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I have flying squirrels in my attic with 2 known entry points:

A couple small soffit guards

These got pushed up where they meet the roof on an eave. I was going to just going to push them back into place & glue them down. Would Gorilla Glue work for this?

2 Vinyl siding corners

One of the siding Corners

I'm planning to buy this cap, which has some pretty good reviews. A wildlife specialist quoted me to use some sort of cement. Any idea what he was referring to?

Question

I was additionally quoted by a wildlife specialist for the following, which seemed extraneous and I'm planning on skipping:

  • 12 other Vinyl siding corners including inside corners (see above photo next to cracked siding corner) or corners that do not travel to the roof & instead go up to the inner joint of a overhang. The inner corners don't have any space for a rodent to get into.
  • A gable vent that is purely decorative & doesn't vent into the attic.
  • The ends of a ridge vent on the roof which show no signs of entry

Would it be a mistake to skip sealing these?

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  • Are you going to close off their access to the attic when the squirrels are outside? There are one-way trap-door devices that exterminators use to accomplish this. I believe the flying squirrels are nocturnal and so are out at night, at least for part of the time.
    – Jim Stewart
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 17:10
  • I was debating closing up everything & putting a one-way trap in my attic or leaving one soffit open & attaching a multi-trap or just one-way grate on the outside to catch them leaving (I think the former might be a bit easier, but not sure it'd be as effective).
    – jt000
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 17:13
  • Do the squirrels have a nest with young inside the attic?
    – Jim Stewart
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 17:42
  • BTW, are there signs that the squirrels are gnawing their way in?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 18:48
  • Not sure if there's a nest w/ young or not. Getting back to where they nested is near impossible. No signs of gnawing their way in, but they're definitely gnawing at something in the middle of the night (I can hear them at 1am).
    – jt000
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 21:35

1 Answer 1

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Wildlife is persistent about looking for shelter, so if you seal some openings and leave others, animals will eventually find the other openings and use them. So seal all the openings you can find.

As to the "cement", if the specialist was talking about those plastic caps in particular, then they just meant glue. "Vinyl" siding is made out of poly-vinyl chloride, or "PVC", and the glue for it is called "PVC cement". That will only work if the caps are also made from PVC. If they aren't, then the glue won't stick. But the reviews say they hold from friction, so you probably don't really need any glue.

Another approach is to fill it in with urethane spray-foam insulation, commonly sold under the "Great Stuff" brand name. Use the "low expansion" type so it doesn't bulge the trim.
Foam sealer

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  • My only concern with this is giving the squirrels a tooth-sharpener by accident :P
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 18:49
  • The decorative gable vent & ridge vents don't actually have an opening currently. I think the wildlife guy was just planning on doing at as a preemptive measure, which seemed extraneous to me (especially for an extra $700).
    – jt000
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 21:40
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    Give them steel wool tooth sharpeners, they won't like that.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 23:37
  • I agree with packing steel wool in there, and also with using the spray foam.
    – Craig Tullis
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 2:20

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