That trip to the attic for holiday decorations, the quick check on the water heater, and the rummage through storage. Sometimes you find exactly what you came for. And sometimes you find something else entirely.
We get calls about this every week from homeowners across Indianapolis, Fishers, Zionsville, Greenwood, and the surrounding areas. Wildlife droppings are one of the most common signs that an animal has made itself at home in your house, and knowing the difference between what each animal leaves behind can tell you a lot about what you are dealing with and what needs to happen next.
Let’s break down the most common wildlife droppings found in Indiana homes and what each one is telling you.
Racoon Droppings
What Do Raccoon Droppings Look Like?
Raccoon droppings are large, roughly 2 to 3 inches long and about the width of your finger. They’re tubular with blunt or rounded ends, similar in size to a small dog’s droppings. They often contain visible food remnants like seeds, berries, or insect parts. Fresh droppings are dark brown to black. Older ones dry out and lighten in color.
Where you’ll find them:
Raccoons are creatures of habit. They tend to use the same spot repeatedly, creating what’s called a latrine. Common locations include attics throughout, flat sections of rooflines, decks, and the bases of trees or stumps. If you find a concentrated pile rather than scattered droppings, raccoons are almost certainly the culprit.
What to know:
Raccoon droppings carry serious health risks. They can contain Baylisascaris procyonis, a roundworm that is dangerous to humans and pets. When our technicians arrive at a raccoon job, the volume of droppings is often the first thing that tells the story. Raccoons return to the same spot over and over, sometimes for months, building up a significant pile in one area. That concentrated accumulation almost always means active nesting nearby, contaminated insulation, and structural damage underneath. This is not a situation to approach on your own. Our attic and crawlspace remediation team handles cleanup and restoration safely and completely.
Squirrel Droppings
What Do Squirrel Droppings Look Like?
Squirrel droppings are small, about 3/8 of an inch long, oval-shaped, and slightly rounded at both ends. They are typically dark brown when fresh and lighten in color as they age. They look similar to rat droppings but are slightly shorter and more barrel-shaped with rounder ends. The color is often the easiest distinguishing feature.
Where you’ll find them:
You’ll most often find squirrel droppings in attics, near entry points, and along wall cavities. Squirrels don’t use a single latrine the way raccoons do. Their droppings tend to be scattered near wherever they’re nesting or traveling. A trail of small droppings from an exterior gap to a wall void is a strong indicator of squirrel activity.
What to know:
Squirrel droppings mean there’s almost certainly an entry point that needs to be found and sealed. Squirrels chew constantly on wires, insulation, and wood framing. Chewed electrical wiring is one of the leading causes of house fires attributed to wildlife, and on squirrel inspections, our technicians find compromised wiring more often than not. It is one of the first things we look for and one of the most important reasons not to wait. The longer squirrels are in, the more that risk grows. Our squirrel and chipmunk solutions include trapping, exclusion, and sealing entry points.
Bat Droppings (Guano)
What Do Bat Droppings Look Like?
Bat droppings, called guano, are small and similar in size to mouse droppings, about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch long. What sets guano apart is its texture. One of the ways our technicians confirm guano in the field is when crushed, a bat dropping crumbles into a shiny, glittery powder because of the insect exoskeletons inside. Mouse droppings do not do this. Guano is also often found in loose piles or mounds directly below where bats roost, since they drop waste from the same spot night after night.
Where you’ll find them:
Bat guano accumulates where bats roost, most commonly in attics, behind shutters, inside wall voids near the roofline, and around ridge vents or gable ends. A dark staining or oily smear around an entry point, combined with a pile of small droppings below, is a very reliable sign of a bat colony.
What to know:
Guano is a serious health concern. It can harbor Histoplasma capsulatum, the fungus that causes histoplasmosis, a respiratory illness that can affect people when disturbed guano becomes airborne. In larger colonies, our technicians also commonly find a strong ammonia odor in the space. In severe cases, years of accumulated guano can add enough weight to compromise insulation and ceiling structures below. Bat exclusion in Indiana is also regulated by law. Bats are a protected species under the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and cannot be removed during maternity season in Indiana, from June 1st to August 15th. A professional assessment is essential before anything else happens. Learn more about our bat solutions.
Mouse Droppings
What Do Mouse Droppings Look Like?
Mouse droppings are tiny, about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch long, dark brown to black, and pointed at one or both ends. They look like small grains of dark rice. The pointed ends are what separate them from bat guano, which has more rounded or irregular tips and that glittery interior our technicians look for. You may find dozens or even hundreds of droppings in a single area, since mice produce up to 70 droppings per day.
Where you’ll find them:
Mice drop waste wherever they travel and forage. Common locations include inside kitchen cabinets and pantry shelves, behind appliances, along baseboards, inside wall voids, and in the basement or garage corners. If you’re finding droppings in multiple rooms, the infestation is likely well established.
What to know:
Mouse droppings can carry dangerous viruses, harmful bacteria, and other pathogens such as hantavirus and salmonella. Fresh droppings are soft and dark. Droppings that are gray and crumble easily are older. When our technicians walk into a well-established mouse infestation, droppings are rarely in just one place. We typically find them in the kitchen, along baseboards, inside wall voids, and in stored items like boxes and clothing, anywhere mice have been traveling and feeding. The spread shows how long they have been there and how large the population has grown. Because mice reproduce quickly, a small problem can become a significant one within weeks. Our rodent solutions address both the infestation and the entry points that allowed it.
How Do I Know What Animal Was in My House?
Start by gathering the evidence in front of you. Size, location, and shape will tell you the most. Large droppings clustered in the attic point to a raccoon. Small droppings scattered along a wall void or near a roofline gap point to a squirrel or a bat. Tiny droppings scattered throughout living spaces point to a mouse.
Even once you’ve weighed all that, droppings can look alike at a glance and are easy to misidentify, and no amount of comparing photos online replaces an in-person look. That’s why we always recommend getting a professional opinion rather than guessing. It’s better to confirm the species than to treat the wrong animal while the real cause is still there, waiting to be handled properly.
At The LadyBug Pest & Wildlife Control, we identify wildlife activity every day across Central Indiana. Our technicians are licensed through the Indiana State Chemist Office (ISCO) and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and we’re proud members of the National Wildlife Control Operators Association (NWCOA), the Indiana Pest Management Association (IPMA), and the National Pest Management Association (NPMA). A wildlife investigation will tell you exactly what you’re dealing with and how to fix it for good.
Call us today at 317-601-2873 to schedule an inspection.
