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08 Aug 2012
This is what flying squirrels do in attics. They prefer to poop and pee in one spot until the accumulation causes staining through sheetrock or other areas of the house. Not exactly a pleasant smell either!
Tim Lynch
Quality Control Supervisor
Environmental Health Services, Inc.
16 Apr 2012
Pennsylvania’s Purple Squirrel A Rainbow-Colored Riddle
A bright purple squirrel trapped by a Pennsylvania couple has experts offering all sorts of theories -- but no concrete answers.
Percy and Connie Emert from Jersey Shore, Pa., trapped the brightly colored creature while trying to keep the birds safe in their backyard feeder, reported Accuweather.com. They told the weather service they had no explanation for the rodent’s deep purple color.
"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple," the Emerts told Accuweather.
Experts queried by Accuweather had several theories for the unusual look, but no hard answers. Indeed, Krish Pillai, a professor at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, told Accuweather he thought the coloring was dangerous for the animal.
I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration. - Henry Kacprzyk, Pittsburgh Zoo curator
"This is not good at all. That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel (possibly) has too much bromide in its system," he said.
Some AccuWeather.com meteorologists had their own theories. Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity thought it was merely an accident.
"The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar," he said,
Henry Kacprzyk, a curator at the Pittsburgh Zoo, said Thursday he thought it looked like a gray squirrel tinged in purple, after looking at a picture of the critter on an iPhone.
He knows of albino squirrels. Black squirrels. Gray squirrels. Reddish squirrels.
“But the purple coloration, from the purple I saw … it looked to me like this animal had come in contact with something with its fur and dyed its fur,” Kacprzyk said. The squirrel could have come in contact with a pokeberry patch, but pokeberries aren’t in season.
And strange as it sounds, he thought Margusity’s toilet theory might hold water.
“I’ve got to think one of the suggestions might be it fell in a Porta John that had blue coloration,” he said with a chuckle. “I have no idea why … but I don’t think it was born that way.”
When asked about the suggestions by some people in online forums of the potential impact of fracking fluid, Kacprzyk said the composition of such fluids in Pennsylvania wasn’t known. “My guess there is if you don’t know something, is that there’s no scientific proof to that. … I would find it amazing that it had that kind of effect,” he said.
In general, purple is an unusual color for mammals, let alone squirrels.
“There are definitely birds that have coloration like this … but not mammals,” he said. “Mammals don’t normally uptake color, ingest something it goes through and (then) it comes out through their fur.”
George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist
29 Feb 2012
Squirrel Pox Outbreak Action Plan in Place
Traps are being offered to the public in order to catch and kill grey squirrels in the area.
The virus has no apparent effect on the greys but is invariably fatal to their red counterparts.
Scotland is one of the UK's last red squirrel strongholds, with the south of the country seen as being on the frontline of conservation efforts.
The organization Red Squirrels in South Scotland said post mortem examinations had confirmed the outbreak around the River Tweed.
The public has been advised not to put out garden feeders as a measure to help stop the disease spreading.
Estates on both sides of the river have already removed a number of the animals.
George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist
06 Feb 2012
We often see many of our clients unsuccessfully attempt to solve the squirrel problem in their attic by performing tree pruning and even removing a valuable shade tree! Not only can this be expensive, but it very rarely works. While it’s good to trim back branches and vegetation that may touch your home to prevent some moisture and insect invasion, especially Carpenter Ants I have never seen it keep squirrels from accessing the openings at the roofline.
Tree squirrels are very good climbers and quite adept to solving access obstructions. Elizabethan style collars installed around electric and utility lines (with the owning companies permission) does work in some instances to keep them from “Running the Wires” to enter but I have personally witnessed a Gray Squirrel tip the upper portion of a collar down enough to jump over the collar to the wires on the other side. Squirrels can gain easy access to the roof by climbing on your gutter downspouts, utility and A/C lines. These adept climbers can also run directly up the wooden shingled siding, easily obtain grip to brick and stucco to run directly up any side unaided by gutter downspouts, conduits, vines, etc.
While it IS possible to prevent these expert climbing rodents from getting to the roofline, the process and cost of modification may far exceed the expense associated with simple evacuation and reinforcement to vulnerable areas with stainless steel mesh or other permanent materials.
John Stellberger
President - Environmental Health Services, Inc.
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