While your chimney is supposed to be a great family feature that allows you to feel warmer in the winter and have a great place to snuggle up on cool nights with that certain special someone. This is what makes it such a fantastic addition to any home.
Sadly, animals will at times make a home out of your chimney. By getting down the shaft of the chimney they are able to set up their own home in the flume area of the fireplace, taking away one of the most enjoyable parts of your home.
You clearly want these wild animals out of your chimney, but getting rid of them can be a little more complicated than you may think. Because of the way that a chimney is designed it is not the easiest thing in the world to get rid of them, and you have to take the proper kind of measures to protect yourself so that you don’t get bitten or scratched while attempting to get them out. If you are looking on how to get wild animals out of the chimney then here are a few things to try.
Before talking about ways to get them out, let’s talk about one that you absolutely should never try. Some come up with the idea of starting a fire in their fireplace, then opening the flume and scaring the animal out. If this idea is crossing your mind then get it out right now.
While not trying to be mean, this is potentially the stupidest thing that you could decide to do. What happens most often in a situation like this is that the animal falls into your fireplace, catching on fire, and then races around your home. Now you have a flaming animal that is setting your carpet and furniture ablaze. This is why it is so dumb.
There are significantly better options. The first of these starts by placing a simple one-way exclusion funnel over the top of your fireplace. How this works, is that the animal travels up the fireplace and gets out of the top so it can go forage for food. Once it does that it is unable to get back in and your wild animal problem is resolved.
Depending upon the size of the animal you may want to also consider using a snare to capture the animal and pull it out. This allows you to rob a noose around the animal’s neck, giving you great control of the beast. If it continues to resist you, you simply pull tighter on the noose, cutting off its airway briefly until it relaxes and stops resisting you. You let it go on the ground and your problem is resolved.
Whichever option you decide upon, make sure that you place the screen over the top fireplace so that the animal cannot get back in. There is no sense in going to the trouble of getting rid of it if you’re going to allow it to get right back in your chimney.
Read more:
Florida Wildlife Control
