Squirrel Diet

A squirrel’s diet contains various food items, including leaf buds, wild fruits, nuts, acorns, bird eggs, and tree bark. However, while they appreciate readily available natural foods, they’re opportunistic feeders that will forage in various places, including your property.

Unfortunately, this can lead them to seek food and shelter in and around your home. Since the squirrel’s life cycle is about five to six years and they reproduce rapidly, one or two squirrels in your home can quickly lead to an infestation. Squirrels in homes can cause extensive property damage and create a health hazard due to the feces and urine they leave behind.

If you suspect your house has become home to squirrels, it’s important to contact a professional wildlife removal service to safely and humanely remove them. Critter Control specializes in humanely removing squirrels from properties, so if you’re experiencing an infestation, we can help.

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What Do Squirrels Eat?

Squirrels are opportunistic feeders with varied diets. These little rodents’ diets vary based on the time of year. Many species of tree squirrels store pieces of food for later consumption.

Common Squirrel Food Sources:

• Leaf buds
• Fruits such as apples, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, watermelon, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries
• Nuts like acorns, hazelnuts, pecans, peanuts, hickory nuts
• Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, peas, yellow squash, zucchini
• Bird eggs
• Seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds,
• Tree bark

When given the opportunity, squirrels will participate in food theft and snack on human leftovers and garbage.

However, a squirrel eating human food (especially junk food) can be a problem. Foods like dairy, chocolate, salted nuts, and bread can contain high amounts of sugar, salt, and other ingredients that cause various issues for the squirrel, such as weight gain, dental issues, metabolic bone disease, and similar health problems.

Where Do Squirrels Look for Food?

Squirrels will forage for their food in a wide variety of places, especially where they can easily find food. Hardwood forests with mature oak, hickory, elm, and maple trees are a favorite spot because of their abundance of foraging opportunities, and the same is true of nut and fruit orchards.

Gardens and farm fields full of fruits, vegetables, seeds, and grain crops are another popular pick, favored by these rodents for the ample and easily accessible food options. You might even spot squirrels stealing seeds from your backyard bird feeder, provided they can shimmy their way up to the feeder.

Squirrels also flock to public parks and university campuses where food scraps are plentiful, and garbage cans are readily available for scavenging.

Should You Feed Squirrels in Your Backyard?

You should not feed squirrels. Feeding squirrels or providing food sources for squirrels can make you more susceptible to a squirrel infestation. Squirrels nest in locations close to food and water that provide adequate shelter and security. If they find a reliable food source, they will start to look for a safe place for shelter.

How Squirrels Store Food

Squirrels are known for their caching behavior, which involves collecting food and hiding it in various locations to ensure they have enough to eat when resources become scarce. This food-storage strategy is vital because squirrels do not store fat for long-term energy like other animals, so they must rely on the food they gather and hide.

Foraging: Squirrels begin by gathering a wide variety of food items, including nuts, seeds, berries, and fungi. Acorns are a favorite, but they’ll take whatever is available depending on the season. Their sharp teeth allow them to open nuts and seeds, making them a reliable food source.

Hoarding: Squirrels usually hide their food, a practice called hoarding, to eat later. They either hide their nuts in multiple locations (scatter hoarding) or in a single central location (larder hoarding). Typically, squirrels scatter their hoard by burying their nuts in different places. They can hoard more readily when they have a safe place to deposit their collections.

Scatter Hoarding

This type of hoarding involves multiple caches of food stored in various locations. With scatter hoarding, the squirrel relies on its memory and search strategies to find and collect the hidden food before other squirrels do.

Larder Hoarding

When a squirrel stores all its food in one or a few central locations, it’s called larder hoarding. Often, the squirrel defends these locations, protecting its cache to ensure it has food for later in the season.

Memory and Smell: Squirrels have a remarkable ability to remember where they’ve hidden their food. Their keen sense of smell helps them track down their caches, even when they are buried under layers of snow or debris. Additionally, squirrels use spatial memory to pinpoint the exact locations of their food, ensuring they can retrieve it later.

Multiple Caching Locations: Rather than relying on a single stash, squirrels spread their food across several locations. This increases their chances that at least some of the caches will remain intact and accessible, even if others are disturbed or eaten by other animals.

Why Squirrels Might Hide Food in Your House

Squirrels may choose your home for food storage because it offers warmth, protection from predators, and hidden spaces. Attics and basements are warmer than the outdoors, making them attractive places to store food. Squirrels also seek secure, high locations to avoid predators, and your home’s nooks and crannies provide ideal spots for hiding food. Small gaps around vents or chimneys give squirrels easy access to these areas, making your property a prime target.

Unfortunately, squirrels in your attic or in your wall are a serious problem, as they can cause significant property damage that is expensive to repair.

What Are the Signs of a Squirrel Infestation?

If you find piles of nuts in and around your home, they’re almost always brought by a squirrel. So, this is one of the primary signs of an infestation, especially if you find those caches in your attic or roof.

Signs of a squirrel infestation include abnormal noises, such as scampering, scratching, or gnawing sounds, droppings in and around your home, scratches or claw marks in and around entry points, and finding acorns or nuts in your attic or roof.

If all signs point toward a squirrel infestation, it’s best not to attempt to DIY the squirrel removal process. Squirrels are wild animals, so if they feel threatened or are protecting their young, they may attack or attempt to escape. Instead, contact a professional wildlife removal service to safely remove the squirrels from your home and property.

Prevent a Squirrel Infestation

Removing squirrel food goes a long way to prevent a squirrel infestation.

• If you have oak trees in your yard, limiting acorns might not be feasible. But during the fall, cleaning up acorns can help reduce food sources in your yard.
• Protecting your bird feeders from squirrels with baffles and cleaning up spilled bird seed can help prevent squirrels in your yard.
• Securing garbage cans.
• Feeding pets inside.
• Protecting your fruit and vegetable gardens with bird netting can keep squirrels out.

Contact Critter Control for Professional Squirrel Removal

If squirrels have taken up residence in your home, Critter Control can help. Our experienced technicians have extensive experience in efficiently and humanely removing squirrels from homes. So, if you’re seeing piles of nuts in your attic or roof and other signs of a squirrel infestation, contact us today for help evicting your unwanted houseguests. Or, find and contact the office nearest you

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