Most calls start the same way. Something is moving above the ceiling, usually late at night or right around dawn, and the homeowner is not sure what it is or how worried to be. That is exactly what a wildlife inspection is for. You do not need to know the animal before you call. The inspection figures that out, finds how it is getting in, and puts a written number in front of you before anyone starts work.
This guide walks through what The Wildlife Guys look at during a wildlife inspection in Indianapolis and the nearby towns we serve, what you get at the end, and how to get the most out of the visit.
Why the inspection comes before the price
Wildlife work cannot be priced honestly over the phone. A raccoon in an attic could be one animal using one gap, or a mother with young using three entries across a two-story roofline with soiled insulation underneath. Those are different jobs. Our pricing page lays out the inputs that move a job from the low end of the range to the high end:
- Entry count. One soffit gap is a small job. Several soffit gaps, a ridge gap and a failed gable vent are a much bigger one. The count is the biggest single input.
- Building height. A one-story ranch is one ladder. A tall house with a steep, cut-up roof takes more rigging and more crew.
- The animal. Each species is handled differently, and that changes the work.
- Contamination. A clean attic with one entry is an exclusion job. An attic with a long-used latrine is a cleanup job as well.
None of that is visible from the driveway, which is why the inspection comes first and the quote comes second. For most homes the inspection is free.
What gets checked on the outside
The inspection starts with the outside of the house, from the ground and from a ladder where needed. Central Indiana homes tend to fail in the same handful of places, and our exclusion and animal-proofing work is built around them:
- Gable vents. The louvered vent at the peak of the gable end, where the factory plastic screen often gives out.
- Soffit returns. The small triangle where the soffit meets the roofline on a gable, which builders rarely close cleanly.
- Fascia gaps. Where the fascia board pulls away from the rafter tail and squirrels widen the opening each year.
- Foundation vents. Brick or block crawlspace vents with rusted-out screens.
- Ridge cap gaps. The small unsealed openings where the ridge cap ends meet the gable.
- Chimney chase seams. The boxed wood chase around a metal chimney pipe, where the top and sides separate.
- Dormer corners. Where a dormer roof meets the main roof and the shingles and siding never quite meet.
The goal is not just to find the hole the current animal is using. It is to find every opening the next animal would use, because removing one animal without closing the building only makes room for another.
What gets checked in the attic
If there is safe access, the inspection goes into the attic. This is where the evidence is. Sometimes the animal is identified from droppings, sometimes from entry-point sign, sometimes from chew patterns or hair caught in a gap. We have had customers sure they had a squirrel and found raccoon droppings, and the reverse.
The attic check also answers a second question: does the insulation need attention? Flattened, soiled insulation and latrine sites are noted during the visit. If the contamination is confined to one area, a targeted section can come out and clean insulation can stay. If it is spread across the attic, that is a larger job. Our insulation remediation page explains how that work runs, and that call is made after the inspection, not before it.
Wall noises count too
If the sound seems to be inside a wall rather than the open attic, it is the same call. Wall and attic problems usually share entry points, and the inspection works the same way.
What you have in hand when the inspection is done
When the visit is over, you should know three things in plain language: what animal it is, how it is getting in, and what it will cost to fix. The estimate is written, and you get it before you commit to anything.
A few details about that written quote matter more than people expect:
- It is a fixed price for the scope. The number does not change unless the scope changes. If a soffit is opened and a second entry turns up that could not be seen from the ground, we call you before working past the original scope.
- It is priced by the job, not by the animal. Whether the work turns up one raccoon or several, the price is for closing the building.
- It names the warranty. Exclusion work carries a two-year warranty against re-entry by the species we sealed against. If an animal of that type gets back in through an opening we closed, we come back and re-seal it at no charge.
And sometimes the answer is that nothing is there. The noise turns out to be the furnace or settling lumber. When that happens, you get told that, plainly.
How to get ready for the visit
There is very little to prepare, but a few things help:
- Clear a path to the attic hatch if storage is blocking it.
- Note when you hear it. Time of night, where in the house, and how heavy it sounds. Our guide to telling what is in the attic by the sound and the time of day shows how much that narrows things down.
- Take photos of any droppings, chewed trim or damaged vents you have already found.
- Do not seal anything yet. Closing an opening with an animal still inside traps it in the house. A can of expanding foam is a gap filler, not a barrier, and squirrels chew through it quickly.
What the inspection is not
It is not a sales pitch for a monthly plan. We do not sell annual service contracts to residential customers. Wildlife exclusion is project work: the building gets closed correctly once and the warranty covers any miss. If you go ahead, payment is 50 percent up front and 50 percent at completion, and PayPal financing with six months to pay is available.
It is also not a substitute for the state. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says on its Living with Wildlife page that it does not provide removal or capture services, and it points homeowners to wildlife control operators, who name their own rates and fees. Nuisance Wildlife Services, the business behind The Wildlife Guys, is listed in the Indiana DNR's public directory of nuisance wildlife control operators.
Why fall is a good time to have it done
The longer an animal stays, the more insulation, wiring and drywall it costs you. A noise that goes quiet for a few days has usually not left, because animals shift around the attic. Most of our biggest restoration jobs started as a noise somebody lived with for a season. Our post on why fall is when squirrels move into attics covers the most common version of that story. An inspection now tells you whether you have a problem before it grows.
Where we inspect
The Wildlife Guys inspect homes across Indianapolis and in Fishers, Carmel, Zionsville, Pendleton and Anderson. If you are hearing something overhead, or you have found droppings or a chewed vent, book a free inspection or call (317) 512-3779. You will know what it is, how it got in and what it costs to fix before you decide anything.