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

You don’t want to think about it, but occasionally 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 creatures out but if they’re nesting they may not leave their babies. Call TML 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 the air vent. You can’t get to it now and all you can do is lay in your room and imagine the thing laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear a few racing around your duct system. Don’t worry. TML 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 fractures 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 combined with the dried grass and leaves they’re likely carrying in to manufacture a nest, and now you have quite the fire hazard in your duct system, your attic, or behind your walls. 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 get into safe and warm places to nest, like your air vents. Nests mean babies, which means they are feeding babies, and that means BUGS. If you discover 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 great amount of materials they use to construct said nest, it can wind up completely clogging a vent, preventing any airflow. As with rodents, a full duct cleaning from TML Service Experts can remove any droppings, feathers, or other potential illness-carrying leave-behinds. You could 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 ducts, you should take steps quickly to remove them. Mice chew through wires 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 eventually pass away inside. This creates unhealthy living conditions, and you may notice unpleasant scents. 
 
You may guess mice because of the noises you hear – lots of scratching and scrabbling in walls. Or you could actually see one making an escape through the vents in your home. You could even confirm their status by inspecting the ducts for mice feces. 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 in the morning. Or you could hire a specialist. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are gone, you really should 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 feces are toxic, and if you ignore them in your ducts they can make you sick. TML Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will remove most debris from your home’s airways. 

Call TML 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.