Animals living in an attic may cause a lot of damage to the plumbing, structure, and wiring and become vectors for disease. The best strategies to keep animals like rats, mice, bats, raccoons, squirrels and birds out of your attic are to focus on home maintenance. Regular inspections of the house exterior and attic with precautionary measures may help avoid animals from building their homes in your attic.
The following are the step you should take to prevent animals entering:
Inspect and ensure there is no animal currently in the attic
If these animals have built up their homes in there, you will have to remove them by trapping and releasing them or hiring a professional to eliminate. Besides, the preventive measures you take to ensure the animals do not enter your attic may also keep them inside, this might lead to further damage.
Check the exterior of the house
Animals get into your attic through man-made openings like chimney pipes and soffit vents or small holes. Big animals such as raccoons will bite and claw through shabby spots in the outer surface to make an entry to the attic. Therefore, the perfect way to keep the animals away from your attic is to discover and remove any vulnerable areas in the exterior of your home.
Install a chimney cap
If your chimney has a large opening, consider purchasing and installing a chimney cap to prevent the animals from entering.
Eliminate food sources
It is important to eliminate easily accessible food sources from your yard and exterior of your house. This will make your attic less inviting, and animals will vacate. Ensure that every garbage can is tightly closed or keep them inside your garage if possible.
Trim tree branches and limbs
If there are trees that extend to your roof, it is important to trim them to restrict the animals from accessing the roof.
