It’s spring! The first Robin appeared at my feeder this week. The squirrels seem to spend their days in endless chase, pursuing each other through the boughs of the pine.  The Blue Jays are building a nest in the arborvitae. Soon nests and dens will be full of tiny creatures.  A little wobbly on their pins, some will teeter a bit too close to the edge and wind up on the lawn. Worried children will drag Nurse Mom or Doctor Dad to the rescue. Unfortunately, in the animal kingdom, misguided attempts to help can often hurt. Generally, if you find a baby animal or bird, it’s best to leave it alone and let its mom find it.

Here’s a quick primer on what to do if you find a baby animal:

• Rabbit. Leave it alone if it’s in a nest or is about the size of a tennis ball and eating grass. Step in if the nest has been abandoned or destroyed.
• Squirrel. Babies often fall out of nests without injury. Leave it alone unless it’s following people or it’s been attacked by another animal.
• Bird. Leave it alone if it’s mostly covered with feathers or is hard to catch or the parents are caring for it. Step in if it’s injured or sitting in the open sleeping. Return it to its nest if you can.

A bit of warm weather and the squirrels are out of their nests and into the bird feeders. The ground squirrels are enough of a nuisance, but it’s the bat-like flying squirrel that can really destroy your attic. The small flyers are more like rodents than squirrels in their uncanny ability to squeeze through tiny holes and cracks to gain entry to your warm rafters and eaves.

Heights are no object for these nocturnal critters. They can “fly” — it’s actually a glide — great distances using the distinctive web of skin that connects their front and back legs. Called a patagium, the web is similar to the wing of a bat. These squirrels can glide more than 200 feet — right onto your roof — using their flat tails as a steering rudder. They can enter your attic from roof vents, improperly installed chimney caps and small construction gaps.

Flying squirrels live in large colonies — often 20 or more — which means there are 20 sets of razor-sharp teeth chewing away on your rafters and electrical wires and 20 nasty little bodies using your attic walls and insulation as a litter box. Of course, that’s not what will tip you off first. You’ll call Stern because of the incessant partying. These critters are nocturnal which means the party’s just getting started about the time you’re going to bed. Come 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and your walls will be reverberating with their high-pitched cries and caterwauling. Don’t worry. Stern Environmental Group offers 24-hour emergency squirrel removal. Click here to find out more about squirrels and flying squirrels. Give us a call. You’ll sleep well when you get Stern with your pests.

My daughter loves peanuts in the shell so I had them in the house over the holidays. She nibbles like a squirrel so there were plenty left when she went home. I put the remainder out on the lawn under the bird feeder this morning. It’s been pretty cold here and there’s a bit of snow on the ground; but even so, I was surprised to find seven squirrels chasing each other around the yard. Each one seemed to feel the peanut cache was his personal pot of gold and tried to ward off newcomers from stealing a nut or two. It was fun to watch them leaping around the yard and doing their tightrope act on the electric wires along the back lot line. Fortunately there seemed to be enough peanuts to go around and carrying them off kept the furry critters busy for most of the afternoon.

As I was watching the fun, I noticed one squirrel scamper up my neighbor’s roof and disappear. Awhile later I saw him scamper back, choose another nut and scurry off, leaping from the fence to my neighbor’s patio trellis and up the roof again, disappearing into the shadows of the eave as before. Mmmm. Having had squirrels in my attic before, this didn’t bode well for my neighbor. Cute as they are scampering around your yard, they’re a downright nuisance nesting in the insulation in your attic. They made a mess of my attic a few years back, urinating and defecating in the insulation, leaving rotting wormy nuts around, and bringing fleas and parasites. Nothing I’d wish on a friend. A quick call to my neighbor verified that they had heard the scamper of tiny feet across the bedroom ceiling last night and wondered what was going on.

A scampering noise in the ceiling or wall is never a good thing. When it’s cold, animals look for a toasty place to snooze and your attic (or basement) are ideal. If you hear footsteps overhead, it’s time to call the exterminator!

If you want to enjoy some of the funniest squirrel videos on the net, click the post title. You may have to load Real Player to watch them, but it’s free and installs with a couple of mouse clicks. Enjoy!

Squirrels are seemingly harmless. They’re cute, fluffy, and playful when gallivanting around one’s front yard, picking up acorns and playing tag with one another. One wouldn’t expect a darker side to them, but if you let your guard down for even just one second, they’ll attack! Not really, but they do love to throw nuts at parked vehicles or unsuspecting hikers. Funnily enough, squirrels can be quite the nuisance to homeowners in many ways, including nut chucking. Just don’t judge a book by it’s cover. You might find out how sinister these pests can be.

Squirrels like to nest in your walls. It’s a harsh reality of life; your walls are not safe from these little buggers. Many a person has woken up to the pitter-patter of a squirrel making its nest from bits of insulation and dry wall. They also can be a threat to your electrical wiring. They have been known to chew right through them, which can leave you with two problems: lights out, and dead carcass. Not fun. Another problem is that squirrels are family pests and love to invite thier kin to stay at the free (your name here) motel. Imagine an orchestra of squirrel feet playing just for you.

There are ways to rid you of your squirrel issue. One popular way is to use strobe lights as a way to off set their sense of comfort in your home. This will cause them to leave on their own, and not leave thier bodies laying around. Another way is to seal up thier doors to get in and out. This will ensure that you won’t have a Best Nestern that is open 24/7. Or gee, you could just have an exterminator come in a nuke them. Whatever you do, do it fast before they start checking in and not checking out.

Have you ever awoken in the middle of the night to the seemingly never-ending sound of a dog barking in the distance? How about that one little bird who decides to wake up at three o’clock in the morning and sing his heart out? Just as unpleasant is attempting to find solace in the comfort of your favorite pillow after a long day, but being interrupted by the pitter-patter of little feet scurrying across the attic floor above you.

Squirrels can be a serious problem for some. Getting them out of the house can be a real problem, but there are, in fact, some ways to rid your home of our furry friends, while remaining at peace with your wallet, as well as with the heart of the animal lover.

One thing you can do is to find an animal relocator who will catch the animal in a trap and take them away safely. You can also put out your own traps, baited with peanut butter or sunflower seeds, and drive the trapped animal out to another environment, preferably in the wild, as opposed to another neighborhood. Make sure not to touch the animals, and wear heavy leather gloves when handling the cage.

Moth balls patched into entrance holes are quite effective for driving out squirrels. Also, because of the highly developed senses of most animals, squirrels will be likely to stay away if you wet rags with ammonia and spread them around the general area that the animal is infesting. In addition, leaving a light on and a radio playing non-stop will drive them crazy and, hopefully, away from your home.

Stern Environmental Group, a company that prides itself in innovative and effective ways of ridding homes and other locations of pests, offers 24-hour emergency squirrel control services. The services they provide include: 24-hour squirrel removal, humane squirrel trapping, and quick squirrel removal services, as well as treatment for raccoons, skunks, pigeons, bed bugs, cockroaches, ants, and many other pests.The first step to ridding yourself of your squirrel problem is to take prompt action today!

They’re so small, they’re so cute, they’re great acrobats, but when they’re in your attic, they’re incredibly destructive. And I mean really destructive! Now only can squirrels be a destructive problem to the structural wood in your attic and eaves, but they are incredibly tenacious in regards to finding their way into your home and once they have gotten in staying in and coming back.

One summer while we were on vacation, squirrels got into my garbage can. They must have worked all week long chewing through a 1/2 inch thick plastic lid to get to the garbage. Now this was not any can this was one of the professional waste company cans that is maybe 100 gallons in size, huge and on wheels. The squirrels chewed a hole about the size of a large grapefruit into this super hard dense and thick plastic can, just think what they can do to wood which is much softer in just a short period of time.

My sister had a problem with squirrels in her attic. She tried stuffing the holes in the eaves from the inside, she tried putting shields on the drainpipes, as they would jump from the trees and then shimmy up the drainpipe and scurry into their hole and into her attic. She finally had had it when she saw the Mom squirrel teaching the baby how to make the jump and get around the shield. Finally enter the professionals, the squirrels were caught, removed, nesting material cleaned up, and then a roofer had to be called to repair the damage that they had caused. Such small cute little furry creatures caused such a big problem that was a big drain on her pocketbook.

The lesson learned here is that to not wait too long if you think you have a squirrel problem. The longer your delay in dealing with the problem, the more costly the damage and more extensive the repairs. Squirrels are chewers. They don’t have those big chompers up front to eat grass, they like to gnaw like beavers! Once squirrels have nested in your attic, they will return each year to raise their young. Don’t let you home become the new “squirrel resort” on your block, take action now to remove these pests that just look too cute to be a problem.

We’ve been watching the squirrels gathering nuts and scampering up and down the oak tree in the backyard. Their amazing acrobatics are a continual source of entertainment. Having had the unpleasant experience of sharing my attic with them, I know these rodents can be destructive and unbelievably persistent. But in the yard, I can appreciate their death-defying leaps and sneaky attacks on the bird feeder.

The word squirrel comes from the ancient Greek words skia meaning shadow and oura meaning tail. Translated, a squirrel is an animal that sits in the shadow of its own tail. As a squirrel watcher, it is their tails that have always fascinated me. Beautiful and bushy (except during July when they look more like a rat’s tail during the annual molt), a squirrel’s tail serves many functions.

I saw my first flying squirrel today. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first. When he leaped off the branch, I was afraid the little critter had a death wish. But he just seemed to glide through the air for an impossibly long time before catching a distant branch and scrambling away. The squirrel’s flight seemed amazing, though I’m not sure I would have thought so if he had been using his skills to soar over to my rooftop for a little destructive munching.

Squirrels like to nest in eaves and attics. It’s easy for flying squirrels to drop in on your roof. They can chew right through your shingles and the underlying wood in their effort to get into your attic to build a cozy nest. They’ll gnaw holes in your soffits and fascia. They’ll sharpen their little teeth on electrical wires, creating a fire hazard. They’ll build nests in your insulation, creating a mess and spreading fleas, ticks, mites and disease. They’ll have babies which will disrupt your sleep with noisy wailing and nighttime scamperings across your ceiling.

Stern Environmental Group provides humane, fast and efficient squirrel removal services. If squirrels fly in to set up home in your attic, our squirrel experts will get rid of them fast. We provide 24-hour squirrel removal. Click here for more information on our squirrel removal services. Click the post title for complete information on Stern Environmental Group’s wildlife removal services. You’ll sleep well tonight when you get “Stern” with your pests.

From your ring-side seat at the kitchen window it’s entertaining to watch their amazing feats of derring-do — high-wire acts on the phone lines, death-defying leaps from tree branches, intricate contortions as they hang from your bird feeder to steal a few seeds. Squirrels are nature’s daredevils, but they can also be little terrorists, capable of sneaking into your home to create mayhem and destruction.

“Squirrels aren’t just mean — they’re vicious,” said Thomas Barnes, professor of forestry at the University of Kentucky-Lexington, in a recent New York Times article. “Heck, they can chew through hardware cloth and chicken wire. Vinyl’s not even a challenge.”

Usually entering homes along the roof line, squirrels squeeze through small holes or gaps, enlarging them easily with a little tooth-driven excavation. They’ve been known to gnaw through shingles and wood soffits to get into your cozy attic to build their nests. The pitter-patter of little feet across your ceiling is not a good sign!

Unfortunately, squirrels do not make good house guests. They sharpen their teeth on your beams, chew your electrical wires creating a fire hazard, and tear up your insulation to build a toasty nest (bathroom included). They bring along unwanted friends: fleas and ticks that can infiltrate your house. And come spring, the kids appear, loud and noisy, chattering and bickering, scampering and rolling acorns across the floor — all in stereophonic sound. You might think your problems are over once the last squirrel finally leaves in the summer, but come fall they’ll be back! If you haven’t been diligent about sealing their entry points with gnaw-proof materials — thick plywood, heavy-gauge aluminum flashing or steel mesh — the determined critters will gnaw their way back in, seeking those comfy accommodations you provided last year!

How do you get rid of these pesky interlopers? It can be a serious problem. Trapping generally works; but if there is a litter, the nest will also have to be located and the babies removed by hand. The nauseating odor of decomposing squirrels, not to mention the maggots and beetles that accompany the process, is something you definitely do not want to experience. Squirrel removal is a job best left to professionals. Mother squirrels are fierce and formidable protectors and their vicious bites carry rabies.

Common gray and black squirrels are difficult enough to dislodge, but “we’re seeing more problems with flying squirrels,” said Daniel Stern of Stern Environmental Group, a pest control expert quoted in the New York Times article (click the post title to read the full article). Smaller, nocturnal cousins of the common ground squirrel, flying squirrels exhibit mouse-like behavior, making them particularly tricky to trap. “Eliminating flying squirrels can take a while because you’re basically catching them one at a time,” Stern explained. Trapping is difficult and time consuming and you may need professional help to assure complete removal of this obnoxious pest.

The nuisance wildlife experts at Stern Environmental Group can rid your home or business of these determined and annoying pests. We provide complete removal services, including clean-up and sanitation, for your peace of mind and the health of your family. For more information on squirrel and wildlife removal, visit our website and go to our Wildlife Control page.

Stern Environmental Group provides emergency service 24 hours a day, seven days a week to most of New Jersey, all of New York City, most of Long Island, and parts of Connecticut. If you have any kind of pest problem — bed bugs, insects, bees, spiders, roaches, wildlife — do not put your family at risk, call the experts at Stern Environmental Group today. We provide affordable and efficient pest management and pest control services. You’ll sleep well tonight when you get “Stern” with your pests!