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MisterBadger

Lifer
Oct 6, 2024
1,079
9,077
Ludlow, UK
It's deja-vu all over again! A while back I had problems with coons in our attic. Now it's a squirrel in the a/c exhaust for my smoking room. I'm trying to get him to move out by blowing the a/c exhaust at full force and making noise, but all he does it look at me through the window a moment and then go back in the vent. The problem is, it's that time of year, and I wonder if there are babies in a nest. I want him or her gone but I don't want to hurt the little ones. Any ideas? puffy
Tree-rats, eh? When we moved in to our present address, we found they'd built a drey in the loft, nice and snug against a chimney stack corner. We came to the same humane decision as you - live and let live - until one early summer night, just getting ready for bed during a thunderstorm, we noticed water leaking through the bathroom ceiling. Our first thought was that the roof was leaking, but no - squirrels, like any rodent, will chew on anything and the little buggers had severed a pipe from the cold water cistern. After that inconvenience we decided on a zero-tolerance policy. having made a hulabaloo to evict them all, I proofed the inside of the eaves with fine mesh chicken wire stapled to the joists and beams, and bought a couple of motion-activated sonic alarm repellents in case they chewed through the wire (which they did). We didn't want to wire off the outside eaves as well because a clan of sparrows habitually nest up there (and squirrels, incidentally, love birds' eggs and will even eat nestlings). The sonic repellants don't always work too well as I found out later, so I also installed a couple of live cage traps, baited with peanuts. These are checked regularly and any squirrel found therein is taken outside and shot. Whenever I see one in the garden, it's shoot on sight, too. We haven't had a squirrel problem for two years, now. I always know when the local population expands into our garden because the first thing they do is attack the nuts in the bird feeders.

So... my advice is to ensure they don't expand their living space in your home beyond the a/c. Baby squirrels don't emerge from the nest until 10-12 weeks old and then are fully independent and look just like the adults - maybe slightly smaller and perhaps not so savvy in their behaviour. Buy or borrow an air rife or pistol, and shoot them because they are fast breeders and pests, no matter how cute they look. If you trap and release, they'll just come back again - no idea what the law says where you are but here in UK the American variety is officially classified as vermin so any that are trapped must legally be destroyed. If you're worried about collateral damage (neighbours' children, cats etc) then bait a cage trap and execute them in the cage. Seems brutal I know, but they don't understand compromise. Hope that helps.
 

Searock Fan

Lifer
Oct 22, 2021
2,272
6,282
Southern U.S.A.
It's deja-vu all over again! A while back I had problems with coons in our attic. Now it's a squirrel in the a/c exhaust for my smoking room. I'm trying to get him to move out by blowing the a/c exhaust at full force and making noise, but all he does it look at me through the window a moment and then go back in the vent. The problem is, it's that time of year, and I wonder if there are babies in a nest. I want him or her gone but I don't want to hurt the little ones. Any ideas? puffy

View attachment 384509
It's been about 3 days and I haven't heard any noise in the vent. Maybe all the noise I made knocking and tapping on the vent plus running the exhaust fan at full speed, made the little bugger pack up and move.

I don't climb high ladders any more and the vent is on the second floor, so when the family all comes here for Easter I'm going to get one of our sons to climb up there and stuff a ball of chicken wire in the entrance to the vent. Hope that works. puffy
 

Sobrbiker

Lifer
Jan 7, 2023
5,051
68,388
Casa Grande, AZ
That all depends on what position. I wouldn't want to be on top, since I'd have to take my eyes off the...uh...business at hand, to stare at the intricacies in the ceiling. That'd just be unfair to my....uh...activity partner, might give her a real inferiority complex or something. These days, that's the kind of indiscretion that can get you cancelled. Which is better than the Lorena Bobbitt route, but this is hardly the time or place to split hairs.

Point is, on the bottom, I could at least plausibly fake it, and still observe the design peripherally. @cosmicfolklore are you taking notes? (it's a rhetorical question, please don't feel obligated to answer it! In fact, I'd prefer not to know what you do in your spare time, unless it is Secret Santa related.)
Better than “beige”😆
 
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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
17,537
31,639
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
View attachment 342637View attachment 342637View attachment 342638View attachment 342638
Inspired by the Alhambra and designed and constructed as a smoking room by an independently wealthy lady as a surprise present for her husband, a Navy man, while he was at sea. What a nice homecoming, don't you think? I used to live nearby and visited when it was still privately owned. The story of the house, and a bit more about the smoking-room, is here:

That's a very trasnportative room. I don't know what is a more better term for it. But I would feel like a few puffs in that I was in the exotic east and not in Jolly ole England.
 
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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
17,537
31,639
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Very cool, but no tables to set your coffee on, nor ashtrays or pipeholders. Not a single rack on the wall. nor any boxes full of mason jars. The room is obviously made for sex. puffy
Every couple has a euphemism for sex. I guess theirs was smoking. In the interest of TMI.... Mine is "talking about theology", like the fact that woman get that far quicker then most men.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
17,537
31,639
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
It's deja-vu all over again! A while back I had problems with coons in our attic. Now it's a squirrel in the a/c exhaust for my smoking room. I'm trying to get him to move out by blowing the a/c exhaust at full force and making noise, but all he does it look at me through the window a moment and then go back in the vent. The problem is, it's that time of year, and I wonder if there are babies in a nest. I want him or her gone but I don't want to hurt the little ones. Any ideas? puffy

View attachment 384509
yeah roll with it and become the weird squirrel guy in your neighborhood. Also you have to give them credit for their taste in tobacco smoke.
Semi seriously I had an apartment that a crow built it's nest in the little box outside my window. They got used to me and didn't treat me like other people. The looks you get when a couple of crows follow you is probably as priceless as when it will happen with squirrels.