What Are the Dangers of Having Squirrels in a Yard? | Home …

Squirrels may seem fluffy and cute as they scurry throughout your back yard, but these small rodents can create big problems. Knowing the potential dangers and risks of having squirrels in your backyard landscape can help you make an educated decision on whether you need to take precautions to deter these pests or even hire an exterminator.

Squirrels often chew on tree branches and strip the bark from tree limbs and the base of the tree. Besides the aesthetic problems that this creates, the constant chewing can stress a tree. In some cases, specifically with small trees and young saplings, the constant bark-stripping can even kill a tree limb or the entire tree.

Most squirrels in nature won't live to the age of four years, mostly because they carry so many diseases and pests that they die quickly. Example diseases and pests that many wild squirrels carry include ticks, fleas and ringworm. The squirrels' presence in your back yard therefore increases the risks of you, your family and your pets contracting these pests or diseases.

Squirrels are constantly foraging for food. They pose a significant danger to bulbs and corms that you plant, such as tulip bulbs, because they dig up the bulbs and corms and eat them. The constant digging also creates aesthetic problems and damage in lawns as the squirrels forage for food.

If you have a garden or orchard, squirrels will often steal ripe fruit and vegetables for their own consumption. This is a considerable problem for commercial farms, where the constant foraging of squirrels reduces the overall harvest of fruit, vegetables and nuts. In a backyard scale, this constant stealing can be even more detrimental as a homeowner typically has a more limited amount of fruit- and nut-producing vegetation.

Squirrels in a yard environment often transition into a home via electrical wires or overhanging tree limbs. Once in a home, they generally take up residence in an attic where they create nests and multiply. In such scenarios, the presence of squirrels increases the risk of pests and disease making its way into a house, to say nothing of the physical damage done to the home's structure as the squirrels build their nests, gnaw electrical wiring and insulation, and sometimes get trapped and die in the walls.

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Writer Bio

Joshua Duvauchelle is a certified personal trainer and health journalist, relationships expert and gardening specialist. His articles and advice have appeared in dozens of magazines, including exercise workouts in Shape, relationship guides for Alive and lifestyle tips for Lifehacker. In his spare time, he enjoys yoga and urban patio gardening.

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