What kind of damage do squirrels cause in an attic?

Every year, thousands of homes across the country suffer from squirrel infestations. A scurry of squirrels moving into your attic can cost home owners hundreds or thousands of dollars in damages. Although your homeowner’s policy might cover some, it is still a time consuming to repair, and an immense bother. Squirrels start their path of destruction by scratching and clawing their way up your house and across your rooftop. Now they begin gnawing and clawing holes in the exterior of your eaves or roof to make their main entrance into your attic. This can devalue your home by destroying the siding, ruining a paint job, or tearing up your roof. After they have moved into your attic, they begin to rip apart your insulation, and chew through wiring.



They will root through any containers of clothes, papers, or keepsakes you have stored in the attic to use in construction of their nests. While inhabiting your attic, they, and all their young, will use it as a public bathroom and trash bin. All that fecal matter can soak into the attic insulation, flooring, rafters and drywall making it impossible to clean and causing an awful stench. Many of them are also carriers of diseases such as rabies, the plague, and salmonella just to name a few. Airborne diseases like salmonella are carried in the dried out fecal matter of rodents like squirrels. Squirrels are normally host to fleas, mites, and other parasites that can spread to your pets and family.

They will bring food for their young to the attic and it can rot, smell, and attract bugs if not completely consumed. If this is not enough problems, consider the percentage of squirrels that will die and decay in your attic from any number of causes. The body waste, leftover food, and carcasses will in turn, cause a horrible stench throughout your home, and attract a number of carrion feeders. So the next time you hear skittering across your roof, or see a cute little squirrel looking at your house, you better take precautions make sure that you don’t have any unwanted tenants moving in!

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