Raccoon Removal in Austell, GA

Raccoons in your Austell home

An older neighborhood like much of Austell gives raccoons plenty to work with — the easy food of a settled town and, crucially, the open crawlspaces, weathered decks and worn roof edges of aging homes. A raccoon enters by force, using strong, almost hand-like front paws to pry, pull and tear through a soffit, lift shingles or bend a vent, but on an older Austell home it often doesn't have to work that hard: a crawlspace that's lost its screening or a deck with open access is a den waiting to be taken, and one denning under a deck moves up into the attic readily.

The attic or crawlspace raccoon is almost always a female after a dry, defensible place to raise kits, which makes the job a careful one. There are hidden young to find, a rabies-vector species the state regulates closely, and a fouled latrine to clean up. Mishandle any one and the raccoon call becomes a dead-animal, disease or repeat-entry problem. Here's how a licensed Cobb County pro handles it.

Georgia law: removal, not relocation

Georgia names the raccoon a rabies-vector species (RVS) — with skunk, bobcat, fox and coyote — and the label dictates handling. Under the rabies-vector statute (O.C.G.A. 27-2-10), a trapped raccoon generally can't be driven off and freed elsewhere; the lawful outcome is removal, not relocation. It isn't arbitrary: relocating raccoons spreads disease, and beyond rabies they carry canine distemper that can sweep a local population. Handling an RVS within the law is precisely what separates a licensed pro from a homeowner with a borrowed cage.

The kits decide the job

Georgia raccoons most often litter from late winter into spring — three to five young that are mute and helpless for weeks. The whole job turns on this: push the mother out and seal her entry without realizing she left young, and the kits die inside. The aftermath is the worst kind — odor through the ceiling, blowflies, a tear-out to find the body. A correct job answers the kit question first and removes the entire family together before anything is closed.

The crawlspace, the latrine and the biohazard

An open crawlspace under an older Austell home is a favorite raccoon den, and it's also where the mess concentrates. Raccoons keep a fixed latrine, fouling one spot over and over, and weeks of it leave a real hazard behind: the droppings can carry Baylisascaris roundworm, whose tough eggs are dangerous to people and persist in the environment. So raccoon work seldom ends when the animal leaves — it carries on through cleaning the latrine, removing fouled material, and properly screening the crawlspace so nothing reclaims it.

Open access on an older home

Because raccoons take the easiest way in, an aging Austell home's weak points matter — an unscreened or damaged crawlspace vent, a deck with open access beneath, a soft fascia or worn roof edge, an uncapped chimney. A settled town adds the food draw: unsecured garbage, pet bowls on patios, spilled birdseed. A well-fed raccoon stays close and breeds nearby, and one denning under a deck readily graduates to the attic above it — so securing those food sources and closing the open access is as much a part of the fix as sealing the roof.

The fix: one-way doors, the kits, then a raccoon-grade seal

Humane raccoon removal begins with an inspection to find the breach and settle whether kits are inside. The pro clears the family — often by letting the mother carry her own kits, or lifting them and reuniting them — rather than trapping the adult and stranding the young. With the space confirmed empty, the closure goes in, and it must beat a quick patch: heavy-gauge steel, reinforced flashing, a code-appropriate chimney cap, and proper crawlspace screening, because an animal that got in once will test the repair. Then the latrine and ruined material are cleaned.

From the crawlspace or deck to the attic

Many Austell raccoon calls start low — a raccoon denning in an open crawlspace or under a weathered deck. It pays to act early, because a comfortable raccoon, a female preparing to den especially, tends to climb from beneath the structure into the warmer attic. A pro removes the animal and any young, then screens and secures the under-structure space so it can't be reclaimed. Tightening up nearby garbage and pet food keeps the next raccoon from accepting the same invitation.