I have been hearing animals in the attic at night, so I called a highly-recommended critter removal service. The guy showed up and prepared a detailed quote involving live trapping, sealing entrances, and spraying the attic with some sort of sterilizing fluid. I knew the spray was totally a high-profit upsell, and I tried hard to resist, but the guy was incredibly pushy and so I finally agreed. The total cost to remove a couple of squirrels is nearly $1000. I have fuming over this for a week. $1000 is about the same as I paid a team of men with big equipment to remove a mature oak tree that was leaning dangerously over my house ... The two jobs just don't compare.
My question is, will I ever forgive myself for being scammed?
No sorry, my question is, has anyone here done DIY critter removal? Should I have done it myself? In principle you just trap the animal and get rid of it. But in practice you have to set traps, check the traps, risk getting bitten or scratched by a potentially rabid animal, transport the animal to a location where you can release it (legally?), or find a way to kill it humanely (ethically?). It's complicated. I didn't want to deal with these issues and that's why I hired a guy. But $1000? WTF!