Areas of common entry for wildlife on homes and buildings
A building or home is beneficial to animals for multiple reasons. It provides shelter from the heat, warmth in the cold, a safe place to have young, and protection from other predators. Whatever the reason being, there are some areas on buildings that are extra attractive to animals, and these are the areas that we see as the most common entry points and locations that need to be sealed when getting new calls.
The Attic
On a residential home, the attic is the most common place for animals to enter. The attic typically has some sort of breathability, aka air movement. These areas are generally the soffits, ridge vent, roof exhaust vents, and gable vents. Most homes have more than one of these. All of these locations are meant to let air move through, allowing a hot attic to cool down.
For this reason, if an animal gets near these points, they can feel the flow of air and know there is a hollow space inside. Because these areas are meant to allow air to move through, they have some sort of screen, gap, or style of build with holes. Unless they are strong enough, animals make their way through them very often. Animals such as bats, birds, squirrels (grey, red, and flying), and raccoons are the most common to do this. You can read about how they do this over on the pests page. Proper eviction is needed when sealing these, or you run the risk of trapping animals inside and dealing with a whole host of other issues.
THE Chimney
Chimneys can also be of concern for a couple different reasons. The flu that allows air from a fireplace or a furnace to exhaust out the roof is the first and most obvious. Without a proper chimney cap, many animals such as squirrels, raccoons and birds can travel freely up and down. Sometimes they do get stuck at the bottom and can often enter your home, which is the case with bats as well.
The chimney flashing, which redirects water flow around the framework of the chimney, can also be of concern. Often times it bends, folds, or just leaves gaps that allow animals to work their way directly into the attic or chimney column, even when water is not an issue (animals can work against gravity, as water can not).
The Deck
The other area we get animals causing issues is under decks, sheds, porches, sunrooms, and low lying structures without deep foundations. This is typically home to medium sized animals such as groundhog, opossum, skunk, fox, and sometimes raccoon.
These animals look to burrow underneath and create a safe space that is quiet and low to the ground. As mentioned before, proper eviction is necessary to rule out the possibility of trapping an animal underneath and causing dead animal odors or further damage.