Squirrel Removal in Cartersville, GA

Squirrels in your Cartersville home

Squirrels around Cartersville have plenty of nut trees to live in. There are oak and hickory woodlots across Bartow County, wooded banks along the Etowah and its creeks, and big shade trees in the older blocks near downtown. A house next to any of these sits right on a squirrel's daily route. All it takes is one weak spot at the roofline, usually a gable vent with a loose screen or a gap where the builder never closed things up.

Squirrels in the attic are more than a nuisance. Their teeth never stop growing, so they chew on wiring, insulation, siding and the roof itself, and bare chewed wiring can start a fire. Because Georgia winters are mild, squirrels may stay in an attic all year instead of leaving when it warms up. The fix stays the same on any house: get the squirrels out, close the openings with metal, and make sure no young are left behind.

Woodlots, river banks and the roofline

Cartersville has a lot of houses built right next to timber. Some newer subdivisions back onto the woodlots that were left when farmland was split up. Homes near the Etowah sit close to tree-lined banks. Downtown, old shade trees reach over the roofs. In all three, a squirrel can go from the trees to your roof without touching the ground. When the pro inspects, they'll note which branches give squirrels that path. The main job, though, is closing the roof openings, because a squirrel can also jump, climb a downspout or run along a wire.

Don't seal the mother out

In Georgia, squirrels usually have babies in spring and fall, and some years that season runs longer. If you nail the hole shut while the mother is outside and her litter is inside, she will chew through soffit, fascia or shingles to get back in. That leaves your house with more damage than before. A careful pro checks for a nest before anything is closed. They time the exclusion so the whole family is out, or they take the young out by hand.

What the chewing actually damages

The damage that matters most is to wiring, because squirrels strip the plastic coating and leave bare conductors in a hot, dusty attic. They also tear up insulation to build nests, leave droppings and urine in it, and widen small gaps in siding and roof edges until they're big enough to walk through. Some of it you can see from the yard, like a chewed corner on a fascia board. The rest only shows up when someone goes into the attic, so the pro's inspection report should cover it.

The three openings they use most

Our crew finds squirrels coming in at the same few spots again and again. The first is gable vents whose louvers or screens have rusted or been pushed in. The second is construction gaps, where two rooflines meet or the soffit was never fully closed. Georgia's building codes leave a lot of these out of sight. The third is a roof-to-wall joint that has pulled apart. Cartersville has both older in-town houses and quickly built newer ones, and both have these gaps. A good inspection checks every side of the house, not only the hole you can see.

Daytime grays, nighttime flyers

If the noise is in the morning and afternoon, it's almost always gray squirrels. Noise after dark points to southern flying squirrels, a small native species that lives in Bartow's hardwoods and often shares an attic in groups. The job is basically the same for both. The difference is that flying squirrels fit through much smaller openings, so the pro has to look harder for tight gaps before calling the house sealed.

Metal, not foam

Squirrels chew through expanding foam, plastic vent covers and thin screen in a few minutes. That's why a squirrel repair is done with steel or other metal wherever possible: galvanized hardware cloth behind gable vents, metal flashing over chewed edges, and steel mesh across construction gaps. Done right, the repair should last as long as the house. Ask the company what warranty they give, and get it in writing.