Raccoon Removal in Austell, GA

Raccoons in your Austell home

Raccoons do best near water, and Sweetwater Creek gives them crayfish, frogs and a wooded bank to travel along. The creek corridor and the state park woods to the south keep a steady population just a short walk from Austell's older streets. When a female needs a dry, safe place to raise her young, an older house close by often has one ready: a crawlspace door that won't latch, a foundation vent with no cover, a rotten eave board, or a chimney with no cap.

Homeowners usually say it sounds "like a dog in the attic". It's heavy, slow walking, mostly at night. If you also hear high chattering, there are kits. Raccoons are a regulated rabies-vector species in Georgia, they can carry a dangerous roundworm in their droppings, and the mother will tear the house apart to get back to her kits. That's why this job goes to a licensed Cobb County pro.

Georgia law: removal, not relocation

Georgia lists the raccoon as a rabies-vector species, along with the skunk, fox, bobcat and coyote. Under O.C.G.A. 27-2-10 a trapped raccoon can't legally be driven down the road and let go by the creek or in the state park. It has to be removed, not relocated. Moving raccoons spreads rabies and distemper to new areas. A licensed pro knows how to handle a trapped raccoon within the law. A homeowner with a rented trap usually doesn't.

Find the kits first

Raccoons have their young from late winter into spring, usually three to five kits that stay in the den for weeks. If you trap or shut out the mother without finding them, the kits die in your attic or under your floor, and a dead-animal smell soon follows. Pros often use cameras to find kits in insulation or behind ductwork. They either remove the mother first and then hand-remove the kits, or take the whole family out together.

The crawlspace latrine and roundworm

Raccoons use the same spot as a toilet over and over, called a latrine. In an Austell crawlspace that's often a corner near the vent they came in through. The droppings can carry Baylisascaris roundworm, and its eggs stay infectious in soil and insulation for a long time and can make people very sick. Don't sweep it up yourself. A pro removes the waste and soiled material with protective gear and treats the area.

Why the creek side of town gets more calls

Homes near the creek woods have raccoons passing through every night. Garbage cans, pet food on the porch, bird feeders and fallen fruit give them a reason to stop. Once one is eating in your yard, the open crawlspace or loose eave on an older house turns a visit into a den. Lock up the trash and bring in the pet food. Neither one solves a raccoon already inside, but both make your house less attractive to the next one.

How the job is done

The pro finds how the raccoon got in and checks for kits, using a camera if needed. They trap the mother or install a one-way door, remove any kits, and confirm the space is empty. Then the opening gets a raccoon-strength repair: heavy metal mesh, a real chimney cap, and a solid metal-screened crawlspace cover. Raccoons pull and pry, so a patch that would stop a squirrel won't hold. The latrine is cleaned out last.

Under the house or the deck

Plenty of Austell raccoon calls start below the house: a crawlspace, the space under a porch, or under a low deck. Don't wait on it. A raccoon under the floor can get into the walls or attic, and a mother will move her kits wherever she feels safe. Once the animals are out, the pro closes the gap with buried or anchored metal mesh so nothing digs back under.