Bats, Rats, and Attics: Who’s Really Living Over Your Head
Are you hearing shuffling or stomping sounds coming from your attic space in Virginia Beach? Maybe you are smelling strong odors coming from the attic, or you’re hearing scratching and scampering sounds coming from inside your walls. Attic spaces are often warm, dark, and undisturbed, providing a sanctuary for raccoons, squirrels, bats, birds, rats, and other nuisance wildlife looking for a safe place to settle down and build their nests. However, these animals will often destroy your insulation, damage your roof, and spread diseases with their waste. Don’t worry, Summit Environmental Solutions can help. Our team of experts will safely and carefully trap and remove nuisance critters from your attic space in Virginia Beach, ensuring a safe and healthy environment. Give us a call today to get started at 757-901-4455!
Common Attic Invaders in Virginia Beach
- Bats: these critters will roost upside down in your attic, soffit, and gable vents, depositing large amounts of guano into your insulation. Bats are quiet and hard to detect, but you can tell if you have bats by noticing piles of guano or staining around entry points from the bats brushing up against the wall as they leave. Bat guano can contain the spores that spread the fungal lung infection histoplasmosis.
- Roof rats: a species of rat that is inclined to live in nests that are high up off the ground, and when these critters get inside your attic space, they will shred your insulation, leave their waste behind, and chew on everything. Seeing gnawed wires and droppings in your attic space, and hearing scratching sounds at night are a common sign of a rat infestation in your attic. It’s important not to ignore the signs of a rat problem, as they can breed extremely quickly, spread diseases, and create electrical fires by chewing through wiring.
- Squirrels: these rodents will chew through your soffit and fascia to gain access to your attic, where they will destroy insulation to build nests and damage wiring. Squirrels are diurnal, so you often hear their activity at dawn and dusk. Squirrels can also create fire hazards by chewing through wiring.
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- Raccoons: these critters are substantially larger than squirrels or rats, and they create bigger, more noticeable damage. Raccoons will tear large holes through your roofline, and they can also damage roof vents and metal flashing. You can tell if you have raccoons in your attic by listening for heavy thumping or shuffling sounds during the nighttime. Raccoons will dig latrines in your insulation where they will deposit their waste, and they can also tear through HVAC ducts and spread diseases and parasites like raccoon roundworm.
- Birds: will nest inside attics, but most commonly nest inside vents, like bathroom exhaust vents, dryer vents, or attic fans. They can clog up these vents with their nesting material which can create a fire hazard. Birds can also spread diseases like histoplasmosis through their corrosive droppings, and they can spread bird mites. You can tell if you have birds inside your attic or vents by listening for flapping or chirping, and by spotting nesting material around the entry points.
Why You Should Never Try to Handle It Yourself
It’s never recommended to try and handle wildlife problems yourself, as wild animals are unpredictable, and may lash out with their powerful claws and teeth if threatened or cornered. Additionally, many wild animals can spread the rabies virus, as well as other diseases like tularemia, leptospirosis, hantavirus, Lyme disease, E. coli, and more.
Animals like raccoons and squirrels will hide their babies deep within your attic insulation, and to the untrained eye, they can be very difficult to find. If you remove a raccoon or squirrel family from your property in Virginia Beach, you might accidentally leave the babies behind, and the mothers will return to your property and rip off your roof shingles to get their babies back.
Calling a professional like Summit Environmental Solutions can help ensure that all the critters are removed safely. Our technicians have the tools, training, and expertise to get the job done right. Call us today to get started with a FREE estimate at 757-901-4455!
Summit Environmental Solutions Has You Covered
If you have wildlife nesting inside your attic space in Virginia Beach, contact the wildlife removal experts at Summit Environmental Solutions. Critters like raccoons, squirrels, bats, birds, and roof rats will invade your attic space, destroy your insulation to build their nests, leave their waste behind everywhere, and damage HVAC ducts and wiring. You can tell if you have animals inside your attic by listening for scratching and flapping sounds or searching for visual clues, like ripped or flattened insulation, nesting material like straw in the attic space, or chewed holes in your soffit and roofline.
Removing these critters yourself can be dangerous, so always leave animals in attic removal to the experts at Summit Environmental Solutions. We offer FREE estimates, so call us today to get scheduled at 757-901-4455!