What’s Crawling Around in Your Home’s Air Ducts?

You don’t want to think about it, but often times dust isn’t the only thing that is in your duct system. You may hear animal noises coming from air ducts and notice you have unwanted visitors. You can try and lure the little guys out but if they’re nesting they may not leave their babies. Call Neal Harris Service Experts for a thorough duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, including: 

Insects and Bugs 

Nothing is worse than trying to kill a spider and watching it run into the air vent. You can’t get to it now and all you can do is lay in bed and imagine the thing laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear a few scurrying around your duct system. Don’t worry. Neal Harris Service Experts will come out and give you a full duct cleaning and make sure that spider and any of her bug friends are good and gone. Babies, too. 

Rodents 

When rats, squirrels, and other wildlife make their way into your duct system, usually through holes in the duct work and breaks in the foundation or home exterior, it causes several issues. First, squirrels, mice, or raccoons can leave droppings behind and can destroy anything they come across, including Christmas decorations or old toys you’re saving in your attic. Second, those little guys tend to chew, which can cause exposed wiring. That mixed with the dried grass and leaves they’re likely bringing in to build a nest, and now you have quite the fire risk in your attic, behind your walls, and in your duct system. A complete duct cleaning can remove rodent droppings or nests, but you may also need to call animal control to remove the rodents and possibly an electrician if there has been any damage to wiring. 

Birds 

Birds usually find safe and dry places to nest, like your air vents. Nests mean baby birds, which means they are feeding babies, and that means BUGS. If you have birds in your vents, you’ll likely end up with bugs in your home. But that’s not the worst part. Birds construct nests in your vents, and given the vast amount of leaves and grass they use to construct said nest, it can end up completely clogging a vent, preventing any airflow. As with rodents, a full duct cleaning from Neal Harris Service Experts can remove any droppings, feathers, or other potential illness-carrying leave-behinds. You may also need animal control to actually remove the birds from your vents or attics. 

Mice in Air Ducts 

If you’ve got mice in your home’s ducts, you should take steps quickly to remove them. Mice chew through electrical wires and leave droppings like most rodents, but they also multiply quickly. And when they run around in the ducts, treating it like the road system of your home, they eventually die in there. This creates a health hazard, and you may notice it due to the smell. 
 
You may think of mice from the noises you hear – some scratching and scrabbling inside metal. Or you may actually see one making an escape through the vents in your home. You may even confirm their passage by inspecting the ducts for mice droppings. Either way, if you suspect mice you have a couple options. You can trap them yourself, by placing traps just inside each duct and checking them in the morning. Or you could hire a professional exterminator. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are exterminated, you will need to have your ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been living in the walls, they will have left droppings in your ducts. Mice droppings are toxic, and if you don’t remove them from your ducts they can make your household sick. Neal Harris Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will remove most debris from your home’s airways. 

Call Neal Harris Service Experts today or schedule online for a thorough duct cleaning to help make sure the air you are breathing is healthy and pest-free.