You discover that you have an animal living in the attic or the eaves of your home or business. Follow these handy tips for safe and humane ways of removing or coexisting with them.





Animals like Squirrels, bats, pigeons, and Raccoons love your eaves and can gain access through holes in loose, or rotted soffit, fascia, or roof boards Trees with overhanging branches that are within 6-10 feet of your roof often serve as a “ladder” for animals to climb up to your eaves if they cannot fly.

If you have an animal(s) nesting in our eaves, chances are they are noisy and are making a mess all over your house and yard. You may just be able to coexist with them until their young are old enough to leave the nest, then you can run them all off. If you just cannot wait, or they have not yet nested, here are some options to drive them off.

You might try hazing. Much like the antics of college frat boys, Hazing involves constant harassment and annoying of the animal. Convert their, safe space in your eaves into a noisy, area with loud sounds, lights, and smells that destroys the animal’s illusion of safety. A portable light, radio, and some ammonia or big cat urine is all you need. Set the radio and lights up in the attic near the occupied eave. Put the soaked rags as close to the eave as possible. All these tricks will work together to force the animal to leave. If your eaves are open, you can try spraying the area with a water hose, or using motion sensor sprinklers. If they are enclosed, look for the animal’s entryway. This could be marked by dark greasy spots left where they crawl in and out, or you could watch for the animals to leave /return. Bats will leave at dusk and return at dawn. Squirrels are crepuscular and will be most active at dawn or dusk. Birds will move in and out throughout the day, especially if they have eggs or young. Once you spot their doorway, install a one-way exclusion tunnel. These are simple to build, or you can buy them ready made. The premise is simple- once the animal leaves through the large end, it cannot return through the small one. Usually the animal will leave in search of another home. If it has babies, it will not give up easily, so you will need to check for young before you lock them out. Besides you do not want to leave the helpless babies to die from neglect. Once you are sure your eaves are empty, seal all holes you can find, and work to cut back trees, wrap drain pies, and eliminate any other methods they might have used to gain access to your eaves.

Read the How to get rid of raccoons page for helpful information and to learn more about Animals in the eaves

Animals in the eaves