Squirrel Removal in Senoia, GA

Squirrels in your Senoia home

Squirrels are the animal Senoia homeowners call about most, and they find their way into very different houses. Near downtown, the restored older homes have wooden soffits and fascia that have been repaired and repainted many times, gable vents that may never have had a screen, and tall shade trees right over the roof. Out on the edge of town, the newer subdivisions have a different weak spot: the construction gaps left where roof sections meet, where soffit corners don't quite close, and around vents.

The noise is the part you notice — running and scratching in the morning and late afternoon — but the chewing is the part that costs money. Squirrels gnaw on wiring, tear up insulation for nests, and work at siding and roof edges to widen a hole. In an old house that may still have some older wiring in the attic, that's reason enough not to wait. The fix is the same in either kind of home: get the squirrels out, make sure no babies are left behind, and close the openings with metal so the next squirrel can't use them.

How squirrels get into Senoia's older houses

An older house near the historic district usually has more than one possible entry. Gable vents with no backing screen are common. Wooden soffits and fascia have often been patched and painted over, and paint hides a soft or separated board without fixing it. The seam where a porch roof meets the main wall is another favorite, since water and age open it up and the porch roof gives a squirrel a flat place to work. Because many of these houses also have open wall cavities, a squirrel that gets in low can sometimes travel up inside the wall. A thorough inspection checks all of it, not only the hole you can see from the yard.

New houses on the edge of town get them too

It surprises people that a house only a few years old can have squirrels, but construction gaps are one of the top ways animals get in. A roof return that wasn't fully closed, a gap behind a gutter at a corner, a vent that was cut larger than its cover — squirrels find these quickly, especially where a new subdivision backs up to woods. Being new doesn't mean being sealed; Georgia building practices leave plenty of small openings out of sight.

Babies change the whole job

Squirrel litters usually arrive in spring and again in fall, though the timing can stretch. This is where most DIY attempts go wrong. If you close the hole while a mother has young in the attic, she doesn't give up — she chews a new way back in, often doing more damage to the roof or siding than the original entry did. Confirming whether babies are present comes before any sealing, and the plan is built around getting the whole family out.

Wiring, insulation and the real damage

A squirrel's front teeth never stop growing, so it chews constantly — wood, ducting, and the coating on electrical wires. Chewed wiring in an attic is a fire hazard, which is the strongest reason not to let a squirrel problem ride. Squirrels also flatten and soil insulation and gnaw at siding and roof edges. In a restored home where the owner has spent real money on trim and paint, the outside damage can be just as frustrating as what's happening in the attic.

Morning noise or night noise?

Timing tells you a lot. Gray squirrels are busiest early in the morning and again in the late afternoon or evening. If the noise starts after dark and runs through the night, it's more likely southern flying squirrels or roof rats. Flying squirrels are common in wooded parts of Georgia and live in small groups; the job is the same idea as with grays, but they fit through smaller openings, so the seal has to be tighter. Downtown, where restaurants keep rats around, night noise is worth having identified before anything is closed.

What the pro does: excluders, then metal

The pro maps every opening, then fits a one-way excluder over the active one so squirrels can leave to feed but can't get back in. Where an excluder won't work, live traps are used and checked every day. Once the attic is confirmed empty — and no young are left — each gap is closed with metal: flashing, hardware cloth or steel mesh, fitted so it holds for the life of the house. On an old home, a careful installer can do this so the repair sits neatly with the trim rather than looking like a patch. Trimming limbs back from the roof helps, but on its own it won't stop a squirrel that can climb the siding.