If you have animals inside your attic, or another portion of your home, the most vital part of solving the problem involves locating the entrance holes and sealing them shut permanently with speciality materials that the critters can not get through. If this vital step isn't done properly, it won't matter how good you're in critter trapping, attic cleanup, rodent exclusion, or anything else. You have to inspect the house and locate the entry holes. This requires knowledge of animal behavior, knowledge of building architecture, and the appropriate tools.
Still, the lure of heat, food, and water availability appears to be the only invitation that they need. So as to effectively block potential entrance points, you need to inspect your living area - particularly around November - for possible wildlife problems in the spring.
An ingenious way to do it is to examine your home through the eyes of the regional wildlife. Visualize the tiny gap and crack like a little mouse would do, as an example. Window wells, dryer exhaust vents, thresholds, and openings in siding or brick can all provide potential entryways. To run your wildlife investigation, you may need binoculars to aid in the review of the chimney, roof, and other high places in the home, a ladder that will assist you reach those high positions to get a proper evaluation -- vents, slabs, etc, a flashlight to allow visibility in dark parts of your dwelling and a camera to document what has to be sealed so that you can pass it to the repairman without missing any one
Here are some steps to guide you through a comprehensive inspection of your residence. Do these in a convenient time and do not rush it.. Be informed about the regional animals' breeding seasons. This has to be considered prior to any repair jobs are performed on the house to protect against the helpless young from being killed or orphaned. Late autumn and early winter are substantially safe periods in this respect. Start looking for droppings, signs of chewing marks, and nesting material. Switch off attic lights and look for outdoor light leaking in through possible entry points.Look closely at the baseline of your home, especially in segments surrounded by vegetation. Check also for missing or loose vents. Search for cracks and holes in the walls and then seal them up after confirming that no animals are trapped indoors. Take notice of any staining on the walls because this might point to a bat's hideout. Things to Watch out for -- scuff marks, dirt marks, pieces of fur. Bats sometimes take a different kind of inspection. Search your attic floors and on insulation for quarter-inch pellets which are a little shiny and easily crumbled. You can also watch out for them outside of the home at dusk for a few evenings in a row to find out if any bats depart to forage. So you might want to cut or outright cut trees in your 4-foot perimeter. Pay close attention to the joins at the construction, where different parts meet, since they're typically the target point for creatures seeking to nest -- roof joints, columns, gables, balconies etc. Identify and replace all damaged wooden parts of your construction; they generally wear out first -- loose port displays, warped siding, trim board that's deteriorated and raised in the borders, or roof openings. Most of all, make certain you don't seal any hole until you're positive that there's not any animal inside of it. You can do this by plugging questionable openings using a light material like paper, insulation, or cloth. Any resident creature would move the material in a couple of days.
