Scratching in the Attic at Night
Overhead scratching after dark is usually mice or flying squirrels; daytime activity in the same space is more often gray squirrels. The species matters because it changes where the entry is — mice come in low and travel up, squirrels come in at the roofline.
Noise overhead at night is the most common way a Maine household finds out it has rodents, and it is usually reported weeks after the animals moved in.
| What you hear | When | Most often | Who handles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light scratching, scurrying, faint squeaks | After dark, especially the first hours | Mice | Rodent control (us) |
| Gliding thumps, quick runs, chirps | Dusk and night | Flying squirrels | A wildlife specialist |
| Heavy rolling, gnawing, daytime movement | Daylight, early morning | Gray squirrels | A wildlife specialist |
| Slow heavy movement, vocalizations | Night | Raccoons | A wildlife specialist |
What to do first
- Note the time of day the noise happens, and write it down for two or three nights.
- Look for droppings along the attic edges, in insulation valleys, and on top of the ceiling joists.
- Look outside at the roofline for gaps: open soffit returns, lifted drip edge, unscreened gable vents, a gap where the chimney meets the roof.
- Do not seal an entry point until you know the animals are out — sealing an animal inside a wall is a worse problem than the one you started with.
Why the species changes the job
Mice generally enter low — sill gaps, utility penetrations, bulkheads — and travel up inside walls to the attic, so mouse work is interior voids plus low exterior sealing. Squirrels enter at the roofline and need a wildlife specialist; wildlife removal is not a service Blouin Pest Services offers. Bats are protected in Maine, and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife advises excluding them only from mid-August to mid-October or in early spring.
That is why the inspection identifies the species from droppings, gnawing and travel marks before anything is quoted.
The cost of waiting
An attic that has been occupied through a Maine winter typically shows compressed and soiled insulation in the travel paths, and sometimes gnawed wiring. The remediation is sequenced: exclude, remove, then remediate. New insulation installed while the roofline is still open is new insulation with a runway through it.
Free residential inspection and a written quote that separates removal from sealing. Call or text 207-740-4441.
What the inspection tells you that the noise cannot
Sound travels along framing, so the corner of the ceiling where you hear scratching is often two bays away from where the animal is. The evidence does not move: droppings collect where animals travel and rest, insulation is compressed along the runs, and grease marks build at the pinch points they squeeze through. Reading that evidence is what produces an entry list rather than a guess.
In most Maine attics the entry list is short and repetitive — an open soffit return at a roof junction, a gable vent screen that has rusted through, a gap behind a gutter where the drip edge lifted, a chimney flashing gap. Those are the same four items on house after house, which is why an inspection that ends without naming any of them has not finished.
What we hand you afterwards
A written list of the openings found, what each one needs, and what the removal plan is — plus anything belonging to another trade. If the fix is a roofer’s, we say so rather than sealing over a problem that will reopen.
The four openings that account for most attic entries
On Maine houses the same handful of details turn up again and again:
- Open soffit returns. Where a roof plane meets a wall, the boxed corner is often left open inside. From the ground it looks finished; from a ladder it is a doorway.
- Lifted drip edge behind gutters. Ice damming lifts the metal, and the gap that opens runs the length of the eave.
- Gable and ridge vent screening. Screen rusts. A hole the size of a coin is enough.
- Chimney and flashing junctions. Mortar fails, flashing lifts, and the gap sits in the warmest part of the roofline.
A fifth, less obvious route: mice entering at ground level and traveling up inside a wall cavity to the attic without ever crossing a living space. That is why an attic problem is often solved at the sill.
Cleaning up afterwards
Do not dry-sweep or vacuum rodent droppings in an enclosed space. Ventilate first, dampen the material, and remove it wet, wearing rubber or plastic gloves (CDC) and a mask, as UMaine’s Animal Health Laboratory advises. Deer mice are the species associated with hantavirus in the United States, and while cases are rare, the precaution costs nothing.
Insulation in the travel paths is usually compressed and soiled after a season of occupation. Not every attic needs stripping and we will say when yours does not. When it does, the sequence is exclude, remove, then remediate — new insulation over an open roofline is money spent on a future mouse runway.
What it costs, roughly
The removal portion of an attic rodent job is the smaller number. The exclusion is the one that varies, because it depends on how many openings there are and how high they are. Ground-level sealing is straightforward; roofline work at height on a steep pitch is a different quote. We itemize both, and you get a written list of every opening found whether or not you hire us for the sealing.
Work we have actually done
A confirmed job on a Maine home where the mice were traveling inside the structure: the entry was found along the foundation and sealed, and the household was shown the route (about six months ago).
Common questions
Could it be something other than rodents?
Bats, birds nesting in a soffit and raccoons all produce overhead noise. The sound pattern, the time of day and the droppings tell them apart, and a look in the attic settles it.
Should I put poison in the attic?
Not as a first move. An animal that dies inside a wall is a second problem, and in most Maine attics the fix is trapping plus closing the route in.
More on rodent control · Updated 2026-10-04
Talk to the person who does the work
Call or text Ryan Blouin directly. Residential inspections and quotes are free.
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, seven days a week. Same-day emergency service is available; call or text for the next opening.