All animals including humans desire a womb to live in. That is why humans are fascinated with caves and with building enclosed houses that seal out the outside world. All animals desire that perfect safety. Locking the bathroom door even though no one is home. This desire for solitude and protection comes from the pain of being ripped from the womb and stays with us for our entire lives. This is why squirrels and other animals prefer to nest in sealed off and enclosed areas like inside holes in trees, burrows in the ground and of course, your attic.
Most people have had some sort of infestation, whether it be cockroaches, mice or what have you. Many people have suffered an animal in their attic which can be more expensive to resolve. If you have a lot of wildlife on your property then it is a good idea to take necessary precautions to prevent them from entering your home and learning why they are on your property in the first place so you can remove the resources they come to consume. Having an animal in your attic is a serious situation and getting it removed is only the beginning of a long and expensive journey. You will need to get at least some of your insulation replaced, you will likely have to pay for feces removal and sterilization of the attic and you may even have to get your roof replaced from all the damage a family of wild animals can cause in your attic. How, then, do you prevent animals from wanting to come to your property and wanting to invade your attic. The process is simple but there is a lot of work to do.
One of the first things to think about is if you have water on your property. A coy pond is a common sight in wealthier neighbourhoods and one of the most powerful attractors of raccoons as they prefer small fish over all other food. That is not all, any source of water on your property will draw animals to your yard. Rats and cockroaches are in constant search for any source of water and raccoons love a good pool, though they cannot swim and will often drown trying to drink the water. This would require draining and scrubbing out your pool. If you have water access on your property you will want to remove it, it may be beautiful but beauty is dangerous. This will do a lot to stop animals from visiting or living in your yard.
If you have bird feeders or feed your pets outside if you have children and give them messy foods to eat outside where they can spill freely then you will be bringing animals to your yard. Any food, from open garbage to drops of ice cream will bring pests and wildlife to your yard who will eat it and then start looking for more. Animals and pests function on the basic idea that if there is food on a property there must be more food. This is normally correct. The animals will continue to visit the property and eat the food provided until they choose to move in permanently. This is often when a wild animal becomes pregnant. They will invade an attic to birth to their children and will stay there for weeks and months to raise them.
If you do these things as well as inspect your home for possible openings that could allow animals in then you will have done more than most to prevent animals from coming to your property. If they do you can assume it was not your fault. That being said, getting an animal out of the attic is not the same as preventing them from getting in. Unless you have roofing experience its best to leave these matters to the professionals.
