Advice from Brad Gates, Founder of Gates Wildlife Control
If you have started hearing scampering, rolling, or scratching sounds overhead this fall, you are not imagining it, and you are not alone. Every autumn, as the nights turn cold across the Greater Toronto Area, squirrels start looking for a warm, safe place to spend the winter. To a squirrel, your attic looks like the inside of a hollow tree, only warmer and safer from predators.
The good news is that fall is actually the best time of year to deal with the problem. Here is what is happening up there, how to tell if a squirrel has moved in, and what you can do about it.
The Short Answer: Squirrels move into attics in the fall to shelter from winter and to store food. They get in through roof vents, soffits, and small gaps you may not even know you have. The humane fix is to find every entry point, let the squirrels leave on their own through a one-way door, and seal the openings so they cannot get back in. Fall is the ideal time to do it, before winter weather and before the next litter of babies arrives next Spring.
Why Fall Is Prime Time for Squirrels
Squirrels do not hibernate. They stay active all winter, which means they need two things before the snow arrives: a reliable food supply and a sheltered den. Through the fall you will see them working overtime burying nuts and seeds. What many homeowners do not realize is that they are also shopping for real estate.
A grey squirrel’s natural den is a tree cavity. Suburban and urban neighbourhoods have fewer old trees with good cavities, but they have thousands of attics, and an attic offers steady warmth rising from the house, dry insulation for nesting material, and almost no predators. Once a squirrel has spent a winter in an attic, it will try hard to return to it.
The Late Summer Litter Is Growing Up
Grey squirrels raise two litters a year in Ontario. The first arrives in early Spring, and the second in mid to late Summer. By October and November, those summer babies are old enough to explore with their mother and find dens of their own, which puts even more young squirrels out looking for shelter at exactly the time the weather turns.
This is also why Fall is such a good time to act. The young are mobile and able to leave on their own, and the next round of babies will not arrive until late Winter. Work done in the Fall solves the problem cleanly, with no babies in the attic to worry about.
Why Squirrels Chew, and Why It Matters
A squirrel’s front teeth never stop growing. To keep them worn down to a usable length, squirrels chew constantly, on branches, on wood, and unfortunately on whatever they find inside an attic. That can include structural wood, plastic venting, and electrical wiring.
Chewed wiring is the most serious concern. Damaged insulation on wires is a genuine fire risk, and it is the main reason squirrel activity in an attic should never be ignored or left until spring. Squirrels will also shred insulation to build nests, which lowers its insulating value and raises your heating costs through the winter.
Signs a Squirrel Has Moved In
- Scampering or rolling sounds during the day, especially in the morning and late afternoon. Squirrels are daytime animals, so daytime noise usually points to squirrels rather than raccoons or mice.
- Acorns, nuts, or seed shells appearing in the attic, eaves, or along the foundation of the house.
- Chewed or lifted roof vents, damaged soffits, or a gap where the roof meets the fascia.
- Droppings in the attic, which look like small dark pellets.
- Squirrels repeatedly seen on the roof, especially one travelling the same route day after day.
Brad’s Tip: Watch your roofline at breakfast time. Squirrels are creatures of habit, and the entry point is usually at the end of a route they travel every morning. If you see a squirrel disappear at the same corner of the roof two days in a row, you have likely found where it is getting in.
How to Keep Squirrels Out
Prevention starts on the ground. Squirrels are excellent climbers and jumpers, and they can leap roughly two metres from a tree branch onto a roof. Trim branches back at least two metres from the roofline, and keep in mind that a squirrel can also climb a wall, a downspout, or a vine to reach the eaves.
Next, look at the roof itself. The most common entry points are plastic roof vents, which a determined squirrel can chew through, gaps in the soffit, loose fascia boards, and openings where two rooflines meet. These are the spots to check every fall, even if you have not heard a sound yet. Where a vent or opening needs protection, it should be covered with sturdy galvanized steel screen that a squirrel cannot chew through or pull off.
If a squirrel is already inside, the entry point should never simply be sealed shut. An animal locked in an attic will try to chew its way into the living space or die in the walls. The humane approach is a one-way door fitted over the entry point, which lets the squirrel leave to forage and prevents it from getting back in. Once the attic is confirmed empty, the door comes off and the opening is sealed permanently.
Final Thoughts
A squirrel in the attic in October is a small problem. The same squirrel in February, with wiring chewed and a litter on the way, is a much bigger one. Fall gives you the weather, the timing, and the animals’ own behaviour all working in your favour.
Take a walk around your home on the next calm morning, look up, and listen. Catching the signs early is the simplest wildlife advice I can give after more than forty years in this work: it is always easier to keep an animal out than to get one out.
