Despite your best efforts, sometimes wild animals will somehow get into your walls. They may have decided it looked like a cozy place to make a nest or may have fallen in and gotten stuck. No matter the reason, you want to make sure that you remove the animal from your wall as soon as possible, as this will limit the amount of damage and foul odors that they cause. In the best case scenario, the animal will be alive and able to leave; in the worst case, they may have gotten stuck and already died. In all situations, you can get help from a wildlife professional or try to tackle the removal yourself.

Common Animals In Walls
Before you can start working to remove the wild animal from your wall, you will want to try to figure out what it is as this will help determine the methods you can use. The majority of animals in your walls will be mice, rats, or other rodents, but squirrels and raccoons are also common. It is also possible to have an opossum in your walls, although this is less common and theoretically any animal that fits can be in your walls.

Determine If They're Stuck
Once you know what type of wild animal you have in your walls, it is time to figure out whether they are trapped. It is typically easy to tell if the animal is alive as live ones will make plenty of noise while dead ones will be silent and smell. The best way to tell if the animal in question is stuck is to listen. Pay attention to where you hear them moving around and how often. If their movements sound frantic and hurried, they are probably stuck. If they seem calmer, they are most likely free to move about.
You can also try rapping on the wall to tell if they're stuck. If you have a general idea where the animal is within the wall, rap gently against the wall. Their movement can tell you a great deal of whether or not they are trapped.

Encourage Adults To Leave
In cases where you don't believe the animal is stuck and only adults are present, you can work to encourage them to leave with mild harassment. This can be in the form of lights if you can somehow shine a light into the wall. An easier option is to leave the radio on where they are so they leave. For the best results, try to combine this mild harassment with exclusion or installing a one-way door. To do this, you would have to seal up all entry points into your home except one (making sure that the animal has access to the remaining one via the walls) and install a one-way door on the remaining entry point.

Provide Escape Route
If you believe the animal is stuck and think it is a type of wild animal that can climb, such as rats, mice, or squirrels, you can provide them an escape route via a rope. See if you can find an access point to the area they are from your attic and dangle down a rope for them to climb and leave. If you aren't lucky enough to be able to access their location through the attic, you will probably need to make a hole in the wall.

When Babies Are Present
While the above advice works well for adult animals, you will want to follow a different course of action when babies are present. Babies will not be able to easily leave and if a mother has more than one baby, she will be unable to take them all through an exclusion device. It would also be challenging for a mother animal to climb the rope you provide with all of her babies. As such, there are two good options for mothers with babies in your walls. You can either wait for them to mature and use one of the above methods or hire a professional.
The ideal would be to have a wildlife expert take a look as he will be able to determine for sure whether the animals are stuck and if the babies are in any danger. Their input will prevent the babies from starving to death if you don't have a proper understanding of the situation. They will also know the right techniques to get mother animals and their babies out of your wall together.

Hire A Professional
No matter the situation, don't be afraid to hire a professional to help you remove wild animals from inside your walls. You should at least consult an expert if you suspect babies are present or if the animal is stuck. In cases where the animal is stuck, don't wait to take care of the problem. If you wait, the animal will likely starve to death or die of dehydration, leading to other problems such as odor.

Read the Pest Wildlife Home Page page for helpful information and to learn more about Remove Wild Animals Inside Your Wall