Raccoon Removal in East Cobb, GA

Raccoons in your East Cobb home

Raccoons travel along creeks, and East Cobb is full of them: small streams running down wooded ravines toward Sope Creek and the Chattahoochee. A raccoon spends the night working its way along the water, then up the slope into the subdivisions. It stops at the trash cans, the pet food left on the porch and the dumpster corral at the swim and tennis grounds. When it needs a safe place to have babies, a house built into a hill makes that easy. The tall back deck is basically a staircase to the roof.

Once it's on the roof, a raccoon doesn't look for a gap the way a squirrel does. It makes one. It pulls back soffits, lifts shingles, rips vent covers loose and climbs down open chimneys. When it's up there you'll know, because a raccoon in the attic sounds like a dog walking around. If you hear chattering, there are babies. That changes how the job has to be done, and so does Georgia law.

Georgia law: removal, not relocation

Georgia lists the raccoon as a rabies-vector species, along with skunks, foxes, bobcats and coyotes. Under O.C.G.A. 27-2-10, a trapped raccoon can't legally be driven somewhere and let go. The legal outcome is removal. Carrying it down the hill and releasing it in the recreation area woods isn't legal, and it spreads disease. Handling a rabies-vector animal within the law is one of the main reasons this is a job for a licensed pro.

Babies come first

Raccoons usually have their young from late winter into spring. A litter is often three to five, and the babies can't leave on their own for weeks. A pro will often use a camera to see exactly where they are in the attic or wall before doing anything else. The mother may be removed first, and then the babies are taken out by hand, unless the whole family can be removed together. Sealing the entry with babies still inside guarantees a dead-animal job later.

The latrine has to come out

Raccoons go to the bathroom in the same spot over and over. In an attic that means a pile of droppings that soaks into the insulation and stains the drywall underneath. Raccoon droppings can carry Baylisascaris roundworm eggs, which are dangerous to people and last a long time. Cleaning out the latrine properly and treating the area is part of the job. It's a big reason raccoon work costs more than squirrel work.

Why houses on a hill are easy for raccoons

On a flat lot a raccoon has to climb a downspout or a tree to reach the roof. On an East Cobb lot that drops off into a ravine, the deck posts, railings and lattice on the downhill side give it an easy climb. Common ways in on these houses are a soffit at the corner of the roof above the deck, a roof vent it can pry up, or an uncapped chimney. A pro checks those spots first.

Sealing it so a raccoon can't tear it open

Once the family is out, the repair has to hold up to an animal strong enough to rip open a soffit. That means heavy-gauge metal, reinforced flashing and a proper chimney cap, not window screen or foam. A raccoon that used to live in your attic will test the repair. Then the latrine and damaged insulation are cleaned out, but only the insulation that was actually soiled. Replacing the whole attic is often more than you need.

Take away the reason they come up the hill

Raccoons that keep finding food nearby stay in the area and have their young close by. Keep trash cans latched or in the garage, bring pet bowls in at night and clean up spilled birdseed. If your neighborhood has a swim and tennis club, it helps when its dumpster area is kept closed too. Then block off the space under the deck so a raccoon living down the slope doesn't have a protected den right below your house.