Dealing With Raccoons

Mississauga Pest Control Services for Raccoons

Mississauga Pest Control Services firmly believe in a humane approach to solving raccoon problems. Our exclusion process involves one of our trained technicians coming to your home to assess the problem. They will do a thorough inspection of your property to determine how the raccoon has entered your home, as well as look for other areas the raccoon could potentially gain re-entry to your home. After the initial inspection, the technician will provide you with a quote and explain the process of removing the raccoon. The first step in excluding a raccoon from your home is getting the raccoon out of your attic. The technician will install a one-way door on the entry point. A panel on the door will allow the raccoon to exit, and then the panel will spring shut leaving the raccoon unable to open the door again. The door is a temporary measure, and will be taken off by the technician in a week, after the raccoon has moved on. The second step is to ensure the raccoon will not get back into your home. While the technician is installing the door, they will also provide you with other potential entry points on your home and recommend securing these areas at the same time. Raccoons are very determined to get back into your home, so it is always recommended to do a complete exclusion.

At Mississauga Pest Control Services, we believe that the best solution to a pesky raccoon problem is by solving the issue using a sustainable, integrated pest management strategy. Our goal is to provide our customers with long term solutions to raccoon problems. Our primary approach to providing good customer service to our clients with regards to raccoon problems is by excluding your home from the raccoon, or in other words, keeping the raccoon out of your home. At Mississauga Pest Control Services, we only recommend “live trapping” raccoons in very rare instances, as it is not a long term solution. The smell of a raccoon den site is an extremely powerful attractant to other raccoons, as well as squirrels, mice, and in some cases skunks. Live trapping a raccoon can be a long, drawn out process, and when and if the raccoon is finally caught, it is illegal to transport it more than 1 kilometer from where it was caught. Either the raccoon will return to their den site later that day, or a new animal will smell out the den and take up residence in your home, sometimes within 24 hours. Sometimes trapping on a roof or in an attic will catch 10 or 15 raccoons in the first week. As our goal is to provide the best long term solutions to the problem, our in-house research has shown animal exclusion as being the most effective and cost effectiveway of permanent raccoon removal.

Mississauga Pest Control Services believe in doing a complete exclusion of your home as a permanent solution to raccoon problems. By only addressing the entry point as the problem for raccoons getting into your home is a dis-service to you.Roughly 60% of our “door and patch” jobs, (where preventative measures are not done at the request of the customer) keep the animal out for a few days before they find a new way to get in. It is always recommended to do a complete job to ensure complete results.

The most common raccoon problem is raccoons residing in the attic space of your home. Raccoons are extremely good climbers, and have no problems getting on your roof. Once on your roof, raccoon’s inquisitive nature kicks in and they begin exploring your roof for ways of entering into your attic space. The most common entry method for a raccoon to get into your attic is by pushing up the soffit where the soffit meets the roof.

While not all homes have roof and soffit intersections or dormers, homes that do have such intersections are very susceptible to raccoon or even squirrel problems.

The next most common entry point for raccoons to get into your attic is by way of your attic vents and plumbing mats.

Almost all homes have some form of attic vent to allow the attic space to “breath”. Attic vents are made of either plastic or aluminum, as so it is very easy for a raccoon to pull on these vents until they come off. Once the raccoon has removed the attic vent, they have a clear path into your attic. Plumbing mats are a much less common entry point for raccoons to get into your attic, but raccoons will resort to ripping up the front rubber part of the plumbing mat and tearing at the plywood on your roof until they gain entry into your attic.

A large number of brick chimneys do not have wildlife caps installed. Raccoons will go into chimneys and establish a den site on top of the damper.

In some cases, raccoons have gained entry into an attic space by way of ripping holes in the fascia above the gutter. In such a case, the fascia is almost always wood and has rotted, and the technician will advise you to look at having the fascia and gutters replaced with aluminum. Also, raccoons have an exceptional sense of smell which allows them to sniff out rotted plywood beneath your shingles due to shingles leaking. Raccoons will rip up the shingles and then tear a hole in the roof to gain access to your attic space. The technician will be able to help you get rid of the raccoon temporarily, but your technician will advise you to have your roof or fascia replaced in the immediate future.

Raccoons will also establish den sites in garages, sheds, and under decks. They will usually enter a garage or shed through the roof, but will occasionally enter through an opendoor or even through an open window.

Raccoons don’t typically look to establish den sites under decks, patios or sheds, but it does happen on occasion. Raccoons are not known for their digging ability so much as their climbing ability. If an animal has taken residence under a deck, patio or shed, it is most likely a skunk or rat. Raccoons will take over a skunk den site if provoked, but it isn’t their preferred destination to establish a den site. In such a case where a raccoon has taken up residence under a deck, shed or patio, the technician will provide you with a quoted to dig a trench approximately 1 foot down and 1 foot out around the affected area and secure steel wire mesh in the trench to keep the raccoon from re-entering. The trench will then be backfilled. A one way door will also be attached so as to let the raccoon out and not let them back in.

Raccoons and their babies

During the spring and early summer the raccoon will usually have babies. Babies create a new set of challenges. The babies MUST be removed from the attic area in conjunction with our one-way door and exclusion system. In order for our technician to determine if the raccoon has babies or not, we conduct an attic search. If babies are found, they will be taken out by hand and placed in an electric incubation chamber. The chamber will then be placed outside the one-way door so that when the mother exists, her babies are easily found. If she is unable to do this her persistence in trying to renter will be magnified tenfold, and may cause serious damage to your home or business.

Once the raccoon has gained entry to your attic, you will immediately notice how loud and annoying they can be, it is often described as sounding like “I thought someone was breaking into my house”. Raccoons are nocturnal (asleep during the day), so the majority of their movement will be heard during the night, making it very hard to get a good night s sleep. That is only the beginning of the problems associated with raccoons in your attic. It will choose one or more areas in the attic and start to urinate and defecate there. This creates an odor problem and adverse health effects. In some instances, the urine will leak through and stain the ceiling. Your home or business has become the home of the raccoon, worse still; other animals are attracted to the scent of a den site making it a target site for more unwanted pests.

Tips for Prevention

A good way to keep raccoons away from your home or business is to practice good outdoor hygiene. Make sure your garbage cans are tightly secured if stored outside. Check your roof for wear and tear by looking for missing shingles or gutters that have fallen off. If gutters are plugged the wood around them is more likely to rot, giving the raccoon an easy entry point. Clogged gutters also provide a source of drinking water. Don’t feed them if you don’t want them around and be aware of bird feeders, as they are a good source for raccoons and other pests as well. Raccoons will stake out a bird feeder to hunt for mice and other small animals. Make sure your deck is enclosed to prevent raccoons and skunks from building a den underneath. Keep tree branches trimmed away from your roof. Raccoons can climb up onto the roof of any house but a tree branch hanging onto a roof makes it much more convenient. These steps won’t necessarily prevent raccoons from coming around completely but should help curb them from becoming a long term problem.

Attic restoration

In some cases a raccoon may establish a den site in your home or business undetected. The raccoon can cause extensive damage in a matter of months, especially if there are babies. Nearly all houses built today have blown in insulation in the attic which is very delicate and easily damaged by being trampled. Once the insulation is crushed it will never regain its insulating ability. If the animals are not removed quickly from your house, heating bills will rapidly increase sometimes by 100%. Reinsulating may become necessary and is very expensive. Also, raccoon feces usually contains a parasite called raccoon round worm which is not harmful to raccoons but is extremely dangerous and can even be fatal to people. If this may be the case after the animals have been removed our technician will recommend conducting an attic restoration inspection. This is an additional service offered by our company. Attic restoration consists of sterilizing the attic, removing all insulation, repairing the vapour barrier and then reinsulating to r40. The technicians will also do a careful check to be sure that wiring has not been chewed or damaged.

Ready to deal with your Raccoon issue?

Let the experts at Mississauga Pest & Wildlife Control Services at 905-270-1916 or 1-888-390-PEST(7378), as one of our trained, experienced professionals will be able to determine how we can help with your raccoon issue.

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