Raccoon Removal in Snellville, GA

Raccoons in your Snellville home

A raccoon doesn't need a hole. It needs a weak spot it can pull open with its front paws, and houses built in Snellville in the 1970s–90s have several at this age. Many have a framed chimney, a wood box with siding around a metal flue, topped with a sheet-metal chase cover. After 30-plus years that cover rusts through, and the raccoon peels it back and climbs down inside the chase. Other common spots are the plastic box vents on the roof, which get brittle in the sun and tear off easily, and soft fascia at a roof corner.

The attic raccoon is nearly always a mother looking for a safe, dry place to raise young. That makes the job more delicate than it sounds. The young have to be found, the law limits what can be done with the animal, and the droppings she leaves behind are a real health hazard. Here's how our wildlife crew handles each part.

The rusted chase cover

Snellville houses built in the '80s and '90s often have a framed chimney instead of solid brick. A metal flue runs up inside a wood-framed box, capped with a flat sheet-metal chase cover. Those covers hold water, rust from the center outward and eventually open up. A raccoon can rip the rest open and climb down into the hollow chase, which leads straight to the attic or the space beside the firebox. Older all-brick chimneys have their own problem, an open flue with no cap. Either way, the repair is a properly fitted stainless or galvanized cap or cover once the animals are out, not before.

Georgia law: removal, not relocation

Georgia classifies 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 simply be driven somewhere else and released, so the legal outcome is removal, not relocation. Moving raccoons spreads disease to new areas. A licensed pro knows what the law allows. Most homeowners renting a trap do not.

Finding the kits first

Georgia raccoons usually have their young from late winter into spring, though mild winters mean a raccoon can show up in an attic in any month. When kits are there you may hear a high chattering along with the mother's heavy steps. Pros use cameras to find exactly where the kits are tucked into the insulation or the chase. In most cases the mother is removed first and the kits right after, unless the whole family can be taken out together. The point is that no kit is left behind in a wall or chimney.

The latrine and roundworm

Raccoons use one spot as a toilet, and in an attic that spot is usually in the insulation near the entry hole. Their droppings can carry Baylisascaris roundworm, whose eggs can survive in the environment for a long time and are dangerous to people, children especially. Don't sweep it up or vacuum it with a household vacuum. The soiled material is bagged and removed and the area is treated. It's often a larger cleanup than a squirrel job, but it's usually limited to the latrine area, not the whole attic.

What the pro does: remove, then repair for raccoon strength

After the family is out, the repairs have to hold up to an animal that pulls on things. A patch that works for a squirrel won't hold a raccoon. The torn roof vent is replaced, often with a metal vent or one backed by heavy-gauge mesh. The chimney gets a fitted cap or a new chase cover. Soft fascia is replaced, not just covered. Every repair is metal wherever possible, because a raccoon will test the new work the first night it comes back.

Under the deck and in the crawlspace

Many Snellville raccoon calls start low. A deck built with the house is now held up by aging posts and skirted with wood lattice that has rotted where it meets the ground, and a crawlspace access door on an older house often no longer closes tightly. A raccoon that dens under there may move up to the attic when it's time to have young. A pro removes the animal and any young, then replaces the rotted skirting with buried wire mesh so nothing can dig under. Keeping garbage cans closed and pet food indoors helps too.