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 might 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 Atmostemp Service Experts for a complete duct cleaning and we will confirm your duct system is free of all these uninvited house guests, such as: 

Insects and Bugs 

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 it laying all those spider babies. You may even think you hear some racing around your duct system. Don’t worry. Atmostemp 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 fractures 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, rodents tend to chew, which can cause exposed wiring. That joined 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 good 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 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 Atmostemp 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 home’s ductwork, you should take steps quickly to remove them. Mice chew through electrical wires 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 may pass away inside. This creates a health hazard, and you may notice it due to the smell. 
 
You might suspect mice from the noises you hear – plenty of scratching and scrabbling along metal. Or you could actually spot one making an escape through the vents in your home. You could even confirm their presence by inspecting the ducts for mice feces. Either way, if you suspect mice you have two options. You could trap them yourself, by placing traps inside each duct and checking them each morning. Or you could hire a specialist. 
 
Once you’ve determined that the mice are removed, you really should have your ducts professionally cleaned by an HVAC company. If mice have been there, they will have left feces in your ducts. Mice feces are toxic, and if you ignore them in your ducts they can make you sick. Atmostemp Service Experts offers duct cleaning services that will remove most debris from your home’s airways. 

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