Homeowners who have had raccoons in their attic usually tell us that it sounds like a human is walking around in their attic. There are many different types of damage that raccoons can do to your home. The following categories can help you easily identify the problem and what we do to solve the issue.
Raccoon damage to roof tops: Raccoons love to enter homes by breaking into your attic vent fans. An attic vent fan is designed to turn on during extremely warm days during summer. The female raccoon rips the circle screen around the fan and enters when the fan isn’t running. Generally, the fan isn’t running during the night time which is when the female raccoon is the most active. We have seen raccoons rip straight through wood shingles, wood shakes, asphalt shingles, soffits, chimney flashing, vent pipe flashing, regular roof vents, and pretty much anything that allows entry into your roofs. We set cages on the roof or even in attics to remove them from your home. The most raccoons we ever caught out of one attic was 29 in a month, although this was mostly male raccoons and is an extremely rare situation.
Raccoon damage in your attic: The biggest problem with raccoons breaking into your attic is the feces left behind from their waste. Another major problem is raccoon chewing on wires up in the attic. This can lead to shorts in your electricity as well as a potential fire hazard in your attic. Please read raccoon in your attic for how we remedy this situation.
Raccoon damage to your lawn: Raccoons are known for grubbing which is digging up areas of your lawn in search of a tasty little grub meal. Grubbing raccoons can roll up new sod as perfectly as it was laid out. They can cause thousands of dollars of damage to your lawn by digging up large patches of grass in a relatively short amount of time. We use specially designed cages to insure that once they are caught they don’t continue to damage your lawn! We set live traps around the location of the damage and remove the problem raccoons. We service all of Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, and Milwaukee counties for this type of service.
Raccoons damage under your deck: Raccoons that live under the deck don’t seem to cause a large amount of damage, but we have had raccoons break into basements from underneath decks by entering around windows, around vents, and even in sometimes through the wood siding. Raccoons that live under the deck may accumulate large amounts of raccoon feces that often times carry many serious diseases. They may also die underneath the deck which may require Advanced Wildlife Control to remove them. In some cases, we may need to remove deck boards to get the carcass and fumigate the area.
Raccoon damage to the chimney: This is one of the most popular spots for a female raccoon to hide from dad and to give birth to her babies. The droppings left by the family of critters often can leave behind terrible odors as well as disease in the raccoon’s feces. Raccoons can also damage the outer frame of the chimney by the constant climbing and scratching when they come and go each day. Chimneys that have had animals living and nesting in them often times are at greater risk for a chimney fire. Having a raccoon family removed from your chimney is important in preserving your fireplace from unnecessary damage. Take it from us – Chimneys are super expensive to fix!!!
Raccoon damage in the garage: Another common occurrence is a raccoon living in your garage. Raccoons always need an entry and an exit. If they become trapped in a garage they are going to look for an exit. This usually amounts to a ton of damage to your garage door. Some customers try and leave the garage door open at night to allow the raccoon out, but often times the raccoon hides inside the soffit and may even get to the attic from the garage. We recommend that you have us come and trap the raccoon to make sure that it doesn’t come back again.