Like a bad sequel, the squirrel problem is back. One started knocking around in the attic again this week. This was quite the noisy squirrel. He liked to make these purring, meowing sounds when he was hanging out in the knee wall, and he shrieked when he was scared.
At first I thought Hammy was back, because this squirrel also kept trying to get through the access panel. I was surprised when I opened the door to retrieve the cage, and I had a different squirrel - darker coat, less bushy tail. I've read that squirrels are attracted to light, so they must see some around the edges of the panel or something. Otherwise I don't know how they'd figure out it was there.
This particular squirrel had a new trick, though. He figured out how to get in between the floor upstairs and the ceiling downstairs, and run around right over my head. That wasn't annoying.
I didn't have any more sunflower seeds so this time I used peanut butter and granola. Then I went out for supper, and came back to a neatly packaged squirrel. It doesn't take long. These guys are gullible.
This afternoon I went into the attic kneewall to see if there was any damage caused to the electrical wiring, and to see if I could block off where they were getting in. I made a number of interesting findings:
- Underneath the fiberglass batting on the attic floor just inside the access panel was a small blower motor, which is connected to the flexible HVAC ductwork that runs through the wall. This runs to the extra vent in the room below. That must be how the heat is distributed from the unused solar panel system.
- There was a small cut on the romex running the blower motor, which went through the outer insulation and paper, but not through the inner insulation. Since the blower motor is unused, I don't think it prevents a hazard at the moment. I think I'll disconnect this system in the future, though, for safety's sake.
- The original romex for the electrical outlet was untouched.
- The kneewall space is filthy, tiny, and unfloored. I had trouble squeezing through the 24" x 18" access door to get in there without putting a foot through the ceiling, and I'm only 5 feet tall. I can't imagine how a guy ever got in there to setup that flexduct.
- I can't figure out how on earth Hammy got into the HVAC ductwork from there, or how he got himself out.
- I can't see how the second squirrel was able to get into the second floor joists, but I didn't go all the way to the exterior wall.
- I'm never going in there again.
The vent in the gable is already screened, and is undamaged, so I can't figure out where these darn squirrels are getting in. I've looked around the exterior for gaps in the eaves or the siding, but I'm not seeing anything. I know they can get through pretty small holes, but there isn't an opening to speak of.
2 comments:
Thanks for the comment. Those are some excellent suggests and I am going to give them to Brian. They might be very helpful.
He is on two medications for depression. One is good for anxiety, the other is not, but it good for keeping the other from making him gain too much weight and is supposed to help with his mild ADD. We see a good child psychiatrist for the meds. He has had a couple of child counselors, one more helpful than the other. We have a start-up appointment with a third who is supposed to be good at teaching skills to kids with anxiety.
ADD meds all were just awful for him. He might have developed anxiety attacks, as opposed to just somatic symptoms from anxiety like stomach and head aches, but it was from ADD meds that he had genuine attacks. Really bad. There is a series of posts from last spring about him.
He really does want to go back to the big high school. Brian has a 504 which means they are legally obligated to provide the services he needs. Still I know getting him easy access to a quiet room at that busy place is not going to be easy. The office is always busy with kids waiting in line for one thing or another.
A thought on finding the "invisible holes", put a light in the small, dirty space and at night go outside and see if you can see where the light is leaking through. That is what we had to do to find where the chipmunks were getting into the crawl space under our porch. It was amazing how quickly we could find the small holes that they were using that were not obvious in the daylight even under close inspection. Good luck.
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