How Much Does It Cost To Remove Animals From The Attic?

Having animals in the attic is not only frightening to deal with, but it is an invasion of your home’s privacy. Sure, it may only be a furry critter, but animals stuck in your attic create noise disturbances as well as a sanitary risk. Most homeowners’ first instinct when they hear an animal in the attic is to reach for the phone and call a service to get it removed.

The average cost to remove an animal from the attic is $392, but pests like raccoons cost $500 to remove. Homeowners spend an average of $100 per trap to remove small pests, $400 per trap for bats. Squirrels are hard to get out of an attic, and it costs an average of $450 to remove them professionally.

The pricing of animal removal has no rhyme or reason in many cases and is instead determined by the service that you use and the animal in question. For animal removal, you can use two types of services: animal control and wildlife removal. Let’s explore the costs of removing animals from your attic and what affects the pricing.

Related Guide: How Much Does Animal Control Cost?

You can either call animal control or a wildlife removal agency when you need an animal removed from your attic. The two types of services are unique in their own ways, but each one can help with animal removal and animal population control.

Typically, animal control is run by the government and can aid communities and homeowners by removing animals that have become a nuisance. Because they are a government department run animal removal organization, their emphasis is on ridding the communities of pests, but they respond to residences as well.

However, wildlife removal services are privately owned and operated businesses that effectively do the same thing as animal control. The chief difference between animal control and wildlife removal services is that wildlife removal services profit from their pest control jobs.

Besides that, both animal control and wildlife removal services are essentially the same, and both are great at responding quickly to your plea for animal removal.

Of the many pests that can get in the attic, squirrels and raccoons cost the most to remove. Hiring animal control or a wildlife removal service to remove a squirrel or raccoon can cost anywhere between $200 and $1,500. On average, however, it costs $400-$600 for squirrel and raccoon removal.

Raccoon and squirrel removal gets especially expensive if the professional has to manually remove the pest using their hands. That can cost you $550-$650. Trap removals, however, cost less.

The pricing of a trap removal is made up of the trap itself, roughly $70-$130, and the transportation of the pest, which is another $100-$175. Because of the high cost, many homeowners decide to purchase traps on their own to try and save money.

Here is a breakdown of the average cost of specific pests compared to the price of buying traps for them on your own.

It costs roughly $150-$300 to have a dead animal removed from the attic. The price varies depending on the flat rate of the service that you are using. Generally, if you are able to indicate to the professional where exactly the dead animal is located, it will help keep the cost closer to $150.

Of course, removing dead animals is easier for the animal control professionals than trapping a live one. However, the cost of dead animal removal is still high due to the cleaning and sanitation they do upon removal.

One of the more expensive damages that needs professional repair is insulation damage. Quite commonly, raccoons and squirrels occupying people’s attics will chew through the insulation.

Having that insulation replaced can cost up to $3.50 per square foot. Often, though, repairs for animal damage in the attic are priced at a flat rate, just like the animal removal itself. On average, insulation attic repairs after animal removal costs between $850 and $1,800.

If the nuisance animal chewed through wires, however, be prepared to spend up to $8 per square foot in having it replaced.

If you have a squirrel issue, first, use steel mesh so that you seal off the entries they’re coming through. But you need to leave the main hole open so that they can leave. This should be a one-way exclusion door so that they can leave, but they can’t come back. After they’ve left, seal that entry point.

Check the space for a nest or babies. If you find babies, set them outside so the Mom can retrieve them. Make sure you don’t touch them with your bare skin, or the Mom may abandon them.

On average, it costs $200-$500 to have animals removed from your attic. That price can go up if it is an animal such as a squirrel or raccoon, which costs up to $600 on average. When you get into the high price range of $1,000 or more, that is usually if the animal in question caused a lot of damage.

Don’t hesitate to call animal control because of the potential expenses. Having the animal professionally removed will be worth every penny when you can rest easy, having avoided a confrontation with a wild animal. Good luck!