Animals in the Attic

Can I Use Poison to Get Animals Out of the Attic?

I'm not here to tell you what to do, I just want to educate you about why poison simply is NOT an EFFECTIVE way to solve a problem with animals in the attic.

Can I Use Poison to Get Animals Out of the Attic?

I know how to solve the problem, just poison 'em!" It's possible, but poisoning animals in the attic is actually much more difficult than exclusion or trapping, and less effective. There are no registered rodenticides for any animal other than rats or mice, but even those animals should not be controlled with rodenticides. All other animals like raccoons and squirrels never eat food in an attic, so unlike with rats, they will not consume rat poison, and the poison is not designed for most animals, so if they did eat it, they may not die. Also, if you do manage to kill one with poison, the smell of a rotting squirrel is terrible. Any of these attempts are inhumane of course, if you care, which you might not if your top interest is killing them. I understand if you may hate the vermin in the attic, or think that killing them is the logical approach and so on, but seriously, it's a lot more challenging to kill wildlife with poison than to install a one-way exclusion door or a repeater trap. Most of all, poison does not address the root of the problem, and that is the open holes in your house that allow the animals to get inside. If those openings remain, you will never solve a problem with animals in the attic.

Can I Use Poison to Get Animals Out of the Attic?

Poison Results in Stinky Dead Animals!

This is just one of the reasons I don't recommend the use of poison - if it kills animals in the attic, and then you have to deal with the terrible odor!

Look at the Blue Feces

A customer called me to find the source of the terrible smell. Look at the blue feces around this rat carcass. That's from the blue dye in the poison.

Does it Work on Big Animals?

Nope. This possum died of natural causes. Rodenticides do work on some rats and mice, but they are not designed for (or legal for) larger animals like raccoons, squirrels.

I Recommend Trapping Instead

Poisons, especially if administered by a pest control company, waste your money, but worst of all, waste your time. However, trapping the animals ensures quick removal.

Information About Can I Use Poison to Get Animals Out of the Attic?

Having animals in your attic can sometimes lead to desperate situations, but you should always carefully weigh your options before taking action. You may be tempted to use poison to get animals out of your attic. To many, this seems like a simple, impersonal option that doesn’t require much involvement on your end. In reality, however, using poison leads to a wide range of problems.

Finding A Designated Poison

The first issue you will run into is finding a poison designed to take care of the particular animal in your attic. There are no registered poisons for many of the wildlife that you may find in your attic, including squirrels. Of course, even if you were to find a poison created for the animal in question, it may be illegal in your area and there is no way to get the animal to consume the poison.

An Inhumane Method

Assuming that you do manage to poison the animal in your attic, you will be choosing a very inhumane method of dealing with the issue. The poison will not act instantly. Instead, the animal will die slowly over the course of several days, suffering the entire time. This is unnecessary when there are much better alternatives.

Dealing With The Dead Animal

In addition to the lack of availability of poison and the inhumanity of this method, it won’t actually make your issue better. If an animal is poisoned, they will feel sick and go somewhere safe to die (or recover, which is what they hope happens). Unfortunately for you, these safe places are typically nearly impossible for humans to reach. Maybe the animal will go deep into the insulation or climb down a gap in the wall. You will end up with the challenge of finding the dead animal before it begins to decay, smell, and attract insects. It is much easier to deal with a live animal as you can at least hear where it is.

Doesn’t Resolve The Problem

Poisoning an animal in your attic won’t even solve the problem. If you poison the animal and manage to find and remove the carcass, there is nothing stopping another wild animal to go in your attic and take its place. You will find yourself in an endless cycle of dealing with animals by poisoning them. The only way to truly take care of the issue is through home repairs that prevent more animals from coming inside. Combine this with humane removal methods like trapping or exclusion and you should not have to deal with wildlife in your attic again.

The Bottom Line

How to poison animals in the attic - no matter how much you may hate the critters in your house, it's a heck of a lot easier and more effective to just do a proper animal exclusion. You have the added benefit of not having to deal with dead animal carcasses or rotting animal odor in your house. The most important thing is this: if you absolutely must kill an animal for some reason, please do something humane like shoot it, rather than attempt to resort to lazy and ineffective poison.