How Can Squirrels Cause Damage to a House?


Squirrels … relatively unassuming animals who occasionally raid your bird feeder but generally don't cause too much of a fuss, right? It's an ice though, but an incorrect one, sadly. In most cases, squirrels are actually responsible for enormous amounts of damage, some of which isn't recognized by the property owner until it is too late.

Squirrels chew to start with, and this can lead to leaking roofs, attic infestations, exposed electrical cables, and much more. A tiny hole chewed through one of the wooden beams in your attic could soon result in a building that is no longer structurally safe. A chewed pipe could cause a leak that leaves wet patches, starts mould growth, leaks through so that you can see it on the ceiling from the floor below, and perhaps even results in the entire ceiling falling through; especially once weight has been placed upon it.

One tiny hole in the attic could result in infestations of other animals, alongside the one that you're already trying to deal with. Squirrels stash food, which in turn will then turn bad. This brings flies, maggots, cockroaches, and ants to the table and other nuisance wildlife will be attracted the food source too, including rats and mice. Rats and mice chew too and may even add to the damage already being caused by the squirrels.

Your heating bill will go up in the summer. There's a hole (or a few) in the attic, which is letting heat escape. If the attic insulation has been removed or moved around (nuisance animals use it for nesting or bedding material, and also for latrines), your home will no longer be as heat-economical as it once was. You might not notice the slight added cost on your energy or heating bills to start with, but over a long period of time this could dramatically increase your fuel costs. During the summer, any cool air that is being pumped through your home is also allowed to escape.

Let's go back to what we mentioned previously too – those exposed wires. What if one of them was to come into contact with a flammable substance that you have stored away up in your attic? It wouldn't take much for a spark to happen and then you have a fire risk on your hands. And it's not just cables in your attic that you need to worry about; what about the cables that are in the garage? Can you say for sure that squirrels haven't been inside there? And what's in the garage? Powerful , mains-operated tools? You certainly wouldn't want them to become faulty, and that's before we look at what effect squirrels (and other animals) can have when they start getting into the engine components of the vehicles you have stored there, or chewing on the wires.

All wild animals have the potential to be dangerous, but chewing wild animals are some of the worst to have hanging around. The damage they can do is immeasurable, and usually rather costly to repair too.



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