Last week, we heard noises at night in the attic and finally saw a squirrel over the weekend. I searched the attic and found multiple potential entry points, feces (rat, squirrel, and raccoon), and acorn stashes. I had one pest company out today (more later this week) and they offered three plans of course:

1. Cheap - Rodent exclusion and trapping
2. Expensive - Rodent exclusion and trapping, sanitation and 6-7" of insulation (TAP Cellulose R49)
3. Most Expensive - Rodent exclusion and trapping, sanitation, and complete removal of current insulation and replace with R49 TAP Cellulose R49

While getting a "fresh" attic, it seems overkill with new insulation, or is it time to replace it anyway? I don't really know how long insulation lasts, but it seems to not be overly compressed and the main concern is just it having been a litterbox for who knows what for quite a while.

Any thoughts?

Insulation itself doesn't really go bad, however, it can get compacted which makes it less effective.
Rodents can help that compaction happen. Age and settling also. Having them use it as a bed and toilet doesn't help.

New insulation can be better than the original insulation due to new materials and technology.

How old is your house? What shape is the old insulation? How much have the rodents destroyed your existing insulation? Was it as good as it should be even when it was new? Not likely that it was ever R-49.



If it is old and compacted, I would suck it out and replace.

If the rodents really destroyed it with urine and feces, I would suck it out and replace.

If the rodents were just in a couple of areas, I might pull out those areas by hand, sanitize and top with new.

If your insulation is near R-49 or you are happy with the amount, and the rodents haven't done much damage, you could get by with just exclusion. Same if your budget doesn't allow anything else. At least it won't get worse.

my $.02

Option 1 is what I would do. I have had to have pest companies redo exclusion devices after roofing. There are a couple places on sidewalls and eaves where things get in. A mesh with polyurethane spray foam is what some of the pest fellas use.

Dealt with this early in the early fall into winter last year. My neighbor used to work pest control so we just teamed up and set traps, once we went about 2 weeks of the traps not tripping, we then sealed up any areas where we noticed things could get in, AC line, some spots on the roof line, etc. Then switched pest company and added two bait stations outside. Definitely was the cheapest and best route. Haven't had any issues since

Thanks all. Went with another group and just did the exclusion and trapping. Already seen squirrel and rat. Those suckers have left some scratching on my ducts I'm going to have to fix. Joys of home ownership

How much does something like that cost? Do they use the standard rat traps at Home Depot?

The lowest quote I got was for 1500, which included exclusion, trapping, bait stations, and some pesticides for the wasp issue. It was more than I wanted to pay, but I have very steep roofs, and the guy worked for close to five hours on the roof, so I'm glad he did it.

It's standard rat traps, but they put a few large ones up as well for any possible raccoons. The amount of traps is pretty cartoonish, but have already had a few go off and the wasps disappeared overnight.

I bought a couple bags of mothballs, put them in a shoebox (close to their entry point). Give it a week to get them out and seal the hole