Attic
Almost certainly a mother raising young.
Attic occupation between February and August is a maternity den nine times out of ten. That single fact determines everything about how you handle it.
An attic is dry, warm, defensible, and above the reach of everything that eats raccoons and squirrels. It is better than any tree cavity available in a suburb, and a female looking for a place to give birth will take considerable trouble to get into one — enlarging a rotten fascia board, lifting a ridge vent, or using a gap where a roof meets a wall.
What you are hearing
Heavy, deliberate thumps at dusk and dawn usually mean a raccoon. Fast scampering in daylight and the sound of nuts rolling means a grey squirrel. Chittering or a chorus of high calls means there are young present. If the noise is above a ceiling in a straight line, you are hearing something walking a joist.
What to do
- 01Work out whether young are present before you do anything else. Listen at dawn and dusk for several days.
- 02Find the entry point from outside in daylight — look for smoothed edges, hair, and staining on the fascia, gable vents, and roof junctions.
- 03If young are present, wait. Most litters are out within six to eight weeks, and eviction after that is straightforward.
- 04When the attic is empty, fit a one-way door over the entry for several days, then seal permanently with metal flashing or hardware cloth rather than foam.
- 05Clear insulation contaminated with waste and check for chewed wiring.
What not to do
- Do not seal the entry while young are inside. Sealed young die in the cavity, and the mother will tear open a new hole to reach them.
- Do not use poison. It is illegal for most species, ineffective, and produces a dead animal in an inaccessible place.
- Do not trap and relocate. It is regulated in Georgia, usually fatal for the animal, and leaves the hole open for the next one.
- Do not rely on ultrasonic repellers, mothballs, or ammonia. None of them work on a mother with a litter.
Stopping it happening again
- Cap the chimney, screen every gable and soffit vent with half-inch hardware cloth, and replace soft wood at roof edges.
- Cut branches back six to eight feet from the roofline; squirrels jump further than people expect.
- Walk the roofline every autumn with binoculars. Every occupation starts as a small defect.
When to call someone licensed
Wall cavities, chimneys, and any situation with young you cannot locate. Ask for a company that does exclusion work and repairs the structure, not one that only sets traps.
Find a rehabilitatorUnderstand the animal
A raccoon in an attic is not a pest doing something unusual. It is a highly capable animal solving a housing problem exactly as you would.