Squirrels may seem fluffy and cute as they scurry through your backyard, but these small rodents can create massive problems. Understanding the possible dangers and hazards of getting squirrels in your backyard landscape is able to assist you in making an educated decision on whether you want to take precautions to deter these pests or even hire an exterminator.
Bark Damage
Squirrels often chew on tree branches and strip the bark from tree limbs and the foundation of the tree. Besides the aesthetic problems that this creates, the constant chewing can stress a tree. In some instances, specifically with small trees and young saplings, the constant bark-stripping can even kill a tree limb or the whole tree.
Disease and Pest Transportation
Most squirrels in nature won’t live to age four decades, mainly because they carry so many diseases and pests that they die fast. Example diseases and pests that lots of wild squirrels carry include ticks, fleas and ringworm. The squirrels’ presence in your backyard therefore increases the hazards of you, your loved ones and your pets contracting these diseases or insects.
Plant Destruction
Squirrels are constantly foraging for food. They pose a substantial danger to bulbs and corms which you plant, like tulip bulbs, since they dig up the bulbs and corms and eat them. The constant digging also creates aesthetic problems and harm in lawns since the squirrels forage for food.
Food Stealing
In case you have a garden or orchard, squirrels will often steal ripe vegetables and fruit for their own consumption. This is a substantial issue for industrial farms, in which the constant foraging of squirrels decreases the overall harvest of fruit, nuts and vegetables. In a backyard scale, this constant stealing can be more detrimental as a homeowner usually has a more limited quantity of fruit- and nut-producing vegetation.
House Damage
Squirrels in a yard surroundings often transition into a house via electrical wires or overhanging tree limbs. Once in a house, they generally take up residence in a loft where they create multiply and whistle. In such situations, the presence of squirrels raises the chance of pests and disease making its way into a house, to say nothing of the physical harm done to the property’s construction as the squirrels construct their nests, gnaw electrical wiring and insulation, and sometimes get trapped and die in the walls.