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

It’s not fun to think about, but sometimes dust isn’t all 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 Strogen's Service Experts for a thorough duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, for instance: 

Bugs and Insects 

Nothing is worse than trying to kill a spider and watching it run into an air vent. It’s impossible to get it now and all you can do is lay in bed and imagine it laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear a few scuttling around your duct system. Don’t worry. Strogen's 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 cracks in the foundation or home exterior, it causes multiple issues. First, squirrels, mice, or raccoons can leave droppings behind and can destroy anything they come across, including Christmas decorations or baby toys you’re keeping 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 carrying in to build a nest, and now you have quite the fire hazard in your duct system, your attic, or behind your walls. A thorough 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 normally get into 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 large amount of materials they use to construct said nest, it can result in totally clogging a vent, preventing any airflow. As with rodents, a full duct cleaning from Strogen's 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 air ducts, you should take steps quickly to remove them. Mice chew through wiring and leave droppings like most rodents, but they also multiply quickly. And when they run around in the ducts, treating it like the highway of your home, they usually die in there. This creates unhealthy living conditions, and you may notice unpleasant scents. 
 
You may guess mice because of the noise you hear – plenty of scratching and scrabbling along walls. Or you may actually see one making an escape through the vents in your home. You may even confirm their status by inspecting the ducts for mice feces. Either way, if you think there’s mice you have some options. You may trap them yourself, by placing traps just inside each duct and checking them in the morning. Or you could hire a pest control company. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are removed, you will need to have your ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been there, they will have left mice refuse in your ducts. Mice feces are toxic, and if you leave them in your ducts they can make you sick. Strogen's Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will clean out most debris from your home’s airways. 

Call Strogen's Service Experts today or schedule online for a full duct cleaning to help make sure the air you and your loved ones are breathing is healthy and pest-free.