Raccoons can cause a huge amount of damage in various areas of your home.
While we hope you'll spot the signs of raccoons long before they start tearing your home apart, these seven types of damage may mean you need to call us for an inspection.
#1) Shingles
Raccoons know that shingles are an easy way into your attic. They'll pry the shingles up to wriggle through the resulting gap. Early damage would include torn, damaged, or missing shingles.
Give raccoons enough unfettered access to your roof, and they'll eventually rip a hole. Many Houston residents come home from vacations only to find they've suffered a massive leak in their absence.
#2) Soffit & Fascia
Raccoons are capable of lifting around 40 pounds of weight, and that strength, coupled with their tiny hands, gives them more than enough to rip up the soffit and get into your attic.
They sometimes attack your fascia, too. Eventually, you'll see a big, gaping hole that will be hard to miss.
#3) Vents
Raccoons often use vents as the gateway nests to the attic. They can see the vents! They're also very smart, which means they can often disassemble bits of the vent to make them work for them.
If your air has gotten inexplicably smelly or stuffy, you might be dealing with a vent-dweller. Of course, if they need to, they'll eventually rip the vent off altogether.
#4) Ceilings
Want to know what can happen if you leave raccoons alone for too long?
Eventually, they'll make holes in your ceiling! Sometimes, they even do it by accident, when they lose their balance on the beams and fall through the space.
Sometimes, their urine damages the ceiling to the point where the plaster starts falling.
#5) Siding
Raccoon marks are the most common damage you'll see on your siding. These are scuff and grease marks that appear as raccoons scramble up the side of your house to get to your roof.
You may even see deep gouges and scratches thanks to their little claws scoring into the wood or vinyl.
#6) Lawns
Raccoons dig up lawns in search of food. It's easy to believe they only eat human food when you see videos of them running up to a Dunkin Donuts to claim a treat, but they also eat grubs and other insects.
If you lay fresh sod, they'll even sort of pull it aside in strange little rolls to get at the turf beneath, but they're happy to dig big, messy patches of dirt too.
#7) Attics
Raccoons love attics. They're the perfect dens because unless you have foam insulation, they are full of light, fluffy nesting material. Of course, they're going to rip all that insulation up to serve their own interests.
They'll also build a latrine right in your attic, and they won't fill it up with litter first. That damage tends to be lasting. We can tell you truly that raccoon urine is one of the worst smells you'll ever encounter.
Get Help Today
Raccoons never go away on their own. Once they decide your house is an awesome place to live, they will not leave until you take steps to get rid of them.
Fortunately, you can call Elite Wildlife Services for humane raccoon removal that protects your home without harming the raccoons. If you've seen any of the damage above, please call us as soon as possible. We can keep the problem from getting worse!
