Protect Your Home and Property Against Raccoons

Every spring hundreds of female raccoons search the streets of Toronto for a safe place to give birth to their young. Unfortunately, they will often find existing structures such as attics, chimneys, underneath decks, outbuildings and other places in or around your home.

The amount of raccoons in communities throughout Ontario continues to grow in urban areas. This growing population causes increased concerns for rabies, distemper, illness from raccoon waste and home fire risk.

Raccoons are not shy, they will tear shingles, siding or break vent blades to enter into a new living space. They can easily fit into a hole three-to-four inches in diameter. Once inside the raccoon will create a nesting area and will designate a spot to be their toilet. As raccoons tend to defecate and urinate in the same spot, this will cause a very unpleasant odour. While living in a space raccoons tend to destroy insulation and wiring. This could be very hazardous for your home.

In addition to finding a place to live, raccoons will also search for food. Raccoons are omnivores and will essentially eat anything they can find. The most likely place they’ll turn to is your garbage containers. It’s important to have secure garbage containers and try to store them in the garage until garbage day. When garbage cans are outside secure them with bungee cord.

A raccoon’s natural diet consists of insects, frogs and fish. Raccoons are known to roll back sod in search of food. This can cause significant damage to your lawn.

The best prevention against a raccoon problem is to minimize access to shelter, food and water. Take a look at your home and look for possible raccoon entry points. Be sure to repair any damaged areas of the exterior of your home, and pay special attention to vents.

It’s important to watch for the early warning signs of raccoons such as:

• Loud noises in your attic, especially at night.
• Raccoon noises, which will resemble the sounds you may hear from a nest of baby birds.
• Noticeable damage on the outside of the house.
• Spilled garbage and damaged sod.
• Scratching, loud noises or chirping coming from your vents.

Raccoons are very intelligent animals and it’s important to seek the help of professional raccoon control technicians. There are various ‘do it yourself’ solutions on the market, but they can often lead to poor results, falls or bites, injuries to the raccoons, and illnesses resulting from improper cleanup.

Exclusion, and the installation of special heavy-duty raccoon-sized one way doors, and occasionally the additional us of humane trapping is the only permanent way of getting rid of raccoons. The animals must be physically excluded from your house, or relocated from the premise. Only covering entry points is a short-term solution, as raccoons will simply tear back into the dens they’ve created. Professional technicians will regularly check one way doors and traps to ensure raccoons are moved quickly and safely. Once all animals are removed the technician will secure the home and ensure that all entry points are covered. The technician will inspect the home for urine damage, feces, parasites, damaged insulation and chewed wiring.