Are There Flying Squirrels In Indiana? Yes - And They Might Be In Your Attic

Yes - They're Common. You Just Work Different Hours

Southern flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans) live throughout Indiana and Kentucky - in many mature hardwood forests they're actually the most abundant squirrel species, outnumbering the gray squirrels you see daily. The reason nobody believes this: flying squirrels are strictly nocturnal, emerging well after dark to forage for nuts, seeds, fungi, and insects. Your oak-lined neighborhood in Louisville, New Albany, or Jeffersonville almost certainly hosts them.

They're also unreasonably charming: palm-sized (half the weight of a chipmunk), huge black eyes for night work, and the famous patagium - the furred membrane from wrist to ankle that lets them glide 20-40 yards between trees, steering with a flattened tail. They don't fly, but a glide across your backyard at midnight, seen once in a porch light, is a memory.

Why Homeowners Meet Them: The Winter Colony

Here's the trait that turns a woodland curiosity into a service call: flying squirrels are colonial, especially in winter. They don't hibernate; they conserve heat by aggregating - and a warm attic beats a tree cavity decisively. Where a gray squirrel problem is one animal or a family, a flying squirrel problem is routinely 10 to 25 animals sharing your insulation from November through March, with colonies occasionally counted well beyond that.

Because each animal is small - they slip through gaps the size of a quarter, half what a gray squirrel needs - and because all activity is nocturnal, colonies persist undetected for years. The tell-tale signature: light, fast scurrying and soft landing thumps starting an hour or two after sunset and again before dawn, high-pitched chirps and 'tseet' calls (some ultrasonic, but plenty audible), and concentrated latrine stains at eave corners, since colonies designate shared bathroom spots that eventually shadow through ceilings and soffits.

Flying Squirrel vs. Mouse vs. Gray Squirrel: The Attic Audio Guide

Getting the species right changes the entire job, and sound plus timing does most of the work:

• Flying squirrels: light scurrying, gliding-landing thumps, and chirps - starting after full dark, quiet all day. Multiple animals at once is a strong tell.
• Mice: faint, localized scratching in walls more than open attic, any hour, no thumps.
• Gray squirrels: loud rolling and gnawing at dawn and dusk, silent overnight.
• Rats: steady movement along set runways at night, heavier than mice, gnawing on hard materials.
• Raccoons: unmistakably heavy walking and dragging - nobody confuses a raccoon with a flying squirrel twice.
• Bats: no scurrying at all - rustling and squeaking concentrated at dusk exit time, plus staining at a gable or ridge entry.

Removal Is Different - And DIY Fails Here Reliably

Flying squirrel exclusion is precision work. Every quarter-sized gap on the structure matters, and the colony's numbers mean a single missed opening restocks the attic within a week - this is the species where 'my handyman sealed it twice' calls come from. The professional sequence mirrors gray squirrel work at higher resolution: full-structure inspection, one-way doors sized for flying squirrels on active entries, camera-monitored trapping for the stragglers, then comprehensive sealing of the entire roofline with metal and hardware cloth.

Two species-specific cautions: never seal during the colony's daytime rest (you'd entomb the lot - the odor consequence of 20 animals is not a theoretical), and mind the calendar for litters, which arrive in early spring and late summer here. Post-removal, colony latrines and tunneled insulation get remediated - a bigger cleanup than gray squirrels leave, scaled to the headcount.

In Kentucky And Indiana, Handle Them Legally

Flying squirrels are protected wildlife in both states - not game to be poisoned or casually killed, and no rodenticide is labeled for them regardless. Licensed live exclusion and removal is the lawful path, and honestly the practical one: the goal isn't fewer flying squirrels in the neighborhood (you'd lose - the woods are full of them), it's a building they can't enter. That's a solvable, one-time problem when the sealing is done right.

We run flying squirrel jobs across Louisville and Southern Indiana all winter: flat-rate removal at $797-$997, exclusion itemized and backed by the written 10-year animal-free guarantee, and attic restoration where colonies have been long-term tenants. If your attic gets busy an hour after sunset, call (502) 791-9205 - describing the sounds over the phone is usually enough for us to name your tenant before we arrive.

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