Attics provide excellent habitats for animals in Seattle. Seattle’s year-round climate drives wild animals to seek shelter from the elements. Attics, crawlspaces, and wall cavities all make excellent shelter for wild animals. In addition, animals will commonly seek shelter to nest. Ideal locations in your house for nesting females are dark, quiet, and tight-fitting.

Signs You Have a Nuisance Wildlife Problem

Wild animals are not subtle. Though it is unlikely you will see the animal in your home, you will notice evidence of their cohabitation, like:

• Hearing strange noises –Scurrying, scampering, thumping, screaming, whining, squeaking
• Smelling an aroma of ammonia –Animals need to urinate and defecate, and over time, the waste will build up
• Seeing damage to the exterior of your home –Animals enter through construction gaps or cause structural damage to enter.
• Finding physical signs like feces, chewing, tracks, or damage caused by animals.

The most vital details that help us identify an animal are:

• What does the noise sound like
• What time of day does the noise occur
• Have you seen any entry points or damage
• What animal droppings are present

What kind of noises do you hear?

Scurrying and Scampering in the Attic or Walls

If you are hearing these noises at night, you could be dealing with rats, mice, or flying squirrels. Squirrels make these sounds, too, but squirrels are active during the daytime.

Loud Thumps During the Night

Raccoons and opossums are some of the largest animals to get into your house, therefore, the noises they make are much louder. Since raccoons and opossums are nocturnal, you will hear them during the night.

Crying Noises during the Day

If a raccoon is rabid or has young, you may see it active during the day. Raccoons give birth once per year, so kits are most found in attics in the Spring or Summer. Raccoon kits are also very vocal and could be crying or active during the daytime.

Fluttering and/or Chirping

Birds and bats make fluttering and chirping noises. Bird noises will be more prevalent during the day while bats are active at night.

Vocal noises

Vocal noises during the day would normally belong to a squirrel or bird. If you hear crying during the day, it could be juvenile raccoons. Vocal sounds like growling, whimpering, or screaming at night typically are raccoons.

Physical Evidence of Animals

When inspecting an attic, droppings, footprints, and destruction help us to identify what kind of animal invasion we are dealing with.

Animal Droppings

Raccoons and opossums will have droppings like that of a small dog

Mice droppings are about 1/3-1/5 centimeters in length.

Rats and squirrels have similar-looking feces. They are 1-1.5 centimeters in length.

Snakes and birds both excrete in liquid form which contains white urea in it. Bird droppings have more white coloration in their droppings because it contains more urea.

You will find bat guano under their utilized entry points or accumulated under their roosting location. Guano is small, dark, and shiny, and they look like elongated pellets. Understanding when you are dealing with bats is extremely important as breathing in guano is dangerous.

Tunneling

Mice, rats, and flying squirrels will create tunnels in insulation as it makes for great nesting material. The tunneling will look like small holes that are as big as 3 inches in diameter.

Paw Prints

Another indicator that animals will leave behind is paw prints on your ductwork. Opossums and raccoons have the biggest prints. They each have five fingers, but the palm of a possum’s print is more triangular. Squirrels and rats have four toes on their front feet and five toes on their hind feet.

Debris

When dealing with squirrels in your attic, you will commonly find acorn shells. Squirrels will also bring nesting material into an attic like leaves or sticks.

Rub Marks

Rats, mice, squirrels, and bats will leave behind rub marks around their entry points. These marks will be brown to deep brown in color. The rub marks will become darker the more the animal utilizes the entry point.

Animal Damage

Many wild animals will also destroy any personal belongings that you store in your attic or utilize your belongings for nesting materials. Rodents may also chew on pipes or wires within the attic as their teeth constantly grow.

How Can an Animal Get into My Home?

Animals can enter your home through many different spots.

• Roof returns- Roof returns are construction gaps that allow many animals easy access into your attic.
• Chimney Stacks - Raccoons, birds, squirrels, and other animals can create nests in your chimney by entering uncapped chimneys. Other times, an animal may accidentally get stuck in an uncapped chimney.
• Ridge Vent – Squirrels, bats, mice, and rats can gain attic entry through uncapped ridge vents
• Soffits- Damaged soffits or loose vinyl panels allow easy access to your home. Once inside, animals use soffits as an expressway through your attic.
• Fascia Boards - We often find construction gaps between the fascia board and roof decking. On older homes, fascia board wood rot creates weak points where animals can exploit to gain entry to your home.
• Gable Vents - Most gable vents have a screening installed behind them; however, most homes do not have wildlife-proof screens on the gable vents and some homes do not have secure gable vent screens. Bats, mice, squirrels, and rats can easily enter homes with a weak or missing gable vent.

Animals can even enter your home even if there is not an entry point present. Raccoons can cause severe damage using their paws to create a big enough opening. Rodents like squirrels, mice, and rats constantly gnaw and can chew through materials like wood, pipes, plastic, metal, brick, and wires.

How Do I Get Rid of an Animal?

You might feel tempted to try a DIY wildlife removal. Before you attempt to solve your nuisance wildlife issue, make sure you do the following:

1. Have the proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) to handle an animal
2. Identify the animal
3. Set the appropriate trap with proper bait
4. Humanely remove animals from your home
5. Seal all entry points on your home.
6. Disinfect all contaminated areas of the attic

Before you trap an animal, review all Washington and Seattle nuisance wildlife regulations. There are different laws on what to do with a trapped animal depending on the species.

Professional Wildlife Removal Company

Our Seattle Trutech Wildlife Service team understands the unique environment and wildlife in Seattle. We are dedicated to resolving your specific wildlife concerns. Let our experienced staff create a permanent solution to keep animals from returning. Our dedication to satisfaction means we create a custom plan of action for each customer. We tailor a custom wildlife removal service based our findings from our comprehensive inspection process. Don' wait! The longer an animal lives in your home, the more damage it causes.