Signs a raccoon inhabits your chimney

Our homes provide us good and comfortable shelter. Unfortunately, raccoons find our homes pretty inviting too. They may build a den in your attic or chimney - the two places we usually overlook are the places they are likely to inhabit.

Chimneys are a good alternative to hollow trees and have become a popular shelter for many raccoons that have lost access to their natural habitat. When a raccoon sees a chimney, it sees a perfect place for a nursery. A mother raccoon will use your chimney as her nest, since it is warm and protected from predators. This is where she will usually give birth to her kits. If you hear squeals and noises above your fireplace damper, then you should check for raccoons. If you hear scurrying at night and hear noises coming from the chimney, or bad odours coming from fireplace, then you are most likely having a raccoon infestation.

While not all of us welcome the idea of having a raccoon nest in our chimneys, it is still best not to resort to dangerous and unsafe removal procedures. Some people smoke the chimney in hopes of scaring the raccoons away, but this is actually a very bad idea. The young ones will die from this, and even adult raccoons could be unable to escape and die from suffocation.  It’s also possible for the smoke to back into the house which is dangerous and can cause damage to property. This is inhumane extermination, and while everyone wants to have the raccoons away from their chimneys and homes, this method is still the one thing you shouldn't resort to.

Give the animals a bit of time, since the mother raccoon is sure to move the kits once they are old enough. It usually takes a little more than 8 weeks for the mother to move her kits away to a safer place.

When it is time to get rid of raccoons in your home, it is best to call wildlife control Mississauga services like Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control. Skedaddle’s wildlife control Mississauga technicians know how important it is not to leave any baby raccoons behind in the process of removing the adults because this will produce more problems later on. Baby raccoons are removed by hand from the chimney and placed outside near the chimney so that the mother raccoon can collect and move to another one of her den sites in the area. This allows the Wildlife Technicians to scour your property thoroughly and make sure that no nuisance wildlife gets left behind before the chimney is securely capped.

Surely nobody wants to cater a family of critters every now and then, and the only solution to keep these little animals away is through exclusion.  Let the wildlife control Mississauga experts help you seal all the openings off to stop raccoons from coming back. Skedaddle offers exclusion services, as well so you can rest assured that your home is wildlife-free in the years to come.