Fox Squirrels in Homes | Not Too Common Here
We were recently hired to remove squirrels from a home in Stark County. What makes this fairly common occurrence blog-worthy you ask? Fox squirrels. Removing fox squirrels from a home is newsworthy to us because it is something we haven’t done before.
Sure, we’ve seen many fox squirrels out and about. We see them often when we’re out in more rural areas here in Northeast Ohio. But, we’ve never had them in a home. The squirrels getting into attics and walls here in the cities and suburbs of Summit, Stark, and Portage counties are almost always red squirrels, flying squirrels, or gray (and its black variant) squirrels.
So, to find fox squirrels moving into a house in a more urban area is interesting to us and prompts us to share a little about the fox squirrel.
Fox Squirrels in Ohio
According to the ODNR Division of Wildlife’s species index on the fox squirrel, the fox squirrel is not native to Ohio. They’ve moved further east from their historic preferred ranges and habitat nearer the Great Plains. Spending more time on the ground and woods/field edges, the tree cover in our area used to be too dense to suit the fox squirrels and gray squirrels dominated. As the habitat changed with settlement in Ohio, it became more suitable for fox squirrels and they’ve moved further and further east. Thus, gray squirrels and fox squirrels now live closely together in many parts of Ohio.
We’ve observed, through the course of our squirrel removal work, that here in the Akron/Canton/Kent area, it is still a world mostly dominated by grays. To get a call for fox squirrels living in a house was surprising and interesting to us. Maybe, over the course of many years, fox squirrel removal in our urban and suburban environs will become more frequent.
Interesting Research on Gray and Fox Squirrel Interaction
Interested in learning a little more about fox squirrel / gray squirrel interaction in a region? We were.
If so, you’ve got to check out the web site of Project Squirrel. A neat web find.
Inquisitive scientists from the University of Illinois-Chicago were also wondering how populations of gray and fox squirrels co-exist in a region. Rather than just contemplate it in a blog post, they studied it. The very short video on their home page gives a great description of what Project Squirrel is all about.
Encouraging the input of citizen scientists on squirrel observation all around the Chicago-land area, scientists were able to better understand which areas seem to be dominated by which species. Their results found that population density and predation (usually by cats) played a significant role in densities. Check it out.
A big thanks to the Project Squirrel team for sharing from some curious observers in Ohio!
If squirrels are driving you nuts in the Akron/Canton/Kent, Ohio area and would like to know more about our squirrel removal service, contact us today.
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