Many people love to play with and feed squirrels around their houses, parks and surroundings. They like the feeling as jump through the trees, run on the ground.

But this affection is not for long as soon as these little creatures start to interfere in Your beautiful peaceful lives by running over your gardens, yards and outdoors. It’s like one moment you love to have them around and the very next you want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Squirrels are widespread in all the regions around the world. even as they aren’t a dangerous animal never seem to scare humans but they certainly can create a mess on your property in no time.

Because they look for food items like fungi, seeds, nuts and fruits, they can ruin your gardens by pulling up roots and constantly blowing or emptying out your bird feeders. If they get into your loft, basement or crawl spaces, they’ll also be a reason for a lot of harm by trying to scavenge through lagging and biting wires.

Know About Kind of Squirrel You Are Dealing With?

Depending where you live, you can encounter any kind of squirrel that is common in your region and tackling different kinds of squirrels can be a messy task. 

Squirrels, native to Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and all of North America, are members of the rodent family Sciuridai, a part of a widespread family that consist of marmots, prairie dogs, chipmunks and groundhogs.  

According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), there are more than 200 different species of squirrels  worldwide. However, only three types of squirrels, flying squirrels, ground squirrels, and tree squirrels are seen and discussed the most. 

The sub-categories are numerous like Douglas, Albino, Antelope, Idaho, Rock, White and Black, Spotted, Richardson and many others.

Species of Squirrels

They whiz across the roads, climb up trees, and find their way through small openings in homes and buildings. They have a compassionate look with their shaggy tails, little arms and legs, and keen ears. But they can cause chaos within the house walls, garden furniture, grass, trees and other surroundings.

Therefore, to get rid of them is very necessary depending on what kind of squirrel you are dealing with, and how many? A single or an entire infestation!

Ground Squirrels

Ground squirrels are Inhabitant of the western United States, the California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beechey) typically lives in underground holes, existing on a diet of roots and other small insects and animals.

Ground squirrels are little striped mammals usually found in  wooded and open rocky areas. They look alike to chipmunks, but they do not have stripes on their head. They also scavenge above ground for a variety of fruits and nuts. The ground squirrel has a quality of hibernating in winter but can be a real source of irritation around the farmhouse, imposing severe harm on root crops and plants.

Additional sub-categories of ground squirrels living in the US are the thirteen-lined ground squirrel, spotted a green squirrel, and California ground squirrel. Few other well-known characteristics of ground squirrels that can make a distinction those from other squirrel species are:

  1. They seem exclusively different due to their tiny size
  2. Mostly found in rural and agricultural areas, but can also be seen in urban areas with greenery

Tree & Flying Squirrels

Tree squirrels live in areas of Texas. Most common three types of tree squirrels are the fox squirrel, the gray squirrel and the flying squirrel. Fox squirrels, the most common of the tree squirrels, are found in east and central Texas. 

Gray squirrels, also known as “cat” squirrels, are found in the eastern part of Texas. Flying squirrels are the smallest of the tree squirrels, the least common, and the only nocturnal tree squirrel.

  1. Tree squirrels are fed on a diversity of food sources like vegetables, nuts, fruits, edible seeds, variety of berries and other small insects.
  2. Their living sites may include tree holes, old woodpecker cavities, loft tops, etc. also, If any such place is not found these little species will buildup leafy nests in the branches of trees nearby food sources.

Seasons & Squirrels

Fall

The most energetic time of year is Fall for tree squirrels.Fall it is the time during which you’ll see the most activities from them on your possessions. They can sense the coming of winter, so nesting and hoarding of foodstuff kicks into elevated gear.

Winter

Winter is quite dull for squirrel activities because it is very hard to  find food in winters they spend less time probing for food and more time sharing a den to preserve warmth.

They also get ready for the colder months by hoarding food stuff and eating more to bulk up and salt away the body heat.

Spring and Summer

Depending on the region, squirrels may come into into the first of their two reproduction seasons during winter (December through February). The second season happens in late spring (March) or early summer (July). 

Females will characteristically produce two litters each year, with two to four young in each litter (flying squirrels may have litters of up to seven young).

How Can You Detect The Presence of Squirrels?

Squirrels are not restrained creatures and will always leave ample hint for you therefore check for the clues of their presence in and around your house. 

You can simply take the following examples for checking in their presence outside your house can be like:

  1. Little holes in your courtyard burrowed by squirrels
  2. Smashed bird feeders and damaged garden plants
  3. Tree and its branch that are within 8-10 feet of your rooftops
  4. The scene of squirrels skirmishing (a symbol of overpopulation)

For inside, sounds and various signs are very obvious like:

  1. Sounds in daytime would point towards a gray or fox squirrel; however nighttime turbulences would be probable from a flying squirrel.
  2. Noise (the sound of movement) in your loft or indoor walls
  3. Droppings in the attic
  4. Holes dug in siding or beneath soffits

Getting Rid of Squirrels

Fortunately, there are easy measures that you can take to avoid squirrels from disturbing your belongings, and also some supplementary readymade treatments available if they have converted into a problem for you. 

Here’s how to get rid of squirrels in the yard for keeping them out of your house.

  1. employ odors squirrels don’t like inside and outside your house
  2. creating chemical-free squirrel spray
  3. blocking all the potential entryways
  4. Do not feed squirrels

Let us discuss some of the useful prevention techniques in detail.

Limit Their Access

Stopping squirrels from intruding in your home or your property or inside your house is a useful approach than eradicating them. Following some easy steps will keep your home free of squirrels

  1. Purchase some covers for downspouts and gutter guards for limiting the access of in your house from the rooftop.
  2. Regularly cut the long tree branches hanging over your roof line. As, Squirrels usually travel by tree branches that touch your house, which provides them an ideal bridge.
  3. Don’t pile up any materials remains against the sides of your house like trimmed trees, chairs or bushed. These things might help them climbing into your house.
  4. Check your house walls for splits, cracks and other openings that are big enough for squirrels. If you do find any, seal them up right away with caulk or flexible foam. Also, for bigger openings, you may need to initiate total repairing and covering all the holes that can serve as an entry points.

Check For Food Items

If you have a squirrel problem, chances are that your patio is the main cause for easily accessible food sources. These little creatures are also attracted to food in trash apart from fruit and vegetables, nuts and insects.

Therefore do clean your outdoor trash bins and make sure they’re properly closed. Because in any case If they’re broken or can easily open up, a squirrel will easily uncover it.

  1. Occasionally wash out your trash bins in order to get rid of food residues and odors.
  2. Pack your odorous food leftovers in disposing bags properly before throwing them in trash cans.
  3. For all fruiting trees and plants take care to rake up if any that have fallen to the ground.
  4. Take care of your pet food and never leave it outside
  5. Try to use squirrel-proof bird feeders as they can prevent them from entering into bird feeders.

Get Rid of Standing Water

Not only food, squirrels also are looking for water. Take all the needed measures to reduce as much water as possible within your courtyard, or you’ll be making a sort of retreat for squirrels and many other sorts of pests.

  1. After rain do check your gardens and yards for the water pooling. Don’t leave the spaces for small holes and muddy puddles
  2. Any outdoor water decorations should be moved or altered regularly.

Taking Plants Help

Avert squirrels by planting indoor and outdoor plants that squirrels don’t like. These plants include nasturtiums, marigolds, mint, or mustard. Also, You can also try crown imperial bulbs (Fritillaria), but it is optional that you plant these away from living areas or patios due to their strong pungent smell.

Using Different Vinegars

As many people ran away from Apple cider vinegar due to its pungent smell, same is the case with squirrels. You can also come up with making organic sprays by adding jalapeno in white vinegar. Its odor repels the squirrels. 

Of your home, and squirrels will stay away from the odor. Additionally, you can also add vinegar and mint together and make it a spray.

Using Cayenne Pepper

Sprinkle some Cayenne pepper of Your food leftovers and fallen plants, fruits and vegetables and it will make the squirrels stay away. Just don’t forget to wash your hands after sprinkling and working with these peppers.

Safflower Seeds are not squirrels favorite dish

Safflower is a great choice to make use of if you have a bird feeder that squirrels won’t stop getting into. As a matter of fact Birds don’t mind these safflower seeds, but surely squirrels hate them, so you can combine them into your bird seed to avert squirrels from snacking in.  

Use Squirrel Feeder

No matter how much you love squirrels, you need to specially designed squirrel feeders for getting rid of squirrels from your indoors and outdoors. You just have to place these unique feeders in the areas where you have encountered squirrels many times.

This will help You in a way that they will simply be familiar where to land straight away rather than ruining your gardens and indoors.

Vegetable Netting technique

This is an absolutely harmless technique to keep squirrels away from plants, and also netting is simple and affordable. You can just put up a strong net fence or just place the netting so it hush-up around the vegetables, fruits and other plants thus as a barrier or trap

Using Ultrasonic Devices

In the same stratum as sprinkler systems and other organic and non organic mechanism, ultrasonic devices installed in your loft or gardens can scare any kind of squirrels away from your home. They’re activated by typical motion sensors and trigger a noise that is muffled to the human ear but highly exasperating to squirrels.

Using Repellents

Numerous options exist that deter squirrels without harming or dealing with dead animals. Not to mention, keeping squirrels away while showing some kindness to the environment and what you breathe in while using products is vital, also. 

If you tried all the above possible measures for these annoying little creatures, call pest management professionals to put this matter to an end. But always make sure, whatever technique you imply trapping, killing or averting; it should be an environment friendly for animals and humans.