Question
Last summer I noticed a 13 lined ground squirrel living in the flower bed in the front of our house.  I didn't think much of it, but when I got the Christmas decorations out this winter, in numerous places I found random seeds (meaning maybe 3 to 5 seeds and they were all different, kind of like bird seed maybe) together with piles of black dots (similar to poppy seeds).  Now I'm wondering if maybe a 13 lined ground squirrel made it's way into the basement and if the poppy seed things could have been his feces. or maybe the poppyseeds were something he didn't like to eat so he left them? I originally thought it was an insect issue, but I've always had Orkin, so it seemed unlikely.  What do you think?  And what should I do - now that it's spring I've spotted that guy on my front porch again!  I live in a suburb of Chicago.

Answer
It is possible, but it is more likely that you have mice in your house. Without a careful inspection, I can't tell you which is the case. Didn't know 13 lined ground squirrels lived in Chicago. Are you sure it isn't a chipmunk?

Details on inspection procedures and control techniques can be found at http://icwdm.org