LESLIE: Now we’ve got Joyce in Minnesota on the line who’s got some unwanted houseguests, you could call them. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
JOYCE: Well, we have squirrels in our house. They came in during the winter when we were gone for three months and so we heard one running around in between the first and second floors, about in March. And then a little later, we heard lots of running around.
LESLIE: Oh, God.
TOM: Wow.
JOYCE: So evidently, Mom (audio gap) babies.
LESLIE: You got a whole family of squirrels.
JOYCE: Yeah.
TOM: Yeah. Now, do you know where they’re getting in, Joyce?
JOYCE: We thought we found a place yesterday, down near the foundation, but I didn’t want to block it while they’re still in, so …
TOM: Well, OK. So if you’ve got an open area by the foundation, what you want to do there is sort of create a one-way door so it only works on the way out and not on the way in.
If it’s a hole in the foundation, you can cover, for example, with a piece of rubber like a flapper. That would be one way to do it so that they can get through it, they can push it out of the way but then it sort of flops closed after that. Or a piece of screening would do it, as well, like a piece of woven wire mesh, so that they can get out but they can’t get back in. I would do that because we want to get them out first.
And then, when you have a pretty good idea that they’re out, then just start repairing those holes one at a time.
JOYCE: Bright idea. Thank you.
TOM: You’re welcome, Joyce. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
Leave a Reply