So...when we first moved into our new home, we were having some men install TV's in the living and basement. They kept telling us that they heard something in the ceiling down there - and then..a walnut fell on their heads when they had to cut into the ceiling!
Hhhmm....something was up!
Then...Jeff would be sitting in the dining room and could hear some scratching in one of the corners, but as soon as he would try to locate the noise again in the basement or by going outside to see if it was a critter scratching to get in via a vent, it would stop. This kept happening and even our wonderful handyman, Howard, knew something was going on as well.
Jeff started calling all kinds of companies that could come determine what kind of animal was deciding to make our home their home as well. He got so worked up and HAD to have someone come out that day!
A guy came out and definitely suspected squirrels due to the high number in the neighborhood and with our (now gone) black walnut tree, they were a good guess. He set some traps and also placed a vent over the dryer vent as it was wide open! We waited...
and waited, but nothing showed up in the traps for over a week AND we were still hearing things. At this point, we knew it was a squirrel or squirrels b/c when Ga Schro visited, she saw one peek it's head out from a hole in the basement ceiling, which has since been closed!
The poor squirrel would visit us about every other day and was stumped. He even place some powdered donuts around the traps to entice them. I had no idea squirrels loved donuts!
After a couple of weeks, we asked the squirrel guy to do more investigating around the outside of the house. He found a couple of new holes - still not sure how this happened - ugh! Anyway, he plugged the holes and put in some more traps. The next morning we got one!
We thought we were done with these pesky little critters - wrong! We kept hearing them off and on throughout the days. Our squirrel guy came back again. We thought he had thoroughly investigated the crawl space, but I guess not. He found a squirrel super highway down there! There about 3-4 holes in there where they could run in and out - and store their nuts - as they pleased!
I am happy to report that once we closed the highway, there haven't been any more - AND Jeff made sure that walnut tree was cut down immediately as well. It was a beautiful tree, but was getting a little out of hand with branches over our house and our neighbor's house - not mention all of the walnuts that make a huge mess in the Fall - and attract squirrels! So, now there's one less tree on the Harbour Trees golf course - ha!
I actually found much of it pretty comical with just how upset Jeff was getting about it all. The squirrels didn't do any harm, but I know they could have eventually - and I really didn't want a surprise squirrel running around on the house a la Christmas Vacation style! Needless to say, it's been a pretty funny joke around here. Jeff rec'vd a couple of squirrel gifts for Christmas and Grammy just happened to have a squirrel shaped cut-out from her school days that Myra continues to trace for daddy. She colors and puts faces on them and we hang them in places that surprise daddy. It's quite fun!
And...here's a pick of what I would see every day on maternity leave. We had soooo many squirrels run across our deck. I actually think he's pretty cute w/ that walnut in his tiny little pesky hands!
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