How to get animals out of the attic without sealing them inside
Animals nesting in attics or soffits chew electrical wires and create severe fire hazards. Attempting to seal up entry points without fully removing the wildlife risks trapping them inside the walls, leading to dead animals and severe odors throughout the home.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Hiring a professional wildlife trapper
- 2Hire professional pest control to install one-way doors and seal entrances
- 3Set traps or use a pellet gun
- 4Toss bug bombs into the space to run them out before fixing holes
- 5Use DIY deterrents like mothballs
- 6Leaving the doors wide open
- 7Playing talk radio in the shed to disturb them
- 8Using cotton balls soaked in coyote urine
- 9Building a one-way mesh cone over the entry hole
- 10Looking for a new place to stay
- 11Shining lights and checking rooms constantly
- 12Purchasing a pop-up mosquito tent for sleeping
- 13Installing a one-way exclusion door after sealing other gaps
- 14Using a boombox to play loud music to scare them out before sealing entry points
- 15Catching them with live traps baited with peanuts
- 16Using DIY exclusion doors and hardware cloth mesh
- 17Setting baited traps
- 18Sealing roof returns, vents, and gaps with hardware cloth and steel wool
- 19Hiring a professional trapper
- 20Using live traps baited with peanut butter and nuts
- 21Soaking a rag or tennis ball in predator urine and throwing it in the attic
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? Because I'd hate to repair it and then animals die up there and smell up the upstairs home for a month.”source ↗
“Does anyone have any experience with getting squirrels out of an attic/soffits? We got a quote from a trapper but it was very expensive and I was hoping to try to do the work myself to save some money.”source ↗
“Had them in both the attic of my house & shop, they chewed up electrical wires & created a fire hazard, they also disconnected my internet lol.”source ↗
“Dealt with this last year and the exclusion door is the move.”source ↗
“Does anyone have any experience with getting squirrels out of an attic/soffits?”source ↗
“We got a quote from a trapper but it was very expensive and I was hoping to try to do the work myself to save some money.”source ↗
“i did the diy route last year after a quote that made my eyes water.”source ↗
“I need basic anxiety mitigiation right now. I'm afraid to walk around this house past a certain time of day. I shine a light everywhere I go, I peek into rooms. I'm scared to go to sleep. I have nightmares of being bitten or attacked by a rat.”source ↗
“My goal is to see make it through the month physically unscathed.”source ↗
“Today opened it up and discovered at least 50 walnuts in there. Found a tiny hole in the back corner that they must be using to get in and store them. I have to assume there is a nest in there.”source ↗
“Should I just leave the doors wide open in hopes that it no longer provides a comfortable spot and they move on and then clean/seal up? Just not sure best way to approach this.”source ↗
“Does anyone have any experience with getting squirrels out of an attic/soffits?”source ↗
“We got a quote from a trapper but it was very expensive and I was hoping to try to do the work myself to save some money.”source ↗
“I can hear noises in my ceiling cavity and of course want to get rid of anything living there if it will cause damage but I don't want them to be harmed or killed.”source ↗
“Is it possible to find pest control businesses which don't kill or harm the animals?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 2How to keep palmetto bugs from coming upstairs from the attic