Squirrels in the attic, and the mistake that doubles the damage
The instinct is to find the hole and close it. Do that at the wrong time of year and a mother squirrel will chew straight back through your roof to reach her young.
Light scratching, mornings and afternoons
Squirrels keep daylight hours. The classic pattern is light scratching and running sounds in the morning and again in the afternoon — active when you are awake, quiet overnight.
That is the fastest way to separate them from rodents, which run at night. If the noise is keeping you up at two in the morning, you are more likely looking at a roof rat problem.
Squirrels are also noticeably heavier-footed than rats. People describe running rather than skittering, and it usually comes from the same area of the ceiling each time as they use an established route.
The mistake: sealing before you know about babies
This is the single most expensive thing a homeowner can do, and it comes from an entirely reasonable instinct — find the opening, close the opening, problem solved.
Here is what actually happens if there are young in the attic. You seal the mother out and she chews back in. Not through the hole you just closed. Through whatever is nearest and weakest — fascia, soffit, roof edge, siding.
She is not deterred by the repair. She has a litter on the other side of it, and she will go through the structure to reach them. So instead of one entry point, you now have your original opening plus fresh damage somewhere else, and the young are still up there.
Confirming whether there are babies is not an optional courtesy step. It is the thing that determines whether the job works.
When baby season is in Georgia
Georgia squirrel breeding varies, but the pattern is generally spring and fall — two windows rather than one.
It is worth saying that this is not a rigid calendar. Baby season has run longer than usual recently, and the practical takeaway is that you cannot assume a random month is safe. The check has to be done on the actual house rather than inferred from the date.
Which is exactly why a company that quotes over the phone and seals on the first visit is taking a risk with your roof rather than saving you a trip.
What the work involves
A squirrel job typically needs both excluders and trapping.
An excluder — sometimes called a one-way door — fits over the entry point and lets animals out without letting them back in. It handles the ones that are mobile and willing to leave on their own.
Trapping covers the rest. And this is where a real cost driver sits that surprises people: live traps have to be checked daily. That is a legal and ethical requirement, not a service upgrade, and it means somebody is driving to your house every day the traps are set. The price reflects that labor.
Once the attic is confirmed empty, the openings get sealed — metal wherever possible, because squirrels chew and softer materials eventually fail.
What it costs
Squirrel work generally starts around $500 and goes up from there.
What moves it: the number of entry points, whether repairs to chewed fascia or soffit are rolled in, how long traps need to stay set, and the size of the building. A compact single-story with one opening is a different job from a two-story with multiple rooflines.
See the full Georgia cost guide for how this compares to other animals.
What they damage
The full range: wiring, insulation, siding and roof.
Wiring is the one that concerns people most, and reasonably so. Squirrels gnaw constantly — it is how they manage their teeth — and electrical cable in an attic is a convenient thing to gnaw on.
Siding and roof damage tends to be either the original entry work or, more often, the chew-back damage described above. That second category is entirely preventable, and it is the reason to get the sequence right.
Flying squirrels
Georgia does have flying squirrels, and they do get into attics.
The job is essentially the same — exclusion and sealing. The one difference that matters is that they are smaller, so the inspection has to account for smaller entry points. A gap that would not admit a grey squirrel is not automatically safe.
If you are hearing activity but cannot find an opening large enough to explain it, that is worth mentioning when you call.