He really needs to put some traps up there and catch them. Squirrels can do a lot of damage.

He needs to call Critter Ridders before they destroy his house.

Holy cow! I hope it's JUST squirrels!!

It could be a racoon. And both can do a huge amount of damage if they are trapped inside. There was a squirrel in the ceiling where I worked. It chewed around a big light fixture. Looked like someone was using a hatchet on the rafters. Wood all over the floor. Finally the fixture came loose and was hanging by the wires one morning. Might be funny at first, but gets old and annoying quickly. They are smart and traps take time to work. There are wildlife relocators that will get them out. They charge according to the time it takes after the show up charge.

He needs professional help asap to trap what's in and to tightly seal and repair all access points so that it doesn't happen again.

He said he's going to get some traps . I wonder if it's mating season ? It's 8 degrees here ,maybe they're looking for a warm spot. We had them in our attic 3 years ago . Before we even realized it ,they had a hole in our roof and my hubby dug out a whole trash can full of nesting debris. That involved ripping out half a wall. Cute as they are , they're destructive little buggers !!!

You're not the only one. I don't see them often as I don't watch TV much but I love Geico's commercials. They're consistently creative and funny.

I've seen that commercial a bunch of times and never noticed the squirrels running around in the backround !!

We have something in our attic too. I don't know what it is but it drives the cats crazy. I'm trying to find a removal company that won't kill the animals, even if they are rats.

The company I use to keep the exterior rodent population in check at my house (with lethal traps and not poison) will use non-lethal cage traps for some larger animals but not for rats or mice. I remember talking with the guy the last time he was here and it had something to do with the practicalities of trapping larger sized animals in a residential area. Whatever he'd mentioned, I think it was maybe skunks or raccoons (neither is endangered) , they live trap them but are required to kill them humanely offsite. They use a cattle trough with a lid on it, put in the cage, fill it with water.

It's too bad, and I understand the concern many have, but these animals are unwelcome in homes and residential areas and it's impractical to relocate them to the boondocks.

Yes, those of us living in the boondocks have enough challenges with critters without more being imported!

Apologies in advance for this, but I couldn't resist: At least he doesn't have bats in his belfry!

Next thing you're going to say olychick is that we can't build a landfill for urban refuse down the road from you.

"they live trap them but are required to kill them humanely offsite. They use a cattle trough with a lid on it, put in the cage, fill it with water."

That doesn't sound very humane. Surely there are faster options than drowning?? That's an awful way to die.

Luckily I found a company that should work.

I think incinerating or drowning is not humane. Too bad they can't just carbon monoxide them to death. If I were your son, I would get that problem taken care of right away. They can cause so much damage. I wouldn't be laughing, I'd be completely grossed out. My Mom had raccoons in her attic and they destroyed it, plus when I visited I could hear them scratching in the walls. Very creepy. She took care of the problem with poison in antifreeze.

It cost us mega bucks. First, it was not easy to find an exterminator for squirrels. They need to have a wild-life license in my state. I think the exterminator was $500. They came several days. Set traps (caught 4) and repaired the hole where the squirrels were getting in. This was the second time we've had this problem....the first was a number of years ago, back when we could climb ladders, and we set our own trap, caught two and released them quite a ways from our house........we found out later that was against the law because we took them away from their habitat (We thought we were being humane.) This time we decided to cut down trees and remove branches on some that would allow squirrels to jump to the roof. After that, we had the attic re-insulated because they had made a mess up there. It is not a fun thing to go through.

I heard it is the red squirrel that does damage to a house. Not the gray squirrel. My husband seen a red squirrel in our yard last summer and said he would have to shoot it if he sees it again. It must of heard him cause we haven't seen it again .

Your husband saw a red squirrel in your yard? Is that unusual in your area?

I'd say the animal doing the damage in this attic is whatever gets trapped. There's no need to identify it.

I'm sorry your son has this problem but I hope he gets it taken care of quickly - before one of them happens to die inside. The odor is terrible and if you can't remove the carcass then you'll have to smell that for months.

Red squirrel along with other squirrels are native to the area. Reds are just not as populous.
Other squirrels , bats, rodents , insects, etc will enter an attic if they find an access hole . Red squirrels if they can't find an access hole will chew an access hole. They are destructive.

Do you know anyone with a cat? I'm sure he/she will make short work of the pesky rodents.

Squirrels have their place and are lovely to watch. But red squirrel and flying squirrels can cause a lot of destruction if they are allowed to enter a home or attic. Flying squirrels are one of my favorite nocturnal critters. When my mother was a young girl she had one as a pet.

Southern flying squirrels used to go up and down one of our smooth chimney flues, and if we left a damper open, would enter a room or cellar. We had a chimney cage installed and removed a couple of tall oaks that were close to the house. I hated to do that, but one was not allowing a section of trim and siding on the NW side to dry out.

I was told that that one reason it is illegal to release trapped wildlife away from your property is that diseases (rabies?) can spread into other areas. (Not sure that I buy the logic.) Moreover if an animal is removed from its turf and young, it disrupts it’s new habitat and may be killed In a territorial fight. Also, it has no stored food available to it. Released animals can then become someone else’s problem. The best thing is for homeowners to prevent a critter from making their house available to pesky wildlife.

I wish you the best in rousting the squirrels.

I hope they are able to remove the squirrels before they cause too much damage. We have a large gray squirrel population around our house, but we don't have an attic so no worries about them getting in. The worst they do is chew on the deck now and then. I love to watch them, but realize that they can be really destructive in some situations.

One of our neighbors had a raccoon family take up residence in the crawl space under his house, and boy, did they tear it up including destroying the insulation. Dont remember how he got rid of them.

When I worked at the school, we had problems with foxes. The maintenance dept borrowed traps from Fish and Game who told us they would come and get them after they were trapped. We thought they would release them but they took them away and shot them. We always felt bad about that

We think there is a skunk living under our shed. We havent seen it, but something has dug a burrow and we have been getting whiffs of skunk. It's not pot harvest season so we figure it's the real deal. We have chosen to co-exist as long as it doesn't cause my problems. Since the humans are active during the day and skunks are active at night, chances are we will never see it. If we do have to deal with it, we will trap it and release it out into the forest that surrounds our house.

It's fine to imagine that since skunks are mostly nocturnal and humans mostly active diurnally, paths don't cross. I think reality is different. My neighborhood, not in the boondocks, isn't overrun by skunks but they have a regular presence. They can often be seen trotting down or across the street during daytime hours or wandering around in the brush. Take out the trash (where they might be attracted by the smell) at night, or let out your dog in a fenced backyard, and it's not unknown that a skunk spraying may result. We have an enzyme cleaner that's effective but the unpleasantness of such incidents can't be washed off.

I take no active measures against them besides barring intrusion into my house but I don't have a live and let live attitude about them. They're unwelcome pests, like rodents.

I've had squirrels and raccoons in the attic. Armadillo traps work great bait with peanut butter.

Please note that I said "chances are". I've lived in the forest long enough to understand the habits of most of the forest animals. We don't keep our garbage outside because it would attract much more destructive critters such as bears. We don't have dogs that have to be let out.

The forest is plenty large enough to peacefully co-exist with the animals that call it home. I'm not going to kill an animal that isn't causing any harm.

Dawn, my comment was what it was because in my experience "chances are" I'll see a skunk every week or two. So that's different from you. Just as "chances are" there are many reasons why you like to live in a remote area, there are for certain very many reasons why I never would. Having critters around is one among many. As I said, I take no active measures against skunks (I'm not sure what I would do besides tasking my animal control company with a project) but I do view them as pests that cause unpleasant inconveniences and if they were fewer in number or somehow disappeared, I would be glad.