Almost every attic call starts the same way: a noise, at night, and no idea what is making it.
Getting the identification right matters more here than in most trades, because the four likely answers lead to four completely different jobs — and one of them is governed by a legal window that can make July work unlawful.
Here is how to narrow it down before anyone quotes you.
Start with the time of day
This is the single most useful signal, and you already have the data.
| When you hear it | Most likely |
|---|---|
| Dawn and dusk, brief bursts | Squirrels |
| After dark, through the night | Raccoons, mice, rats |
| Right at dusk, building for a few minutes | Bats leaving to feed |
| Middle of the night, continuous small sounds | Mice |
| Just before dawn, heavy | Raccoon returning |
Squirrels are active in daylight. If the noise is at 6am and again at 7pm and nothing in between, you are very probably not dealing with a raccoon, whatever anyone tells you on the phone.
Then the character of the noise
Squirrels. Fast, light, scampering. Distinct rolling or scratching — they cache food, and the sound of something rolling across a ceiling is characteristic. Chewing is common, because they gnaw constantly.
Raccoons. Heavy. Thumping and dragging rather than running, and the weight is obvious through a ceiling. Vocal: chittering, chirring, growling, and in spring the crying of kits. If you can hear it clearly from another room, it is heavy enough to be a raccoon.
Mice. Light and fast, mostly inside walls rather than across the attic floor. Scratching and faint gnawing, often at a consistent hour.
Rats. Similar but heavier and slower, and more likely to follow a consistent route. The gnawing is louder.
Bats. Quite unlike the others. Soft scratching, rustling and high squeaking. It does not sound like an animal running about; it sounds like a great many small things shifting. It concentrates around dusk.
Birds. Chirping and fluttering, strictly daytime, usually in a soffit or vent rather than the attic proper.
Then the droppings, which are conclusive
If you can safely see droppings, they settle it.
| Animal | Droppings |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Rice-sized, 3–6 mm, pointed ends, scattered widely |
| Rat | 12–18 mm, blunt ends, in concentrated runs |
| Bat | Mouse-sized, but crumbles to a glittery powder — insect fragments |
| Squirrel | 8–10 mm, rounded ends, lighter in colour than rat |
| Raccoon | Large, dark, tubular, often with visible seeds; deposited in a latrine — one repeated spot |
The bat test is the useful one. Mouse and bat droppings look alike at a glance, but bat guano is composed entirely of insect exoskeleton. Crush one against a hard surface: if it crumbles dry and glitters, it is bat — and that changes the job entirely.
The raccoon latrine is the other giveaway. Raccoons return to the same spot repeatedly, so you find a concentrated pile rather than a scatter.
Where the entry is likely to be
Squirrels. Roof edge, fascia, plumbing vent boots, gable vents. They widen small gaps quickly and chew soft wood readily.
Raccoons. The roof–soffit intersection where a valley meets a wall — comfortably the most common in this area. Uncapped chimneys on the older housing in Collingwood and Thornbury. They are strong enough to make their own opening in soffit or shingle.
Bats. Anything over about 1.5 cm on the roofline. Ridge caps, fascia gaps, chimney flashing, dormer junctions. On the escarpment chalets, the junctions between roof planes.
Mice. Ground level. Service penetrations, garage door seals, the sill plate behind siding, dryer vents.
Why getting this right matters
If it is bats, exclusion is only lawful and humane outside the maternity window — roughly early June to late August, when a colony holds flightless pups. Treating it as a general “wildlife removal” in July risks trapping them inside the roof.
If it is a raccoon in spring, there is a high chance of a litter. Excluding the mother without the kits leaves them to die in the ceiling.
If it is squirrels, the timing constraint is different again — they have two breeding periods, roughly late winter and midsummer.
If it is mice, it is an exclusion and monitoring job and nobody needs to be on your roof at all.
Four animals, four jobs, four prices. A company that quotes before identifying is quoting a guess.
What not to do
Do not enter an attic with confirmed wildlife activity without protection. Raccoon droppings may carry roundworm eggs, and accumulated bat guano disturbed dry can release Histoplasma spores. A dust mask and a torch is not adequate for either.
Do not seal the entry because the noise stopped. Silence usually means the animal is out foraging. Sealing then locks it out and its young in, and a determined raccoon will make a new hole to reach them — one that costs considerably more to repair than the one you closed.
Do not put poison in an attic for wildlife. It is ineffective on raccoons, unlawful on bats, and an animal that dies inside a wall cavity becomes a decomposition and blowfly problem you cannot reach.
What to send us
A phone recording of the noise with the time on it, a photograph of any droppings with something for scale, and a photograph of the outside of the roof or wall where you think it is happening.
That is usually enough for us to tell you what you have — and, importantly, whether it is something to deal with this week or something that has to wait for the right month.