Protect your outdoor living space from rapid structural damage and serious health risks with our specialized deck exclusion services.
The Problem: Why Raccoons and Raccoon Babies Love Your Deck
Have you been hearing strange noises late at night? It’s nesting season and mother raccoons are all around. Think of your deck as a raccoon’s summer home, a safe place where they seek shelter because the space is dark and quiet, offering them and their young protection from predators and easy access to food sources. In residential areas, raccoons may also use decks, sheds, crawl spaces, and attics to create dens. Once nested, they cause rapid and severe raccoon damage under deck spaces.
Homeowners often face significant deck structural damage to vital joists, support beams, and torn insulation. The accumulation of feces and urine damage also introduces severe health risks; signs of a raccoon problem can include droppings around the yard, and raccoon feces can attract other animals to the property while spreading roundworm, rabies, leptospirosis, and hazardous parasites. Raccoons themselves can carry diseases as well. If you suspect family group den sites might be on your property, inspect and look for signs of digging around your yard where you might have raccoons living underneath, ie, a deck, porch, or shed.
Attempting DIY raccoon removal is not only highly dangerous but largely ineffective against protective mothers or established, stubborn dens. Also, don’t bother with loud music or talk radio as this doesn’t scare them enough to leave.
Raccoons are nocturnal wild animals and can become aggressive when threatened, putting humans and pets in danger with their sharp claws.
Our Solution: Humane Raccoon Removal for Decks
We begin with a comprehensive structural inspection to determine the exact access point and check the whole structure and surrounding property for openings, noting that raccoons can squeeze through holes about 4 inches wide. Most people underestimate how hard it is to rid a property of raccoons living under a deck without professional help. Our professional deck raccoon removal includes humane raccoon removal and raccoon removal services that evict animals safely and humanely without ever trapping them inside.
We implement robust deck exclusion strategies—such as digging a 12-inch-deep trench around the deck and securing ¼-inch wire mesh at least 8 inches into the ground as a barrier, installing custom one-way doors, and securing vulnerabilities so wildlife simply cannot dig back under. The same barrier can also help prevent raccoons under sheds and protect the structure from future intrusion. Humane deterrent techniques at the den entrance, like a bright light from an outdoor spotlight or mechanic’s light and a radio tuned to a talk station, use human voices and noise to make the safe place less appealing at night. A fire-safe light is best. Ammonia-soaked rags or another strong smell may help rid the den area temporarily, but professional techniques are safer for occupied nests. Removing pet food, garbage access, and other food sources from the yard helps prevent raccoons and makes the property less attractive in the future.
Young raccoons are usually independent by late summer, which helps determine the safest timing for full exclusion.
Heard something last night?
Call us now — same-day inspections available in most areas.