We have a really tall front porch. The wooden archway reaches at least thirty feet above the concrete, and although it looks cool, it’s impossible for me to maintain. Even if I had a ladder tall enough, I wouldn’t be comfortable climbing it. Well, a few years ago a woodpecker put a hole in the wood, and then an enterprising squirrel realized he could get inside the roof to build a nest. I admired his ingenuity, but didn’t want a squirrel living in our porch. We’d hired a gutter cleaner, and I bought some chicken wire and asked him to staple it over the hole. Since then, it’s proved a good deterrent against future squirrel homes.
Until now. Somehow a squirrel (the same one as three years ago?) managed to pry it up enough to squeeze inside the hole. We’ve seen him running up and down the pillar, carrying nuts and pinecones to stash away for the winter. Again, I’m impressed but need to put a stop to it.
Enter Doug, my friend who happens to own a window-cleaning business. He has a lot of long ladders and isn’t afraid to climb them, so when he was at the house taking care of our windows, I asked him to add some staples to the chicken wire. Let’s seal it off once and for all!
So Doug climbed up thirty feet, armed with my staple gun, and added about fifty staples to the chicken wire. It’s a very thorough job, and that wire isn’t going anywhere. No more squirrel problems!
… But shortly after Doug left, we saw a little squirrel head in the hole, gnawing at the wood from the inside in a frantic effort to get out. Doug had knocked on the wood, hoping to scare out the critter (there was really no way to tell if he was in there when Doug was stapling) and it seemed fine, but we were mistaken. Now we had a squirrel trapped in the porch roof, and although he had plenty of food stashed in there, he didn’t have any water. He really worked on that hole and actually made some impressive progress– much to my chagrin, because the last thing I need is a bigger hole– but the next day he apparently gave up. We didn’t see him again.
I’m guessing he died up there, and at this point we’re hoping he wasn’t able to get into the house before meeting his maker. Otherwise we’re going to have a repeat of October 2021…