Flying Squirrels in the Attic - How to Get Rid

Flying squirrels are not really all that different from your regular squirrels. Both rodents, they will chew through a lot of stuff, and can and will cause a lot of damage to your attic. It’s important that once you establish you’ve got these animals in your attic, you take all the necessary steps to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Find out how the get in: With most wildlife intrusion scenarios, the first thing you need to do is determine how the animal actually got into your attic. Remember that flying squirrels will most likely leave and forage for food quite often during the night, so it might be difficult to spot them. They’re also small in size, which makes things even harder when determining the possible entrances and exits they can use. But repairs are your best prevention method – making sure all possible holes are patched up and properly secured is your best bet in making sure they can’t get in again.

One device you can use is the one-way door exclusion funnel. This allows the squirrel to only go through in one direction. The best practice for using it is as follows: patch up all holes except one which the flying squirrel will end up using more frequently. After about a day, place the one-way door exclusion funnel at that exist, and bait it on the outside with some food. Flying squirrels are omnivorous, so you have plenty of choices in terms of food to attract it. Once it passes through the funnel, it won’t be able to get back in, meaning you’ll have a squirrel-free attic.

For the most part, strobe lights, sound-emitting devices and repellants won’t work. And it’s really unnecessary to use traps or poisons, never mind the legal implications such methods would incur in some states. Prevention, safe capture and relocation should always be the only viable methods of getting rid of flying squirrels in the attic.

Aftermath: Once you make sure the squirrels are out of the attic, it’s time to make double sure you patched up all the possible entrances and secured any other openings which may be used instead. Check if there aren’t trees too close to your attic – keep in mind that flying squirrels can glide quite a long way from high atop a tree; making sure there’s no way they can get in in the first place is the best approach.

Always make sure the squirrels don’t have a litter in the attic – check out our Hire a Pro tab for more complex situations such as these. Properly clean up and decontaminate the area inhabited by the squirrels, to make sure you got rid of any potential harmful debris or droppings. In some cases, repairs will be needed, and the insulation material may need to be replaced as well.

Go back to the Noises in the Attic home page.