Rat and Raccoon Removal: Safeguarding your Home

Finding wild animals like raccoons or rats inhabiting areas around your home can be worrisome. These crafty mammals can find their way into attics, walls, gardens, and more, causing damage or presenting dangers to your family. Properly evicting raccoons and rats requires strategic solutions. This guide covers effective, humane rat and raccoon removal techniques.

Signs of Raccoon and Rat Infestations

Detecting the presence of unwanted raccoon and rat guests on your property is step one. Some signs to look for include:

• Strange noises coming from attics, walls, crawl spaces, or outdoors
• Tipped over trash cans with garbage strewn about
• Pet food disappearing from bowls left outside
• Odors coming from hidden nesting areas
• Sightings of raccoons or rats on the premises
• Raccoon paw prints around structures
• Burrows or digging in yards or gardens
• Chewed wiring, damaged insulation, or stained ceilings from raccoon leaks

Once aware of these indicators, you can take action to evict raccoon and rat intruders.

Risks Posed by Raccoons and Rats

Allowing raccoons and rats to stick around poses a number of risks, including:

• Structural damage from gnawing, digging, and nesting
• Ruined insulation or wiring from chewing
• Higher risk of electrical shorts or fires
• Food contamination from feces or urine
• Pets or children being bitten or scratched
• Fleas, ticks, mites, or lice brought into home
• Diseases transmitted through feces, urine, or bites

Therefore, removal is highly recommended to protect your family and home.

DIY Removal Methods to Avoid

When faced with raccoons or rats, you may be tempted to take matters into your own hands. However, experts recommend against untrained individuals attempting removal through:

• Trapping and relocating, which is illegal in many states
• Using poisons, which can lead to dead animals in hard-to-reach spaces
• Sealing animals inside, which is dangerous and inhumane
• Removing droppings or nests without proper protective gear

For safe, legal, and effective raccoon and rat removal, calling professional wildlife controllers is best.

Professional Raccoon Removal Process

Reputable wildlife professionals use strategic solutions to remove raccoons based on biology and behavior. Here is an overview:

Inspection and Entry Point Identification

Technicians inspect the property to pinpoint how raccoons are getting into the home, attic, or other areas. All entry points must be identified.

Installation of One-Way Exclusion Devices

One-way doors or tubes allow raccoons to leave but not re-enter the space. These humane devices are strategically installed around entry points.

Removal of Nests and Feces

After raccoons are evicted, professionals fully sanitize the area, removing nesting materials, feces, and other hazardous items while wearing protective gear.

Sealing of Entry Points

Experts permanently seal all holes, vents, openings, or weak spots used by raccoons to get inside using durable materials like steel mesh, caulk, and more.

Follow-Up Monitoring

Most companies will monitor areas with night-vision cameras or traps for 1-2 weeks afterwards to ensure raccoons have not regained entry. This ensures removal is permanent.

Professional Rat Removal Process

Licensed pros also use informed, strategic methods to clear rats from properties while preventing returns. Here is an overview:

Inspection and Detection

Experts thoroughly search for all areas where rats may live, nest, travel, or enter. Attics, crawlspaces, yards, and more are all inspected for signs like droppings and rub marks.

Sanitation and Entry Proofing

To deter rats, food is contained, vegetation cleared, junk removed, and holes sealed with strong materials like steel wool or copper mesh. This reduces attractiveness.

Trapping and Removal

Where legal, live traps or snap traps in safer areas can be used to capture and kill rats humanely. Glue boards may also be used for monitoring purposes.

Continued Monitoring and Maintenance

Ongoing checks look for any new signs of infestation. Traps may be left in place for a period to catch young rats. Sealing maintenance keeps new rats out.

Preventive Treatments

In some cases, preventive outdoor rodenticides, fumigation in dens, or other treatments may be used to eliminate entire infestations so rats don't return. Eco-friendly options are ideal.

Professional rat control technicians have the tools, training, and experience for permanent removal and prevention.

Conclusion

Raccoons and rats on your property can create serious headaches leading to damage and risks to health. Rather than attempting raccoon and rat removal on your own, contact professional wildlife experts for strategic, humane eviction and exclusion services. They know how to efficiently remove these animals while sealing entry points to keep them from coming back. You can have peace of mind with a raccoon-free and rat-free property.