access. Therefore, trapping and removing the squirrels from the site completely is the most effective way of excluding them. What makes flying squirrels so tricky is they can typically access the home through much smaller gaps than larger squirrel species. Sometimes, they are using multiple areas to enter the home. It could be the most obvious area, but it could also be somewhere nearly impossible to see unless you are specifically looking for it. For this particular job, there was only one entry point the squirrels were accessing to enter the attic. It was a roof return located on the second story of a home that required some careful trekking (with the help of safety equipment) up a steep roof to access it.
We installed 2 cage traps over the opening, that way the only way in or out of the house was through our traps. There is no way for any squirrels to by-pass our cages. Also, as is standard with any of our squirrel jobs, we installed a motion activated camera nearby so that we can monitor the activity as well as check the traps on a daily basis (as is the law in Michigan). Monitoring the activity around the traps is important because it gives us information as to why we may not be catching the target animal. It answers questions like: is the animal locked outside? Are they trap shy? Is this not the appropriate trap to be using? Once the traps have been set, they stay on the structure until we can confirm there are no longer any squirrels inside the home. We use a collection of information to determine this such as video footage, noise reports from the individuals residing in the home, number of squirrels captured or not captured, and length of time the traps remained active. In this case, the traps remained on the house for a total of 6 days. We ended up catching a total of 5 flying squirrels all on the same night, leaving the structure. We caught those squirrels the first night after the traps were set, but again we left
the traps active to be sure that there were no remaining squirrels in the structure.
What made this situation a little bit unique was that we were able to identify signs of both flying squirrels AND bats using that entry point. With this in mind, once the trapping service was completed, we removed the traps and camera and replaced them with a properly installed bat valve. Of course, this would stay on the structure until the following Spring along with the rest of the bat doors that had been installed (2).
Since the bats are still living inside the structure, we always remind the homeowners that it is a possibility they could hear the bats shuffling around during the colder months. They do this to maintain an appropriate body temperature during their hibernation process. Unfortunately, this is just the result of doing this kind of work in the winter time.
Fortunately, the homeowners found peace of mind after the work was completed and no squirrels found their way back into the structure. Sometimes, this isn’t always the case, but that is why we provide warranties to our clients to reassure them that we will be there at first call if issues persist. For this job in Milford, we chalked it up as “another job well done”.
