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 critters out but if they’re nesting they may not leave their babies. Call Barlow Service Experts for a complete duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, including: 

Bugs and Insects 

Nothing is worse than trying to kill a spider and watching it run into an air vent. You can’t get to it now and all you can do is lay in your room and imagine the spider laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear some racing around your duct system. Don’t worry. Barlow Service Experts 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 many 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 combined with the dried grass and leaves they’re likely carrying in to create a nest, and now you have quite the fire risk in your attic, behind your walls, and in your duct system. 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 usually find safe and dry places to nest, like your air vents. Nests mean babies, which means they are feeding babies, and that means BUGS. If you find 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 end up fully clogging a vent, preventing any airflow. As with rodents, a full duct cleaning from Barlow 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 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 highway of your home, they usually die in there. This creates unhealthy living conditions, and you may notice unpleasant scents. 
 
You may think of mice because of the noises you hear – lots of 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 droppings. Either way, if you think there’s mice you have a couple options. You can 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 ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been there, they will have left feces in your ducts. Mice droppings are toxic, and if you ignore them in your ducts they can make you sick. Barlow Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will remove most debris from your home’s airways. 

Call Barlow Service Experts today or schedule online for a complete duct cleaning to help make sure the air your family is breathing is healthy and pest-free.