Those cute little squirrels running to and fro, carrying and burying nuts, then running to get more, can certainly be entertaining. But when they make their home in your house or attic, well, they aren’t very cute anymore.

Besides being a major nuisance by chewing up woodwork, running around and sounding like a herd of elephants in your ceiling, or gnawing through wires, they can also carry diseases, and one of those is leprosy.

Red Squirrels

So far, only the red squirrel is known to carry the leprosy bacteria, and of those, only red squirrels in Great Britain are infected. There has been no known infection that has occurred when humans have been exposed to squirrels with leprosy, but that doesn’t mean it is beyond the realm of possibility.

The common grey squirrels, which are abundant on our eastern USA coast, don’t harbor the leprosy bacteria, but they can carry other diseases like salmonella, and they can also carry ticks that may be infected with Lyme disease. Regardless of what type of squirrel, it’s always better to keep them from making your house their home.

For questions about squirrels and how they can be controlled, please contact your NJ squirrel exterminator at Stern Environmental Group. We’re pest control experts and and a NJ squirrel exterminator that you can count on. Stern’s has been serving the NYC and New Jersey areas for over 17 years.