Critters In Your Attic
Do you hear scurrying or scampering noises coming from your attic? These sounds usually mean that a critter has entered your home. Keep reading to learn how to identify what critter has entered your attic, how to safely remove them, and how to prevent them from entering your home.
Identify The Sounds Coming From Your Attic
Raccoons: Heavy thumping or walking sounds, mostly happening at night. Some vocal chirps from baby raccoons.
Squirrels: Fast scurrying or scratching, usually happing during the daytime (early morning or before dusk).
Rats: Fast running, often up and down walls along with some scratching. Rats are nocturnal so these sounds usually happen at night. No vocal sounds.
Mice: Light pitter-patter in comparison to rats. You’ll hear these sounds in the walls or ceilings. Mice also make soft scratching sounds.
Possums: They usually make hissing and shrieking sounds. Mother possums make clicking or lip-smacking sounds to call their babies.
Bats: No scratching sounds or noises. They can be heard chirping around dusk as they try and leave your attic.
Signs An Animal Is In Your Attic
Some signs that an animal has gotten into your attic are:
- Droppings and urine
- Damaged/destroyed insulation
- Damaged/destroyed ducts
- Nests (usually made of insulation, leaves, or paper.
How To Safely Remove The Critter From Your Attic
Keep your distance
Make sure to keep your distance from the critter. Some critters can be aggressive when they feel threatened and will bite. They can also carry diseases such as rabies, so make sure to stay safe and stay alert.
Let the critter leave on its own
Open doors and windows to allow the critter to leave. They usually enter your attic for shelter and will get trapped because they cannot find their way out.
Find and close the area of entry
It’s important that you find out how the animal entered and repair any damage, so the critter won’t come back and re-enter your attic.
Keep Out The Critters
It’s important to take measures to prevent critters from getting into your attic. There are a few things you can do to ensure your attic stays free of intruders.
Yearly home inspections
Keeping tabs on the condition of your home is extremely important. This will allow you to prevent damage and potential entryways for critters. A yearly check-up on your home is recommended to avoid these types of situations. Don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself? Call a professional!
Alcon Services offers a one-year service plan. When you sign up for our service plan, Alcon Services will come out on the first visit and do a heavy power spray within a two-foot barrier around your foundation, brush around your eaves and windows, plus lightly spray your eaves 10 ft. and lower.
Next, we then come inside and spray a low-dose product on all your baseboards, window seals, and corner of walls, and will do a crack and crevice dusting, we will also leave small monitoring glue boards. In addition, you’ll get three more visits within 12 months per quarter. On those visits, we will just do the outside portion of the first visit and treat the inside as needed.
Our one-year service plan is perfect for preventing bugs and critters from coming into your home. You can set it and forget it! Click here to learn more about what our one-year service plan entails!
Trim tree branches
A lot of critters are excellent climbers (raccoons and squirrels) and will use trees and anything they can find to climb onto your room and find shelter in your attic.
Fix damage in your roof
Since a lot of critters tend to climb onto your roof, make sure to regularly inspect it to make sure there are no forms of entry into your home.
Cover your vents
Vents on your roof are another way critters gain access to your attic. You can go to any home improvement store and purchase roof vent covers to block these potential entryways.
Install a chimney cap
If your home has a chimney, it’s best to cover this entryway as well. A chimney cap is a perfect solution for this. Chimney caps have a wiring design that will allow smoke to escape, but it will prevent any critters from entering your home.
Call Alcon Services Today!
Alcon Pest Control would be happy to assist you with any type of intruders you might have going on in your attic, especially in the winter. Call us today and we’ll perform a comprehensive analysis of your home. We customize our program to achieve the greatest success possible. Get your free quote today!
Contact Alcon Services Inc. Termite and Pest Control at 972-417-3527
