Raccoon Removal & Control Services in Michigan
Professional Wildlife Management for Your Home or Business
Are you hearing scratching sounds, loud banging, or heavy footsteps in your walls or attic? In Michigan, these are the tell-tale signs of a raccoon infestation. Raccoons are more than just a nuisance; they can cause significant structural damage and pose health risks to your family.
At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, we provide comprehensive raccoon solutions, including:
Humane Raccoon Removal- Safe extraction from attics, chimneys, and crawlspaces.
Damage Repair & Exclusion- Sealing entry points to prevent future break-ins.
Attic Decontamination- Professional cleaning and biohazard removal.
Insulation Replacement- Restoring your home's energy efficiency after wildlife damage.
How to Identify a Raccoon Problem
Raccoons are highly intelligent and incredibly strong. While their "bandit mask" and ringed tail are iconic, their presence in your home is a serious matter. Unlike smaller rodents, raccoons are heavy enough to tear through roofing materials and pull apart soffits.
Common Signs of an Infestation
Audible Cues- Heavy thumping or "chattering" sounds, usually at night (raccoons are nocturnal).
Entry Points- Look for torn shingles, bent vent covers, or holes in the roofline.
Latrines- Raccoons often leave waste in specific areas, which can lead to severe odors and mold.
Exterior Damage- Tipped garbage cans, scattered debris, or damage to bird feeders.
Is There a Raccoon in Your Attic? Key Signs to Look For
Attics provide the perfect, warm environment for raccoons to build their dens, especially during the spring birthing season here in Michigan. Because they are much larger than typical rodents, the damage they cause happens quickly. If you suspect an unwelcome guest has moved upstairs, look and listen for these tell-tale signs:
Heavy Footsteps at Night- You will likely hear loud thumping, heavy scratching, or dragging sounds right above your ceiling shortly after sunset.
Strange Vocalizations- Listen for "chattering," low growling, or the high-pitched crying of baby raccoons, which can often be mistaken for birds chirping.
Ceiling Stains and Odors- If you notice a strong, foul odor or brown moisture stains appearing on your ceiling drywall, it may be a sign of accumulated waste above.
Displaced Insulation- If you are able to safely look into your attic space, you might see trampled, torn, or piled-up insulation where they have cleared a space to nest.
Raccoon Damage Control, Prevention, and Cleanup in Michigan
Raccoons are much more than just a noisy nuisance. When they break into your home or business, they bring significant destructive power and serious health hazards with them. Addressing a raccoon problem quickly is the best way to minimize expensive repairs and protect your family.
The Dangers of a Raccoon Infestation
Once inside an attic or crawlspace, raccoons quickly make themselves at home, which leads to severe consequences:
Structural & Fire Hazards- Raccoons routinely tear up insulation to build nests and are known to chew through electrical wires, creating a hidden fire hazard.
Toxic Biohazards- They establish designated "latrines," soaking your attic's drywall and insulation with urine and feces.
Disease Transmission- Raccoons are common carriers of rabies and canine distemper. More alarmingly, raccoon feces often contain roundworm eggs, which can become airborne and are highly dangerous to humans and pets if inhaled or ingested.
How to Deter Raccoons from Your Property
While there is no foolproof way to permanently banish raccoons from the environment, you can make your property much less inviting. Eliminating easy food sources and blocking access points are your best lines of defense:
Eliminate Food Sources- Never leave dog or cat food outside. Use sturdy, heavy-duty trash cans with tight-fitting or locking lids.
Cut Off Roof Access- Raccoons are expert climbers. Trim tree branches back at least 3 feet from your roofline to take away their natural bridge to your house.
Reinforce Vulnerable Spots: Prevent entry by installing heavy-duty chimney caps, reinforcing roof vent covers, and adding flashing around poles.
Professional Attic Restoration by Michigan Wildlife Solutions
If raccoons have already breached your home, simply removing the animal isn't enough. Because of the severe health risks associated with roundworm and bio-waste, the area must be thoroughly sanitized.
At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, we handle the entire recovery process. We provide complete attic decontamination services, safely extracting hazardous droppings, removing ruined insulation, and restoring your home to a clean, safe, and healthy condition.
How to Get Rid of Raccoons in Your Michigan Attic
Are loud thumping sounds keeping you awake at night? If you hear heavy scratching, scampering, or walking noises above your ceilingโespecially after darkโyour first instinct is probably right. You likely have raccoons. Because of their sheer size and weight, raccoons are significantly louder than other common nuisance wildlife like mice, birds, or bats.
Our Professional Trapping & Removal Process
Effectively removing raccoons requires precision and expertise. At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, we don't just set a trap and hope for the best. We actively manage the entire extraction:
Entry Point Identification- We thoroughly inspect your roofline and exterior to find exactly how the animals are getting inside.
Strategic Trapping- We place humane traps right at the entry points, using specific baits and lures to safely capture the raccoons overnight or right on-site
Humane Relocation- Once captured, we safely transport and relocate the raccoons to their natural environment, far from your home.
Baby Raccoon Extraction- Removing an adult without finding her litter creates a massive problem. Finding baby raccoons can be highly complicated, as they often slide down into tight spaces. Our team has the experience to safely extract themโeven if it means carefully pulling them up out of deep wall cavities.
Why You Should NEVER Use Poison
Do not use poison or antifreeze to get rid of raccoons. Using toxic chemicals is not only inhumane and cruel, causing the animal a painful death, but it will also make your situation exponentially worse. A poisoned raccoon will almost always retreat deep into your attic insulation or down into your wall cavities to die. This leaves you with a decaying carcass inside your home, resulting in unbearable odors, structural damage, and secondary infestations of maggots and flies.
Always rely on professional, humane trapping to permanently solve the problem.
Humane Raccoon Removal | Using Eviction Fluid
When dealing with a raccoon in your atticโespecially a mother nesting with her youngโforceful trapping isn't always the best first step. At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, we often utilize raccoon eviction fluid as a safe, highly effective, and humane alternative to traditional trapping.
What is Raccoon Eviction Fluid?
This specialized deterrent is naturally derived from the gland secretions and scent of a dominant male raccoon. In the wild, adult male raccoons pose a serious threat to nesting females and their babies.
How It Works in Your Attic
By strategically applying this fluid near your attic's entry points, known pathways, and the nesting area itself, we create a powerful illusion. The scent signals to the mother raccoon that an aggressive male has moved into her space.
This triggers her natural survival instinct. Rather than risking her litter, she will voluntarily pack up her babies and carry them out of your home to find a safer den outdoors.
The Benefits of Eviction Fluid
We highly recommend this non-lethal approach whenever possible because of its unique advantages:
100% Humane- The raccoons leave entirely on their own, completely avoiding the stress and fear of being trapped in a cage.
Keeps Families Together- It ensures the mother and her babies stay united during the relocation process, preventing orphaned young from being left behind in your walls.
Prevents Property Damage- A trapped or cornered raccoon can panic and cause further damage to your drywall or insulation. Eviction fluid ensures a peaceful, voluntary exit.
How to Remove Raccoons from Your Chimney
Because raccoons are excellent climbers, a warm, secure, and vertical chimney flue feels exactly like a hollow tree to a mother looking for a safe place to raise her young. However, removing a raccoon from a chimney requires a completely different approach than an attic extraction.
NEVER Try to "Smoke Them Out"
The most commonโand most dangerousโmistake homeowners make is opening the damper and starting a fire in the fireplace. Do not do this. Smoke and heat will not force the raccoon up and out of the chimney. Instead, the panicked animal may fall or be forced down into your living room, causing severe property damage and risking a chaotic encounter. Worse, it can result in the animals being trapped and dying inside the flue, creating a severe odor and biohazard problem.
Safe and Effective Chimney Solutions
Because a chimney is a tight, enclosed space, we have a few highly effective strategies for getting them out safely:
Targeted Odor Deterrents- The concentrated space of a chimney flue actually makes raccoon eviction fluid incredibly effective. The strong scent gets trapped in the tight quarters, rapidly convincing the mother raccoon that a predator is near and prompting her to voluntarily move her babies outdoors.
Professional Chimney Extraction- If deterrents do not work, Michigan Wildlife Solutions has the specialized tools necessary for the job. We use custom raccoon removal systems designed specifically for chimneys, allowing us to safely extract the animals from the top down without damaging your fireplace or masonry.
Once the animals are safely removed, we can help secure the flue by installing a heavy-duty, wildlife-proof chimney cap to ensure your home stays permanently protected.
Transparent Pricing for Raccoon Trapping & Removal
Professional trapping is the most effective way to eliminate raccoons from your property. At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, we keep our pricing straightforward, using a structure similar to our other wildlife removal services (like groundhogs, squirrels, or skunks). We offer two ways to structure your service, though we highly recommend our predictable flat-rate option.
Option 1- The All-Inclusive Flat-Rate Fee (Our Preferred Method)
We prefer this method because you know exactly what your total bill will be from day oneโno surprises, no matter how many raccoons we catch.
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The Cost- Averages around $695 (prices may vary slightly depending on your specific property and situation).
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Whatโs Included- This covers the initial service call, a thorough property inspection, strategic trap placement, and a 30-Day Trapping Guarantee.
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How the Guarantee Works- We will trap and remove as many raccoons as needed within that 30-day window at no extra cost. If the problem is solved early, we will pull the traps. If raccoon activity starts up again before your 30 days are up, we will return and reset the traps for free.
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Optional Add-Ons- Once the raccoons are gone, we offer permanent exclusion services for an additional charge, such as screening off decks or sealing entry holes so they can't return.
Option 2- Setup Fee + Per-Animal Charge (Traditional Pricing)
This is the older industry standard for wildlife removal. While we can accommodate this structure, we want our customers to be aware that costs can add up quickly if a mother raccoon has a large litter of babies on your property.
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Initial Setup Fee- Typically ranges from $150 to $200 to inspect the property and set the traps.
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Per-Animal Fee- You are charged an additional $60 to $100 for every single raccoon we trap and remove.
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Trip Charges- Additional fees may apply for each return trip to check traps or remove animals, depending on your location.
Our Service Policy
At Michigan Wildlife Solutions, our priority is providing humane, effective, and timely service. To do this, we must sometimes make tough choices about the jobs we accept.
- High-Demand Seasons- During our busiest times, such as peak exclusion seasons, we may not be able to take on new animal trapping jobs to ensure we can properly serve our current clients.
- Availability and Staffing- Wildlife issues don't follow a 9-to-5 schedule. Effective, humane removal requires a full-time commitment, which is why we're dedicated to being available seven days a week. Like many businesses, our ability to respond quickly can be impacted by staffing shortages.
- Legal Compliance- We strictly follow all laws and regulations set by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Feel free to reach out to us any day of the week to check on our availability in your area.
Don't Let Raccoons Take Over Your Property!
Protect your home, your health, and your peace of mind with Michigan Wildlife Solutions.
If you are hearing scratching in the walls or footsteps in the attic, the damage is already happening. Don't wait for a minor nuisance to become a costly structural repair or a serious biohazard. Our experts are ready to safely extract the animals, seal your home, and clean up the mess.
We service over 14 counties in Michigan for raccoon removal projects. See our service area to see if we are in your area. Looking for a professional wildlife control expert specializing in the raccoon removal process, but not sure who to hire? Click here for information on hiring a wildlife control expert.
If you have a raccoon problem and you live in Michigan we service you. Common areas we serve throughout our service area are: Bay City, Dewitt, Eagle, Elsie, Fowler, Maple Rapids, Ovid, St. Johns, Westphalia, Bellevue, Charlotte, Dimondale, Eaton Rapids, Grand Ledge, Mulliken, Olivet, Potterville, Sunfield, Vermontville, Waverly, Burton, Clio, Davison, Fenton, Flint, Flushing, Goodrich, Grand Blanc, Linden, Montrose, Mount Morris, Otisville, Swartz Creek,Dansville, East Lansing, Lansing, Leslie, Mason, Okemos, Stockbridge, Webberville, Williamston, Jackson, Grass Lake, Almont, Attica, Clifford,Columbiaville, Dryden, Imlay City, Lapeer, Metamora, North Branch, Otter Lake, Argentine, Brighton, Fowlerville, Hartland, Howell, Pinckney, Whitmore Lake, Armada, Center Line, Chesterfield, Clinton, Eastpointe, Memphis, Mount Clemons, New Baltimore, New Haven, Romeo, Saint Claire Shores, Shelby, Sterling Heights, Utica, Warren, Midland, Carleton, Dundee, Estral Beach, Luna Pier, Maybee, Monroe, Petersburg, South Rockwood, Auburn Hills, Berkley, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Clawson, Commerce Twp., Farmington, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Franklin, Holly, Lake Orion, Madison Heights, Milford, Novi, Oak Park, Ortonville, Oxford, Pontiac, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, South Lyon, Southfield, Troy, Walled lake, Wixom, West Bloomfield, Wolverine Lake, Birch Run, Chesaning, Frankenmuth, Merrill, Oakley, Saginaw, St. Charles, Zilwaukee, Bancroft, Byron, Corunna, Durand, Lainsburg, Lennon, Morrice, New Lothrop, Owosso, Perry, Vernon, Akron, Caro, Cass City, Fairgrove, Gagetown, Kingston, Millingston, Reese, Unionville, Vassar, Ann Arbor, Barton Hills, Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Milan, Saline, Ypsilanti, Canton, Livonia, Northville, Plymouth, Wayne, Westland. For more areas we service visit our locations page.