The first thing you must not do is to start a fire, if you do and there is a nest of baby Peoria squirrels you will cook them and the adult will more than likely jump out of the open damper into the house, and this will be one very angry animal. Squirrels probably see chimneys as just another hollow tree, that even has a nice place to build a nest on so it is basically very very attractive. If your chimney is built out of brick or stone's then most likely an adult squirrel will have no problem at all climbing in and out at will, the problem comes with most modern fireplaces having metal flues, once a squirrel drops into this they usually cannot climb out again, the recommended method of getting a squirrel out of this type of situation is to lower a rope that the animal can use to climb out.



Surprisingly it seems Illinois squirrels get easily stuck into chimneys, they believe their own ability to climb almost anything means they are safe whatever they do but in human environments we have designed things that no animal can climb and that is what brings them undone. The worst part about having a squirrel actually living in your chimney is that the time of year that the squirrel really wants to chimney for a nest is the same time of year you want the fireplace to warm your house, winter time.

If this squirrel is in the fireplace/chimney because it fell down there and is basically trapped, you can tell this by the behavior of the animal, is it scrabbling around and calling for help in its attempts to get out, if it is then your best bet is to lower a rope large enough for the animal to grab hold of it and climb out itself. If it is not trapped but has moved in to live then you're probably going to have to drive it out, if it has a nest with babies then it is best to leave it until the babies are mobile and the whole family is outside, this is the time to put a solid steel chimney cap in place.

If the Peoria animal is trapped and you give it the opportunity to leave, like a climbing rope, be prepared for the animal to be very very fast because after being trapped for a couple of days the animal suddenly sees a way out it will take it at full speed, you may be startled but the animal is no threat as all it wants to do is escape.

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