Squirrels in an attic sound like fast, light scampering overhead, loudest at dawn and dusk, and often heard in daylight. Signs include chewed roofline gaps, shredded insulation and droppings. The damage runs from chewed wiring and its fire risk to ruined insulation. Removal means finding every entry, fitting one-way doors, hand-removing any babies, sealing with chew-proof materials, then cleaning up.
Every fall we get the same call in Owen Sound and across Grey-Bruce. Someone hears movement above the bedroom ceiling, decides it is the wind, then hears it again next morning at exactly the same time. That is the clue. Squirrels keep a schedule.
How do I know it is squirrels and not something else?
Sound and timing tell you most of what you need before anyone sets foot on a ladder.
- Squirrels: fast, light, skittering feet. Rolling sounds, like a nut being dropped and chased. Gnawing. Activity peaks at first light and in the hour or two before dark, and you will hear them during the day.
- Raccoons: slow, heavy thumps. Something that sounds like a person crawling. Chittering and growling. Almost always in the middle of the night.
- Bats: very little sound — sometimes soft chittering, fluttering or light scratching, usually near dusk. No gnawing, no running feet.
- Birds: chirping and scratching, usually near a vent or a soffit corner rather than deep in the attic.
Daytime activity is the giveaway. Raccoons and bats are mostly night animals. If you are hearing running feet at ten in the morning, you are almost certainly listening to a squirrel.
Not sure yet? Our guide to what’s in my attic walks through sounds, droppings and entry holes for each animal.
Why fall is squirrel season for attics
Squirrels do not hibernate. They stay awake and hungry all winter, so before the cold arrives they need a warm, dry place to sleep and somewhere safe to store food. Your attic is both, and nobody goes up there for months.
A squirrel that moves in during September is not a visitor. It is a tenant until spring.
It may not stay a single tenant, either. Ontario grey squirrels commonly have a late-winter litter, often around February. One animal in the fall can become a mother with three or four young by mid-winter, and removal then has to work carefully around babies that cannot leave on their own.
Fall is the easy window — before litters, before snow on the roof. See our fall wildlife proofing checklist for what to look at before the weather turns.
What squirrels actually damage, from bad to worse
People underestimate squirrels because they are small and, frankly, cute. The damage is not. Here it is roughly in order of how bad it gets.
1. Chewed wiring — the real fire risk. Squirrel teeth never stop growing, so they gnaw constantly, and wire insulation is the right texture. Bare wire in an attic full of dry insulation is a genuine hazard. It is why we treat squirrel calls as urgent rather than routine, and why we wrote a whole post on squirrels chewing wires and the fire risk.
2. Ruined insulation. Squirrels shred insulation for nesting and flatten the rest by running the same paths over and over. Compressed insulation stops working. You will not see it, but you will feel it in a colder upstairs.
3. Contamination. Droppings and urine soak into insulation and drywall. That means odour, staining and a mess that has to be removed properly rather than covered over.
4. Structural gnawing. Rafters, fascia boards, soffit edges, vent screens and plastic vent covers all get chewed. Vents are a favourite because they are thin.
5. A bigger hole. Every day a squirrel uses an entry point, it works that hole wider. A gap the size of a loonie becomes one a raccoon can get a paw into. Squirrels open the door for whatever comes next.
What you notice and what it probably means
| What you notice | What it probably means | How urgent |
|---|---|---|
| Scampering at dawn and dusk, plus daytime noise | Active squirrel in the attic | High — call before winter |
| Gnawing or grinding sounds, sometimes near lights | Chewing on wood or wiring | Very high — fire risk |
| Small chewed holes at soffit corners or vents | An entry point being widened | High — seals easily now |
| Faint squeaking or chirping from one spot | Possible litter of young | High — needs hand-removal |
| Strong sour odour with no more noise | Something has died inside | Urgent |
How did a squirrel get into my attic?
Almost always at the roofline, and almost always somewhere you cannot see from the ground. The usual entries:
- Soffit corners where the soffit meets the roof edge — the most common squirrel entry we find.
- Gable vents and roof vents with thin plastic or aluminum screening.
- Fascia joints where two boards have separated.
- Roof-edge gaps where shingles or drip edge have lifted.
- Chimney chases and flashing that has pulled away.
- Overhanging branches — not an entry, but the bridge onto your roof. A branch within a couple of metres is a highway.
The difference between squirrels and other attic animals: mice and bats need an existing opening. A squirrel makes one. A finger-width gap under a soffit is a starting point, which is why “there is no way in up there” rarely holds up once we get on a ladder and look properly.
How humane squirrel removal actually works
There is a right order to this, and skipping steps turns a small job into a big one. If you are deciding who to bring in, our guide to who to call for wildlife removal sorts out which trade does what.
1. Full inspection. We get on the roof and into the attic and find every entry point, not just the obvious one. Squirrels often use a main door and a backup, and sealing one while missing the other accomplishes nothing.
2. One-way doors on active entries. A one-way door lets the squirrel out and does not let it back in. The animal leaves on its own schedule, unharmed, and finds itself locked out. No poison, and no stress on the animal.
3. Hand-removal and reuniting of any young. If there is a litter, one-way doors are the wrong tool — the mother leaves and the babies are sealed in. Instead the young are removed by hand and placed where she can collect them. Mothers relocate young routinely, and she picks a better den site than we could.
4. Sealing with materials squirrels cannot chew through. Heavy-gauge metal mesh, steel flashing and proper vent guards. Foam, wood filler and plastic vent covers are not repairs — a determined squirrel can be back through them in a day. This step is the actual fix.
5. Cleanup. Nesting material, cached food, droppings and contaminated insulation come out, and the space is treated so the scent trail does not advertise your attic to the next squirrel. There is more on that in how to remove a squirrel nest.
One legal note: in Ontario, wildlife that is trapped may only be relocated up to one kilometre from where it was caught. A trapped squirrel cannot legally be released well outside the neighbourhood it came from, and one dropped into strange territory starts over with no den and no food cache. That is part of why we work by exclusion rather than trap-and-haul.
The mistake almost everyone makes: sealing the hole first
The hole is right there, you have a ladder and a caulking gun, and ten minutes of work feels like the whole problem solved.
It is close to the worst thing you can do.
If the squirrel is inside when you seal — and during the day it very likely is — you have not removed an animal. You have locked one in. One of two things follows:
- It chews its way out somewhere new, so now you have two holes and fresh damage, and sometimes it ends up in the living space instead. See how to get a squirrel out of the house.
- It does not get out, and it dies in your wall or ceiling. That means weeks of odour, flies and drywall work to find it. Our post on dead animal smell in a wall covers what that involves.
The order matters: get the animal out first, then seal. Never the reverse.
Why waiting until winter makes it worse
A squirrel heard in September is one animal, one hole and a few hours of chewing. By February the same job usually adds a litter of young, a much wider entry hole, a winter of droppings in the insulation, chewed wiring, and often a second animal that followed the first one in. Roof work in snow and ice is slower, too. For what shapes the work either way, see what wildlife removal costs.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if there are babies up there?
Faint squeaking, chirping or a soft crying sound from one spot rather than moving around. An adult going in and out on a tight, repeated schedule. Timing matters too — Ontario squirrels commonly have a late-winter litter and another in late summer. If there is any chance of young, one-way doors alone are the wrong approach. See when squirrels have babies in Ontario.
Will they leave on their own in spring?
Sometimes one does, and that is the problem. The hole stays open, the scent stays behind, and something moves in that spring or the following fall. Squirrels also return to a den they have used successfully. Waiting means you keep every bit of the damage and still have the sealing work ahead of you. Time is not a fix.
Can I just use a repellent or leave a light on?
Not reliably. Lights, radios, mothballs and spray repellents may unsettle an animal briefly, but a squirrel that has decided your attic is its winter home adjusts quickly. In our experience it buys a few days at best, and the damage keeps adding up in the meantime. What works is removing the animal and sealing the building properly.
Do you use poison?
Never — not on squirrels, not on anything. It is inhumane, it is unpredictable, and it creates the exact problem you least want: an animal that dies somewhere you cannot reach inside your walls. Our work is exclusion-based. Get the animal out alive, then seal so it cannot return. That is also the difference between wildlife removal and pest control, which we explain in wildlife removal vs pest control.
What we do not handle
The Critter Guy handles bats, raccoons, skunks and squirrels, some bird situations, dead-animal removal and attic cleanup. We do not do mice or rats, and we do not do insects. If your problem is mice, rats, bees, wasps, hornets, ants or spiders, a pest-control company is the right call, and we will happily point you there.
Talk to a real person about your attic
If you are hearing running feet above your ceiling in the morning, do not wait for it to get quieter.
We are family-run, based in Owen Sound and working across Grey-Bruce since 2005 — Dave and Roman, and one of us answers the phone. No call centre, no automated system. We will tell you what you are likely dealing with and give you a clear, honest quote up front. Our approach is humane from start to finish, and you can read our 4.6-star rating from 36 Google reviews on our testimonials page.
Get in touch or call 519-783-1575 — Dave or Roman will pick up.
If the noise has stopped and there is an odour instead, or an animal is loose in the living space, treat it as urgent: emergency wildlife removal in Owen Sound.