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

You don’t want to think about it, but sometimes dust isn’t exclusively what 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 A-Plus for a complete duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, for instance: 

Bugs and Insects 

There are few things worse than trying to kill a spider and watching it run into the air vent. It’s out of reach now and all you can do is lay in bed and imagine the spider laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear a few scurrying around your duct system. Don’t worry. A-Plus will come out and give you a thorough 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 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 storing 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 build a nest, and now you have quite the fire hazard in your attic, behind your walls, and in your duct system. A professional 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 sheltered places to nest, like your air vents. Nests mean babies, 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 materials 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 A-Plus 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 have mice in your 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 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 could trap them yourself, by placing traps on the interior of each duct and checking them each morning. Or you could hire a professional exterminator. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are gone, you should have your air ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been there, they will have left droppings in your ducts. Mice droppings are toxic, and if you ignore them in your ducts they can make you sick. A-Plus offers duct cleaning services that will clean out most debris from your home’s airways. 

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