SQUIRRELS:
Squirrel mating season occurs twice per year generally between December and February, then again June through August. With a gestation period lasting 38 to 46 days, female squirrels will give birth and rear their young in early spring (February through April) or late summer (August through October)
For the next six weeks, the female will spend most of her time in the den nursing her kits, cleaning them, and removing their droppings. Newborn squirrels first open their eyes at four weeks and at eight to ten weeks are large enough to leave the nest and become independent. The young squirrels will stay in her territory for the first few weeks. This is the time when most people notice a spike in the squirrel population foraging their yards.
Mother squirrel tending to her young. The kits are about an inch in length and remain pink and hairless for their first five days solely depending on their mother for survival.
In nature squirrel nests are found in two forms, leaf nests or drey and inside tree cavities. An individual squirrel may often construct and use multiple nests of either type. When given the option their preferred location is the most sheltered one, actually inside a hole. Due to habitat loss and urban sprawl squirrels often find themselves taking shelter in eaves, soffits, and attics of houses. Squirrels will frequently chew small holes larger to turn an otherwise unusable entrance into an appropriate entry point to nest in a homes attic or roofline. The most squirrel species found in Pacific Northwest urban areas are diurnal are active during the day foraging. Noises like scurrying, chewing, scratching coming from the walls or ceiling are usually heard in the morning and evening and occasionally throughout the day as the animal enters and exits the nesting area through the exterior entry point.
We offer humane no-kill solutions to exclude nuisance squirrels invading your home. We will complete a full perimeter wildlife inspection and provide you with details including active entry points and vulnerable areas as well as a quote for the exclusion and recomended repairs. Depending on the time of year we set live traps to capture and inspect any squirrel inhabiting the nest to ensure we are not separating a nursing mother from her nest of young. If the squirrel inhabiting the nest in your home or roofline is in fact nursing young inside we reschedule when the young are seen actively entering and exiting the nest or in approximately eight weeks. This will allow us to safely exclude the whole squirrel family without separating mother from her young and trapping newborn squirrels inside your roof. Don’t Worry though, a nursing mother is not a destructive critter, the damage to a home from a squirrel already happened when the nest is being built usually by chewing to widen the entry hole, and to gather appropriate nesting material like chewed wood and insulation. She now will expel her energy on foraging and nursing her young.
If we find no sign of nursing activity or young in the nest (or upon the rescheduled return if there was) everything is sealed up except the primary entry point. At this location a 1-way door is installed that allows the animals to exit, but not re-enter. The 1-way door is left in place for a week to make sure the space is clear before sealing it up for good.