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

It’s unpleasant to consider, 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 critters out but if they’re nesting they may not leave their babies. Call Fras-Air/General Service Experts for a thorough duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, including: 

Creepy-Crawlies 

There are few things 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 scrambling around your duct system. Don’t worry. Fras-Air/General 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 rodents make their way into your duct system, usually through holes in the duct work and cracks in the foundation or home exterior, it causes many 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 saving in your attic. Second, animals tend to chew, which can cause exposed wiring. That combined with the dried grass and leaves they’re likely bringing in to manufacture a nest, and now you have quite the fire hazard in your duct system, your attic, or behind your walls. A full 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 get into safe and warm places to nest, like your air vents. Nests mean eggs, which means they are feeding babies, and that means BUGS. If you have birds in your vents, you’ll probably 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 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 Fras-Air/General 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 feces like most rodents, but they also multiply quickly. And when they run around in the ducts, treating it like the beltway of your home, they usually die in there. This creates a health hazard, and you may notice it due to the smell. 
 
You might suspect mice from the noises you hear – some scratching and scrabbling in walls. Or you may actually spot one making an escape through the vents in your home. You may even confirm their presence by inspecting the ducts for mice leavings. Either way, if you suspect mice you have some options. You could trap them yourself, by placing traps just inside each duct and checking them every morning. Or you could contract a professional exterminator. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are removed, you will need to have your air ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been there, they will have left feces in your ducts. Mice leavings are toxic, and if you leave them in your ducts they can make you sick. Fras-Air/General Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will clean out most debris from your home’s airways. 

Call Fras-Air/General Service Experts today or schedule online for a full duct cleaning to help make sure the air your family is breathing is healthy and pest-free.