Raccoon Removal in McDonough, GA
Heavy footsteps overhead at night, as if a dog were walking around the attic? In McDonough it's often a female raccoon, either down an old brick chimney near the square or behind a torn soffit in a newer subdivision. Call us and tell us about the job — we will confirm the local crew for your county before any work starts.
Raccoons in your McDonough home
People describe the sound the same way every time: it's like a dog in the attic. Raccoons are heavy, they walk instead of scampering, and they move around at night. In McDonough's older neighborhoods near the courthouse square, the usual way in is the top of an old masonry chimney with no cap or screen. A brick flue is dark, dry and easy to climb down, which is about all a mother raccoon is looking for. In the newer subdivisions that spread out from town, she's more likely to pull open a soffit panel, a roof vent or the corner where two rooflines meet.
Nearly every raccoon that moves into a house in late winter or spring is a female about to have young, and that changes the job. The kits have to be found and taken out with her, Georgia law limits what can be done with the animal once it's caught, and the spot she has been using as a toilet has to be cleaned properly. Get any of those wrong and you end up with a dead-animal smell, a health problem, or a raccoon ripping its way back in.
Old chimneys near the square
Plenty of older McDonough homes still have their original brick chimneys, and many were never capped, or the cap rusted away years ago. A female raccoon climbs down the flue and has her young on the smoke shelf or on top of the damper. Homeowners often find out when they light the first fire of the season and hear movement in the chimney. Don't light it, and don't cap it yet: if kits are inside, capping traps them. The pro takes the family out first, then fits a proper steel cap so the chimney can't be used again.
In the newer subdivisions
The newer homes around McDonough rarely have masonry chimneys, but a raccoon doesn't need one. It's strong enough to rip a vinyl soffit panel loose, pry up a roof vent, or widen a construction gap at a roof return. A raccoon living under a deck or in a crawlspace will often move up into the attic when it's ready to have young, so one you keep seeing around the yard is worth dealing with early.
Georgia law: removed, not relocated
Georgia treats the raccoon as a rabies-vector species, along with skunks, foxes, bobcats and coyotes. Under O.C.G.A. 27-2-10, a raccoon that has been caught can't simply be driven out to the country and let go; it's removed, not relocated. The rule keeps rabies and other diseases from being carried into new areas. It's one of the main reasons raccoon trapping belongs with a licensed operator rather than a cage borrowed from a neighbor.
Finding the kits
Georgia raccoons usually have kits from late winter into spring. If you hear chattering mixed in with the heavy footsteps, there are young. A pro uses cameras to find where they're tucked away, whether in a chimney, a wall gap or deep in the insulation, then either removes the mother first and the kits after, or takes them all together. The outcome to avoid is the mother sealed out with the kits still inside: they die there, and the smell comes down through the ceiling.
The latrine is a health problem
Raccoons go to the bathroom in the same spot again and again. In an attic that means a pile of droppings worked into the insulation. Those droppings can carry Baylisascaris roundworm, whose eggs survive a long time and are dangerous to people who breathe or swallow them. Cleaning it out properly, by bagging the waste, pulling the soiled insulation in that area and treating the spot, is part of the job rather than an add-on.
A seal that holds
A raccoon that forced its way in once will test whatever goes over the hole. The repair has to be tougher than a squirrel patch: heavy-gauge metal screening, reinforced vent guards, and a steel chimney cap wherever there's an open flue. On an older McDonough house the pro also checks the rest of the roofline, because a raccoon kept out of one gap goes looking for the next.
Common raccoon questions in McDonough
There's a raccoon in my chimney in McDonough — what should I do?+
There's a raccoon in my attic — what should I do?+
Is it legal to trap and relocate a raccoon in Georgia?+
There are baby raccoons in my chimney or attic — what now?+
A raccoon is denning under my deck — can it be removed?+
How much does raccoon removal cost in McDonough?+
Other McDonough problems that come with raccoons
Our wildlife crew handles these closely related problems — the ones that most often turn up with a raccoon issue.
Got more than raccoons in McDonough?
Raccoons are rarely the only thing using an attic or yard in McDonough. See everything we handle locally on the McDonough wildlife removal hub, or jump to Georgia wildlife removal.
Want the background before you call? Read our statewide guide: Raccoon in the attic: babies, rabies law and what happens next.
Serving all of Henry County
McDonough is one part of Henry County. See wildlife removal in Henry County, GA for the county-wide picture — the animals we get called about most, and the other towns we cover.
One call to your McDonough raccoon crew
The longer raccoons stay in the attic, the more they chew and the bigger the cleanup. Call us and tell us about the job — we will confirm the local crew for your county before any work starts.
- Local to Henry County. Georgia DNR-compliant handling — call to ask about licensing and insurance.
- Humane exclusion. One-way doors and steel sealing, not poison.
- Done right. Removal, exclusion and cleanup.