Wildlife division · Squirrels
Squirrels in the attic.
Scratching and rolling overhead in daylight, worst around dawn and dusk. We find how they're getting in and set it up so they leave on their own — no handling, no trapping — then close the opening with material they can't chew back through.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front
Signs it's squirrels and not something else
The single most useful clue is the clock. Squirrels keep the same hours you do — so if the noise stops overnight and starts again at first light, you're almost certainly dealing with squirrels rather than mice, raccoons or bats.
- Scratching, rolling or a light thumping overhead during the day, heaviest around dawn and again before dusk
- Chewed soffit corners, a lifted shingle edge, or a hole punched through a gable vent screen
- Insulation fragments or shredded nesting debris in the gutters, or on the ground below the roofline
- Sharp, deliberate gnawing inside a wall cavity — squirrels chew constantly, because their incisors never stop growing
- The same problem returning at roughly the same time each year
Not sure which of these you're hearing? Work through the signs on the main page, or just call and describe it — we can usually narrow it down over the phone.
Why your house
An attic is a hollow tree with better insulation.
Gray squirrels are the ones in almost every Central Virginia attic, and they aren't wandering in by accident. A squirrel is looking for a dry, defensible cavity to raise a litter in, and a roofline gives it one — with the added advantage that nothing can climb up after it.
They produce two litters a year, broadly late winter and again in mid-summer. That's why the calls cluster: someone hears nothing for months, then a female moves in to den and suddenly there's traffic overhead every morning.
Where they actually get in
Squirrels rarely make a hole in the middle of a good surface. They exploit an edge that's already slightly open and enlarge it — which is why the entry point is nearly always at a junction:
- Soffit corners and roof returns, where two planes meet and the fit is never perfect
- Gable vents — the louvre screen is usually the thinnest barrier on the whole house
- The gap behind fascia board at the shingle edge
- Ridge vents and box vents, where the plastic has aged or lifted
- Construction gaps where a lower roofline ties into a wall
What it costs you if it waits
The noise is the least of it. Squirrels gnaw whatever is in reach, and in an attic that includes wiring insulation. They flatten and foul the insulation they nest in, which quietly costs you on heating and cooling. And the hole they came in through is now an open path for water — so a squirrel problem left alone often turns into a sheathing and drywall problem.
How we get them out
We check for a litter before we touch anything
This is the step that separates a job done right from a very expensive mistake. If there are young in the attic that can't yet leave on their own, mounting a one-way door shuts the mother outside and her litter inside — and a few days later you have dead animals in a ceiling cavity that has to be opened up to reach. So we establish whether there's a litter first, and we time the work around it.
They leave on their own
Once it's safe to, we seal every secondary opening and leave the main entry as the only way out, usually with a one-way door mounted over it. The squirrel leaves to feed exactly as it does every evening and simply can't get back in. Nobody handles it, nothing is trapped, and there's no relocation problem to solve — which matters, because Virginia restricts what can legally be done with trapped wildlife. It's also just safer, for the animal and for us.
Then we close the house
The door comes off once we're confident the attic is empty, and the opening gets repaired properly — chewed soffit rebuilt, vents screened in steel, the roofline made solid again. Foam and caulk on their own are not exclusion; a squirrel will chew straight back through both. Everything we seal carries a 1-year warranty unless we've discussed otherwise.
Squirrel questions we get asked
How long does the whole thing take?
The inspection runs one to three hours, depending on the size of the house and property and the nature of the work. After that, the exit stays open a few days to a week — long enough to be confident everyone has left — and then we return to seal and repair. If there's a litter involved, the timeline stretches to whatever the litter needs.
Can I just block the hole myself?
Please don't. Sealing an entry point with an animal still inside is the most common way people end up with something dead in a wall, or with a squirrel chewing a brand-new hole through drywall to get out. Find out what's in there first.
Will they chew back through the repair?
Not through steel. That's the whole point of using steel mesh and sheet metal rather than foam, wood filler or caulk. Our exclusion work carries a 1-year warranty unless we've discussed otherwise.
Do you use poison?
No. Poison in an attic gives you a dead animal somewhere you can't reach and does nothing about the hole it came in through. Our default is to let the animal walk out on its own, then seal properly behind it.
Why do they keep coming back every year?
Because the opening is still there. Squirrels return to a known den site, and if the entry was never properly closed, next season's squirrel finds it just as easily as last season's did. Eviction without exclusion is why people end up calling twice.
Related
Something's in the attic. Let's find out what.
Every week you wait is more chewing, more mess, and a bigger repair.
1–3 hours on site · Photos and a written estimate · Any fee confirmed up front