What's that noise? There are few things more unsettling for a homeowner to hear than the furtive rustling and scratching of something moving in the attic. Before you assume your house is haunted, it's probably worth taking a look to see if rodents have made a home under your roof.
Whether it's mice, rats, or squirrels, it's quite common for rodents to move into your attic space. Here's what you need to know and what you can do to stop this problem.
Not up to handling rodent issues yourself? Help is just a call away. Get in touch with the Westside Rat control team, we'll take care of it for you.
Mice vs Rats vs Squirrels
Rodents are a subgroup of mammals that includes a number of different species. But when it comes to wild animals living in your attic, one of the three creatures is usually the culprit.
Mice can and do live in attics. However, it's not all that common. Mice like to stay close to humans, since we provide them with so much food. And because mice are so small, they can easily hide in places closer to the living areas of your home than the attic.
That doesn't mean that mice never go into the attic. But it's also true that because mice are so small and so quiet, you may not ever know that they are up there unless you go looking for them.
Rats, on the other hand, love to live in attics. Several species of rat call Vancouver home, but the roof rat is the one you're most likely to find in your attic. As the name suggests, roof rats are good climbers and like to stay up high. They are perfectly capable of climbing up to your roof and making their way into the attic.
Squirrels are also big-time invaders of attics. Squirrels like to have a nice sheltered place to make their nests, and your attic will do nicely. Much the same as rats, unlike mice, squirrels are very unlikely to come into the living area of your home except by accident. They prefer to get their food outside, and will simply use your attic as a place to rest and have babies.
See related: How to tell the difference between rats and mice
Can you tell the difference by the noise?
Here is a breakdown of the type of noise you're likely to hear with each rodent, and a raccoon for reference.
what noise does each rodent make
Why the attic?
When you think about it, attics make an ideal place for rodents to live. Not only does the roof shelter them from the wind and rain, but they are also safe from larger predators up there. Plus, attics contain insulation which is ideal warm nesting material during the winter. Where the attic is a single space you can manage, it's a totally different challenge to getting rid of rats from outside of the home.
Will rodents return to the same place?
Unfortunately, yes.
Grey squirrels, one of the most common species in the Metro Vancouver area, will use the same nest to rear their babies, often returning twice a year to have a new litter. However, since they only live a couple of years, the original occupants won't be coming back for long. Still, if your attic is a good place to live, a new band of rodentia will soon find it too.
And in the case of rats and mice, it's not so much that they will return.
Unless you get rid of them, or hire a professional to do it for you, these rodents will continue to breed and have generations of babies under your roof. And even if you do get rid of them, but fail to prevent more rodents coming in, it's only a matter of time before you have unwanted houseguests again.
How do I know if rats are gone?
Once you've discovered you have rats in your attic, and have then got rid of them, it can be difficult to shake the feeling that they are back. You may find yourself waking up at every little noise in the night, wondering if it's another rat.
It can be hard to tell if rats are truly gone. However, one sure sign is their droppings. If you clean up the droppings the rats left in your attic, you can keep monitoring to see if any more appear. Rats poop a lot, producing anything from 30 to 75 droppings every single day, so it's impossible for them to stay hidden for long.
If you really want to make sure, you can set up traps to catch any rats that come in. You could also dust surfaces with talcum powder to see if rats leave any footprints in it, although in a dusty attic, this may not be all that effective. But ultimately, if the noise is gone and the droppings are gone, you can rest assured the rats are gone.
How to keep them out for good
Getting rid of rats permanently is a tough task that requires patience. All the trapping in the world isn't going to be effective if you don't address the bigger problem. Attics are an ideal place for rodents to live, whether it's mice, rats, or squirrels, and if one rodent found a way into your attic, others can definitely do the same.
That's why it's extremely important, that once rodents are out of the structure, to screen up any holes they might have used to get inside (we call this entry way exclusion). This requires making a thorough inspection of your roof from the outside.
Remember that rats only need about ½ inch hole to get in, and mice can use anything above ¼ of an inch.
You can seal up any holes you find with quarter-inch galvanized mesh, or use a roof patch or aluminum flashing for larger holes.
You can also use a one-way door, shown in the image below. Generally, we'll block off all the holes except for one, and then install the one-way access door. When the the rodents go out to forage for food, they won't be able to back inside again.
Finding every point of entry a rodent could use can be a tough job, so if you're not confident of your skills in this area, give the professionals at Westside Pest Control a call. We can help with perimeter pest inspections at your property to locate all points of ingress.
Want more advice for keeping rats at bay? Explore some of our other rodent prevention tips –>
Rodent proof your property
Once the rodents have been kicked out and your attic has been secured to prevent anymore from getting in, you can make your home less attractive to future invaders by cutting back tree branches away from your roof, removing food sources like bird feeders and unsecured garbage, and getting rid of potential rodent nesting sites like wood piles and overgrown shrubs. For more info on that, check out our post on how to keep rats out of your garden.
Rodent proofing your home can certainly be a lot of work. But it's worth it to not have to worry anymore about strange noises at night.
Next up in this DIY rat control series, learn how to get rid of Rats naturally ->