While you may not mind sharing your property with a cute family of raccoons, you don’t want to have them in your house. Although the masked creatures look adorable, they often carry diseases that can be hazardous to humans and pets, so you want to keep raccoons out of your home at all costs. One of the easiest ways raccoons gain entry to your home is through the garage. There are a few easy things you can do to make your garage less accessible to the furry bandits.

1. Keep Your Garage Door Closed at All Times

Dark, quiet garages make great places for raccoons to build dens. Garages also serve as good entry points to your house, so if you want to keep the furry animals out of your home, it is best to deny them access to your garage. The easiest way to accomplish this is by keeping your garage door closed at all times. If the doors are never open, raccoons can never get in.

If it isn’t feasible to keep your garage door closed indefinitely, try to make sure it stays closed at night. Raccoons are nocturnal so they are most active after the sun goes down, and being selective about when you keep your garage open can make it less likely for a raccoon to take up residence.

2. Install a Light Fixture

Because raccoons are most active at night, it’s no surprise that they don’t like bright lights and avoid them as much as possible. You can deter raccoons from your garage by installing extra light fixtures around the space. Keep them on at times when raccoons tend to be foraging for food.

3. Seal Possible Entry Holes

Raccoons can squeeze through any tiny hole, so it’s important to close any space that could give the creatures access to your house. Newspaper is sometimes sufficient, but you may need to caulk or patch holes if the raccoons can still get through the paper.

Know the Laws That Protect Raccoons

Raccoons are not typically a protected species in Wisconsin. However, it is considered unethical to kill a female raccoon during mating season. Raccoons may hide in their dens without eating for much of the winter but don’t hibernate in the traditional sense. You won’t be in trouble with the law if you hurt a raccoon while trying to get it out of your home, but harming the creatures is often frowned upon. It’s best to trust an expert for raccoon removal.

Call the Experts for Raccoon Removal

If your best efforts to deter raccoons fail and you find yourself living with a furry creature as a roommate, it’s important to take quick action for raccoon removal. Not only can the creatures be aggressive if they feel threatened, but they also spread various diseases through their feces. You probably don’t have the right tools or knowledge necessary to get a raccoon out of your home after it has taken up residence and place yourself at risk when attempting to remove them. It’s best to call in the experts at Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Removal for help with raccoon removal in Madison. 

Our skilled technicians know how to get the animals out of your garage without harming them. We’ll even help you clean up your home to get rid of any bacteria left behind by raccoon feces. We start by cleaning soiled areas with hot, soapy water and then use top-of-the-line chemicals to eliminate any bacteria that is left behind. To make sure they can not return we’ll help you seal up any holes that might give raccoons access to your home.

If you have a raccoon in your home, you need to take quick action to remove it. Call Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control today to schedule an appointment for help getting raccoons out of your home.