The best wildlife removal company in Los Angeles
Humane Wi
Our Approach
During the raccoon removal services, we will also seal all raccoon entry points and reinforce any potential re-entry points ensuring that your home is raccoon-proofed. You might be thinking to yourself, this approach for raccoon pest control sounds expensive. Well, in some cases, it can be. The good news for you is raccoon damage is almost always covered by homeowners insurance.
When you choose our raccoon removal services, we locate the entry points, find the feces, nests, and babies if any. Usually, when dealing with a raccoon infestation the best solution is to remove all of the infested insulation in your attic. By doing this, it guarantees we have removed the entire infestation. Then we can decontaminate your attic eliminating all pathogens for your protection. Finally, we can install new insulation in your attic, restoring your attic to its Raccoons carry a number of diseases that can be transferred to humans and pets. Raccoons are the #1 carrier of rabies which can be fatal if left untreated. They have canine distemper, which can kill your dog.
Their feces usually contain raccoon roundworms. If not removed and decontaminated the spores in their feces can be inhaled by humans or pets causing them to become infected. It is extremely important to remove any raccoons and feces from the house.
A number of different parasites and diseases affect raccoons such as ticks, fleas, lice, tapeworms, tuberculosis, and manage the disease
Humane Raccoon Removal
Raccoons are one of the most popular wildlife species in California. Best known by the black mask across their eyes and their ability to break through trash cans, they have earned the name: masked bandits. Thanks to their immense strength, dexterity, agility, and adaptability, their notoriety knows no bound.
Although raccoons are primarily wild animals, over the past few decades, their interactions with humans have been on the rise. This can be mainly attributed to habitat loss caused by human actions. Furthermore, raccoons have learned that there’s a lot to gain by hanging around human settlements.
Some notable examples include:
- Living in the attic or chimney to get warmth and safety from predators.
- Living under the house (shed, deck, or patio).
- Stealing leftovers from the trash cans, pet food, and bird seeds.
- Eating fruits and vegetables from the garden.
- Easy access to water from swimming pools and pet water bowls.
But for any homeowner, the presence of raccoons can quickly become a nightmare because of the destruction they leave in their wake.
Are you currently dealing with a raccoon infestation, and you’ve tried all you can but to no avail? Promptly contact us at A Team Services to get rid of these nuisance animals from your Los Angeles County or Orange County property.
Now, let’s take a deeper dive into our raccoon removal process. But first, why are there raccoons on your property?
Raccoons are primarily attracted by two main factors: food and shelter.
Food
Raccoons are omnivores. This means they pretty much eat anything. In the wild, some of their personal favorites include nuts, fruits, insects, seeds, fish, and frogs. But as highly adaptable animals, they can also eat leftovers in the trash and pet food. So when food is available, raccoons can be very persistent regardless of what you do. Understandably, good food is always worth the risk for them.
Shelter
In the wild, raccoons typically like to dwell in hollow trees, brush piles, barns, and ground burrows. But in human settlements, they take advantage of the space in the attic, chimney, or under the house.
From their perspective, living near humans comes with several benefits. First off, man-made structures provide additional warmth, comfort, and safety from predators. What’s more, being close to humans means proximity to food.
Signs of a Raccoon Infestation
Through our experience of raccoon removal at A Team Services, we have noticed recurring signs of raccoon infestation when dealing with clients. If you suspect you have a raccoon infestation, here are a few signs to look out for to confirm your suspicions.
- Droppings
Raccoon droppings are tubular with blunted ends. They are usually dark in color – although coloration is dependent on what the animal has eaten recently. Unlike dog droppings, raccoon droppings often contain undigested seeds or other food items.
- Scratch marks
Raccoons have very powerful and dexterous paws with sharp claws. When breaking into buildings or trash cans, they leave scratch marks around.
- Sounds
Raccoons are extremely vocal creatures with over 200 different sounds. Some of which include chittering, growling, purring, hissing, snarling, whimpering, and even screeching. If you hear strange noises from your attic, chimney, or under your house, you probably have a raccoon infestation.
Are Raccoons Dangerous to Have Around?
Wild animals are unpredictable – and raccoons are no exception. Some of the risks posed by raccoons include:
- Damages to building
Raccoons are destructive critters. In the building, they will break through vulnerable wood, tear off the insulation, rip apart pipes, and wreak all kinds of other damages.
- Pollution
Raccoon droppings and urine have an appalling odor. And since raccoons leave lots of waste, with time, it accumulates and reduces the air quality of your home.
- Danger to pets and humans.
When cornered, raccoons can become very aggressive to pets and even humans. That’s why care should be taken to avoid confrontation with a raccoon. Using A Team Services will take this burden off your shoulders.
- Risk of diseases
Raccoons are carriers of several zoonotic diseases including canine distemper, rabies, infectious canine hepatitis, and raccoon parvoviral enteritis, among many others. They transmit these diseases through their saliva, scratch, biting, and body fluids. That’s why you should always avoid direct contact with raccoons.
Raccoon Removal Process
There is no one-fits-all approach when dealing with a raccoon infestation. That’s why effective raccoon removal requires an adept understanding of raccoon behavior. This helps you correctly assess the problem and devise effective solution tactics. But in general, here’s how the raccoon removal process work:
Get rid of attractants
If you’re serious about getting rid of raccoons, the first thing you must do is get rid of what’s attracting them. If you don’t, nothing else you do will matter because they will keep returning. Hence, you want to deny raccoons access to food and shelter on your property.
To get started, do the following:
- Ensure that you use aluminum trash cans with tightly secured covers so raccoons won’t break through them.
- Ensure that you take your pet food inside at night
- If possible, fence your garden to deny raccoons access.
- Ensure that you remove debris, fallen leaves, and fruits from your yard and property.
- Never deliberately feed a raccoon. If you do, it’ll keep coming back
- Ensure that you seal all potential entry holes to your house.
- Also, repair vulnerable spots.
Now that you’ve gotten rid of the primary source of the infestation, it’s time to get rid of the infestation problem. The following steps show you how to do that.
Perform a full inspection
You want to figure out the extent of the infestation problem. This includes how many raccoons you’re dealing with, where they’re residing in your property, how they got in, and the damages they’ve caused. A thorough inspection of your property enables you to answer these questions. Armed with this knowledge, you can devise an effective control strategy.
Raccoon control
Now that you have a solid idea of what you’re dealing with, it’s time to devise and implement an effective control strategy. At A Team Services, we make use of several control techniques depending on what’s best for the unique needs of our clients.
Some of these techniques include:
- Exclusion devices
Exclusion is a great way for getting rid of lone raccoons from the attic or under the house. All you need to do is seal up all potential entry holes except one. You then install an exclusion device in the last hole. Once the raccoon leaves through the hole, it is unable to get back in. Then the last hole can be sealed.
- Trapping and relocation
Imagine you have a female raccoon with her babies (also called kits) in your attic. Exclusion won’t work because once the mother leaves, it is unable to get back in, thereby leaving her kits to die.
In such a scenario, trapping is a better option. When the mother is absent, the kits can be handpicked and used as bait to lure the mother into a live trap. Once this is accomplished they can all be relocated.
Trapping and relocation can also be used to get rid of persistent raccoons in the yard or garden.
- Fencing
Although quite expensive, when done right, fencing your yard is very effective for keeping raccoons away. A low, two-wire electric fence can also be used to protect your garden from raccoons.
- Repellents
From mothballs to cayenne pepper, there are several raccoon repellents in the market. However, they have limited effectiveness. This is especially true if the root cause of the infestation is not addressed first.
Decontamination and Repairs
Raccoon droppings and urine contaminate the entire space, serving as breeding grounds for bacteria. That’s why you need to clean up the area and kill pathogens with an enzyme-based disinfectant.
What’s more, all the damages done by the raccoon need to be repaired. This may include replacing the insulation, pipes, wood, or electrical wires.
Why A Team Services?
Raccoons are very destructive animals. Coupled with the fact that they carry several dangerous diseases, unskilled homeowners should not deal with them. You should turn to a professional like A Team Services.
At A Team Services, we are great at what we do. And as a licensed removal company, we can help you eradicate your raccoon problem permanently.
How to Remove Raccoons From Under the Porch
While the underneath of porches are likely associated with snakes and other slithering creatures, they could also be home to animals like raccoons. Raccoons are ready at any moment to take advantage of quick cover, something that your property and especially your porch provide more than enough of. Here is a great resource to learn more about raccoon removal methods.
Unfortunately, porches are also one of the most challenging places to deal with animals, meaning it can be complicated to get raccoons out from below. So, to make things slightly less complicated, here’s how to remove raccoons from under the porch.
Investigate the Porch
As with any wild animal encounter, the best thing to do first is investigate the area. If you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you won’t be able to do much about it other than calling the professionals. Fortunately, there are a few easy ways to do this without putting yourself in danger.
The first is obvious; by watching your porch at times in the night, you’ll be able to see the nocturnal raccoons move about. Just by watching, you can quickly determine how many raccoons there are, where they enter and exit your porch, whether there are any families or hidden spots, and more.
However, that’s not the only way to investigate. Alongside watching raccoons while they’re awake, you can look under your porch during the middle of the day — the time in which the animals are fast asleep. With the right equipment, the underneath of a porch can provide some more meaningful information into the situation.
It’s important through all of this to stay safe, though, keeping your distance and putting yourself in no more danger than you have to. Additionally, it’s worth calling animal control or local pet control if you’re not comfortable doing this or need some additional help. Quality services, both informative and effective removal like A Team Services’, can be found all across the country.
Removing Raccoons
Once you’ve seen a bit more at the source of the problem, the next step is to take action. Remember to plan, however, as things could quickly be dangerous. Raccoons can carry diseases, cause heavy damage, and be a general nuisance wherever they go.
When preparing to remove raccoons, you can either focus on preventative measures or trapping the animals. Preventive measures are more proactive ideas, like sealing the area or adding defenses, while trapping uses a cage trap to remove raccoons to a safe place.
The easiest way to keep raccoons away or discourage them is to remove their food sources. Raccoons are scavenging omnivores, eating anything they can get their hands on. By removing nearby food, cleaning up trash, and securing the area, you can remove any incentive for the animal to remain.
However, if that doesn’t work, you can invest in bright lighting to keep the porch illuminated, disrupting the night-loving raccoon’s sleeping. These lights are great at preventing raccoons from wanting to return, giving you enough time to add some re-entry prevention methods.
At A Team Services, we understand you may not want to spend hundreds on re-entry prevention, and luckily it can be as easy as caulking holes and putting netting up. Additionally, you can result in trapping, which can prove a practical and helpful way to remove raccoons, as long as it follows local regulations.
There’s also the tried-and-true method to call A Team Services or our nearby service. We will gladly and effectively clean up your animal problem, following regulations and preventing the raccoons from being put in danger. It’s always a great way to ensure you’re not putting yourself or potential raccoon families in trouble and is useful anytime you have an animal control problem.
How To Keep Raccoons Away From Your Garden?
Raccoons are the bane of any gardener. These wild animals dig mounds in your lawn when searching for food. They also eat your produce, wasting hours of your time. That’s not even mentioning the diseases or parasites they carry, which can harm you and your household.
Thankfully, you can take a few simple steps to keep raccoons away from your garden.
1. Take Away Raccoon Food Sources
Raccoons and other wild animals enter your garden in search of food. If there’s no food for them to eat, there’s no reason for them to come in the first place.
- Seal your garbage cans. Make sure you fasten and lock the lid of your garbage can. This keeps the scent from spreading and attracting wildlife. It also prevents raccoons from rummaging through your garbage if they’re already in your garden.
- Bring pet food indoors. The food you leave outdoors appeals to more than just your pets. Try feeding your pets indoors instead. This way you won’t have to worry about raccoons stealing the food for themselves.
- Remove bird feeders in your lawn. Bird Feeders are a great addition to a garden, but they also attract wild animals. The seeds feed raccoons, squirrels, and other nuisance wildlife. That’s why you should remove the birdfeeder. Alternatively, swap out your bird seed for some spicy bird seeds, which are designed to irritate mammals while leaving birds unaffected.
- Harvest your produce the moment they ripen. If you’ve spent the effort growing fruits and vegetables in your own garden, you wouldn’t want raccoons to steal it from you. That’s why you should be proactive in picking your produce, so that you can use the fruits of your labor while denying wildlife their undeserved meal.
2. Keep Your Garden In Good Order
This may come as a surprise, but a clean and organized garden is less likely to attract raccoons and other wild animals. These creatures rely on overgrown grass and shrubs for cover, allowing them to enter your garden unseen.
- Mow your lawn. Tall grass obscures raccoons who enter your home. This makes them feel safe, which makes them much bolder. If you keep the grass cut, they’ll think twice about entering your garden.
- Prune overgrown shrubs. Shrubs are another common hiding spot. Raccoons can lie in wait amidst the foliage until they find an opening. Then they can enter your garden and wreak havoc. By keeping your bushes and shrubs in good order, you rob raccoons of their hiding spots.
3. Add Deterrents In Your Garden
Everyone has little things that get on their nerves, even wild animals. Raccoons, for instance, dislike strong scents and loud noises. By combining different deterrents, you can keep these creatures away from your garden.
- Strong smells and tastes. You can keep raccoons at bay by spreading garlic and chili powder around your lawn. The strong smell and taste of these substances can be very irritating to these wild animals.
- Sudden movement and noise. If you want to keep raccoons at bay, you can try to scare them with sudden movement and loud noises. Try installing motion-detecting sprinklers and spotlights in your lawn. You could also play the radio at night to keep wildlife at bay.
- Prickly plants. No one likes prickly plants, including raccoons. That’s why you could try growing squash or pumpkins in your garden. These act as natural defense mechanisms against wildlife.
4. Get Professional Wildlife Removal Services
If you’re already dealing with raccoons in your garden, then you should contact professionals to get rid of them for you. Different states and areas have different laws regarding raccoon removal, and you may need a permit to remove the animals yourself. Calling an expert saves you from having to file papers and ensures everything is handled legally.
Professionals can also provide customized solutions to keep raccoons away from your home. All while saving you the time and effort of having to do these things yourself. So take the easy route and call us today!