Critters

(c) 2008 Jim Morrison

Well, the frost is on the pumpkins as I write this, and you know what that means: Hot cocoa after a day of raking leaves; apple cider after picking a peck or bushel; and jacking the prices up on bags of miniature candy. There are many cold weather rituals in human society, but critter’s minds turn to just one thing as the mercury drops: getting into your house. The most common unwanted critters found in homes are:

Mice: They may be there to eat your food, share your roof for the winter, or both. They can get through an opening about the size of a dime, so if you have an older home, chances are good you’ll be sharing space with a family of mice this winter.

Mice don’t do any appreciable damage to your home, but if they move in, you should get rid of them anyway. Their droppings (poop), like those of any mammal, can carry pathogens. Someone is going to have to crawl through your crawl space someday, and you don’t want them to get a faceful of Hanta virus. Mouse droppings look like black grains of rice and one mouse can drop 50 of them a day.

Some of you are sitting there smugly as you read this thinking: “I’ll never have mice in my house, I have a cat!” Please allow me to dispel another myth. I regularly see evidence of thriving mice communities in homes where cats cohabitate. I assert that most cats are too concerned with keeping to their very busy schedule of napping, snacking, and sitting on the window sill to bother with chasing mice. It’s simply too pedestrian for them.

Chipmunks: I had one unlucky chipmunk find his way into my laundry room a couple of years back. As the resident man in the house, it naturally fell to me to vanquish this little invader. The problem we “resident men” bump into at this point is that these little critters are much smaller, much faster, and as often as not, much smarter than we are, making the job a lot harder than it sounds. In most human v. critter contests, my money is on the critter every time. EXCEPTION: The odds swing quickly in favor of the human if the critter is small enough to be scooped up into a lacrosse stick, and if the human has a lacrosse stick in his shed. I admit I wanted to launch the little fella, but I resisted the urge and gently dropped him outside, hoping he’d tell his friends his cautionary tale. We had no more chipmunk trouble after that. If you see one in your house and you don’t have a lacrosse stick, call a pro.

Squirrels: Most people who hear some light skittering in the attic at night think they have squirrels, but really have mice. When you have squirrels in the attic, they sound like small dogs. Gray squirrels are the most common and they will damage your house. Red squirrels are even worse because they are the finest little acrobats in the world and the physical laws that keep the planets spinning and gravity in tact, do not apply to them. Both will gnaw wood, poop recklessly about your house, and worst of all, chew on electrical wires, which can cause a fire.

A gray squirrel and I once terrified each other by simultaneously arriving on a roof during a home inspection one (or both) of us was conducting. I was so startled I nearly fell off this three story Victorian, but in less than one second, it looked at me, looked at the ground, looked back at me and dove off the edge. He soundlessly sailed through the air, hit the ground with a light thud audible from 30 feet up, and scurried into some bushes. I’m just glad it wasn’t me. I’m told they can also eat their weight in a week, but that’s nothing special, because so can home inspectors.

Raccoons: They find their way into your home most often through an uncapped chimney flue. Generally when this happens, they will set up shop on the smoke shelf in that fireplace you never use anymore. If your damper is closed tightly, they won’t get into the interior of your home. If it isn’t, they might, and that is dangerous. Raccoons can carry rabies and can hurt people if they feel threatened. Often, they live there unnoticed until they deliver a litter. If you haven’t already, hire a certified chimney sweep to install a full sized stainless steel rain cap on top of your chimney. If you think there is a bird or animal living in your fireplace, do not light a fire in it, call an exterminator.

It is illegal and dangerous for nonprofessionals to trap and relocate an animal in MA. Any mammal can carry rabies, but wild animals carry the highest risk of being rabid. Skunks, raccoons, foxes, and bats are the most common carriers. Beavers, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, rats and mice are less likely to be rabid. The symptoms of a rabies infection in humans can take anywhere from 5 days to 7 years to become evident, the effects are often fatal, and the treatment is painful. Don’t take chances with wild animals. To learn more about household pests, visit the website: www.yankeepestcontrol.com

Jim Morrison
978.851.6315
Morrison Home Inspections
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