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Noises in the Attic - Wild Animal
You might hear scratching noises in your attic, sometimes at night, or maybe during the day. This
means that animals are able to enter your attic. I most commonly deal with squirrels, raccoons, rats,
mice, and even opossums in attics.
If you hear noises in the attic at night, it's likely mice, rats, flying squirrels, raccoons, or maybe opossums. A fast, light, pitter-patter, in the attic
and maybe the walls, is likely to be a rodent like a mouse or rat. Heaver thumping or walking is likely to be a larger animal, like a
raccoon or opossum. If you hear noises during the daytime, particularly in the morning or evening, then it's most likely Eastern Gray squirrels.
If you don't live in Orlando FL, click here for the National Directory of Wildlife Trappers.
Above is an analysis of the various types of animals that can cause noises in the attic at night or daytime. Squirrels are really the primary animal to make daytime sounds, particularly in the early morning and early evening.
Raccoons will sometimes make daytime noises, but they are mostly a nocturnal animal. You're likely to hear them as they exit or re-enter the attic at night. Rats and mice make fast pitter-patter sounds at nighttime, across the
ceiling or even up the walls. I've never heard it personally, but people have told me about hearing "slithering" sounds when they have snakes in the attic. Opossums are slow walkers, so it sounds like slow heavy walking sounds
in the middle of the night. Bats make a high-pitched chirp, and when they're on the move at dusk to go outside you might hear a bunch of them lightly crawling along. Vocal sounds, like calls or growls, are almost always from
raccoons. Squirrels don't make any vocal noises. It can be hard to tell exactly just by sound, so your best bet is to check out my directory, and have a professional wildlife expert in your area come out and inspect your
home and attic.
In most cases, the solution to the loud noise problem upstairs is to trap and remove the animals from the attic space.
To take care of the problem permanently, the entry points must be identified and
sealed shut permanently, or else the animals are just going to get back in. Here are some examples.
Exclusion Barriers - Repairs to Holes Leading Into the Attic
1) Raccoons were crawling in this wide open hole in the soffit. 2) I cover the hole with heavy
gauge wire and bolt it down tight.
Example email from customer: Hello, I found your website a week or so ago when we'd been hearing some *big* skritching. And then I saw a couple of raccoons that were *BIG* in the neighborhood, and your site came up on raccoons & Orlando. Since then, the scratching
in the attic has gotten smaller, but it's still there, so I'm thinking we don't have those enormous raccoons, but we might just have mice or rats or ... something unwanted, let's just say. How much would it cost for you to come out and see if you can find anything in our house? We haven't seen any sign of animals in our kitchen yet, and we'd like to keep it that way. We live in Mountlake Terrace, so a bit outside of
Orlando proper, but still within the range on your website. Please email or call. Thanks, SarahD
For more photos of repairs, click here.
For photos of repairs to a barrel tile roof, click here.
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