Plenty of species might make their home in a chimney. Maybe there’s a snake up there, or a bat. Perhaps it’s an entire family of raccoons or opossums.
Whatever kind of animal is up there, it’s not just stuck. A pervasive misconception is that animals tend to fall down or get lodged into chimneys on accident. This is very unlikely to be the case. Most animals will consider a chimney to be a sort of safe place. The kind of place to make into a new home. You probably don’t want that.
But there is a chance that though it may have entered on purpose, the animal is now stuck- leaving it to die is both inhumane and going to become a problem for you down the road.
In either of these scenarios, your best course of action is allowing a professional to remove the animal. This will save it a great deal of pain and misery, and you will have stopped it from giving you any more trouble.
If the animal does happen to injure itself or starve to death inside your chimney, you’ll have a very strong smell to deal with for quite a while.
If you happen to suspect that you have a “guest” in your chimney, please call ARC Chimney Sweeps of Atlanta, GA at (404) 994-4371 so we can help to remove the animal. All of our animal removal services are completely humane. We can also survey for any damage they animal may have made, help clean up any nests, or offer solutions to prevent more animals from taking up residence in your chimney.
More reasons you might find an animal in your chimney:
Snakes often enter chimneys to go after other animals- especially baby birds and eggs.
Many animals are attracted to hollow trees and to them, a chimney is much the same thing. The raccoon and chimney swift (bird) are two of these animals.
If something frightens an animal and it doesn’t have a more “natural” home nearby, it might retreat inside the chimney. This is why many mice, squirrels, rats, and even larger animals like opossums may be found trapped inside after a storm has passed.
No matter what type of animal problem you have, we are trained to deal with the situation as delicately as possible- for the health and safety of your family as well as that of the animal.