Why Are They Damaging My Property ?

1. They den in attics, walls, sheds, barns, and chimneys, annoying people with their noise and odors. Squirrels usually gain access via overhanging branches, power lines, or by climbing up the siding. They may fall into chimney and furnace flues, thus gaining entrance to the basement or interior of the house.
    
2. Their nest materials might block a vent, causing a fire hazard.
    
3. They chew and scratch wires (another fire hazard) and also damage attic vents, eaves, screens, bird feeders, siding, insulation, household goods, and the tubing used for maple syrup production.
    
4. They run along power lines and sometimes short out transformers.
    
5. Squirrels also eat garden, field, and orchard crops; bird seed; and newly planted vegetable seeds.
    
6. They'll strip the bark from trees, especially fruit trees and cedar.
    
7. Disease risks: mange, cat scratch disease, typhus, rabies (rarely).

Description:

Gray above, white below; in summer, head, legs, and sides washed with tawny brown. Eye ring buffy; tail long, bushy, grizzled blackish and white. All-black individuals occur locally, esp. in urban areas. Vocal; gives variety of chattering and clucking calls. Eats nuts, buds, inner bark, fruit on ground and in trees. Region’s most commonly seen mammal.
Sign: Summer-stick platform in tree; gnawed nutshells. Winter-spherical leaf nest in tree; holes in snow above nut caches.
Tracks: longer hindprints in front of smaller foreprints.
Breeding: 2 litters of usu. 2-3 young April to May in nest in tree cavity.
Habitat: Broadleaf and mixed woods, towns.
Activity: By day, year-round.