Flying Squirrel Madness
Monday, November 24th, 2008 
Since the arrival of the cold weather we have been inundated with calls for flying squirrels. These nocturnal critters have been keeping homeowners awake and driving them crazy all across our service area.
Last week I completed a flying squirrel removal service for a woman in Norton Ma. that asked me to trap the flying squirrels in her attic and then release them in the woods behind her house. I completed the job on Thursday afternoon and set over a dozen live-catch traps in her attic. This was a large colony of flying squirrels so I knew that I would have lots of them in my traps when I returned to check them on Friday morning. Knowing that I would have lots of squirrels and that I would be releasing them I brought my two year old son with me to check the traps on Friday morning. Flying squirrels are his favorite animals and I knew he would enjoy getting up close and personal with them.
Friday morning we returned to the attic to find 13 flying squirrels in the traps. A very good catch for one night. I transferred them all into two traps and we brought them out into the woods behind her house. One by one we released the flying squirrels back into the wild. Kyle was amazed to see them bolt out of the trap. Some stopped immediately and started drinking rain water from the tops of the leaves on the forest floor while others ran for the safety of the trees. Once in the trees several squirrels jumped and glided from tree to tree. I was fortunate to get a couple of decent photos of them in flight. We spent about 45 minutes releasing the squirrels and watching them in the trees. A very enjoyable experience for us both.
Matt Grady