Using sounds as clues to identify a wildlife problem
Hearing animal sounds in your home is most often how people realize they have an issue. Sometimes you may watch squirrels or bats when looking outside your home or business, but overall the noises associated with them are the first clue homeowners pick up on.
When diagnosing what animal or animals you have living in your structure, we will often need to get some information. These things can usually tell us or at least narrow down to a specific few what animals you are dealing with.
When you are hearing the noises(day vs night), what kinds of noises you are hearing (vocalizations vs movement), where in the structure you are hearing the noises (attics, walls, between floors, basements), and what kind of area your property is (fields/wooded/open space, types of trees, etc).
Usually you can narrow your culprit(s) down pretty quickly with this information. What you’ll notice is that 3 of these 4 questions are related to noises. We are currently getting into peak spring season, and this is when most wildlife is at its most active. This is mostly due to new food abundance and breeding season.
With breeding season comes young (called kits, pups, juveniles), and those young can get very vocal. This time of year, one of the most telling factors is the vocalizations you hear. Giving you some snippets can be helpful in allowing you to compare what you hear to what is making that noise.
The sounds made by bats that you hear in this clip can sometimes be difficult to hear because they are a very high frequency. Often times they’ll roost inside soffits or overhangs on the southern side of the house. You may be able to hear this from the inside or the outside. When the sun is beating on them in the springtime in the day they can become quite vocal in groups.
The grunts heard in this audio are from adolescent squirrels, still hanging around in the nest in the attic they were found in. They are around 7 weeks old here, and chatter quite a bit. They are pretty quiet for their first couple weeks, so often you wont hear this type of noise until they are getting ready to start venturing out themselves. You may hear the adult running around before hearing this type of noise.
Raccoons kits are fairly vocal, especially when the mother is around and they’re awake. One of the most common situations we deal with are raccoon kits that were born in a fireplace above the damper. Adult raccoons are excellent climbers and can climb up and down them with ease.
If chimney caps are not properly secured, an adult raccoon can pry it off if it means a safe place to have young. These kits here are about 5-6 weeks old. They will make chattering noises earlier than this, it may sound a little bit squeakier in comparison.