“A raccoon in the attic” is one of my most common calls in the early spring and summer. One question that I answer frequently from my customers is “Can a raccoon fall through my ceiling?”. Raccoons, on the upper end of the scale, weigh about 20lbs. and there are excellent good odds of having more than one. Female raccoons have as many as 7 kits with the average litter being 3-4 babies. If mom and young are all snuggled up on the top side of your ceiling, that is a substantial amount of weight in one spot.
Drop ceilings are the weakest. Drop ceiling tiles are made of a fiber material that looks like shredded cardboard box. These ceilings are fairly fragile and are certainly not made to support weight. I have been handling tiles from a drop ceiling on a ladder and damaged the tiles just by dropping them. If you factor in some water damage weakening the tile…watch out. I have seen drop ceilings survive a raccoon invasion, but a break-through would be on my mind. I had one customer who discovered they had a wildlife problem when they came into work to see a couple of raccoons peering back out of a gap in the ceiling. They were a little panicked. Raccoons have little “hands” and can grasp and are able to lift tiles up if they want to.
Drywall ceilings are somewhat stronger than drop ceilings, but I never trust them when I am inspecting an attic. Their strength is dependent, to a great extent, on the quality of the workmanship that went into installing them. I have seen double-layered drywall with plenty of good screws holding it all up and I have seen drywall that is just barely hanging in place.
Water damage is as big a problem for drywall as it is for drop ceilings. Drywall is a layer of gypsum sandwiched between two layers of thin cardboard. It is relatively stiff when it is dry, but turns to mush when it gets wet. Raccoons don’t necessarily “go to the bathroom” outside. They are not dumping gallons of fluid when they urinate, but it doesn’t help any. They are always a few “calling cards” and pee stains in attics where they are denning. This, along with garden variety water damage, can increase the odds of a fall-through.
If this is your situation, you need to have a plan for getting the raccoons out in the event that a break does occur. Once they fall, inside odds are good that they won’t be able to get back up into the ceiling. The will be panicked and are likely to start to try to tear their way out to escape. At this point you need to be extremely careful. You don’t want to be in the room with a panicked raccoon and get bitten. If you have a raccoon in the attic, it is advisable to have the problem taken care of ASAP. The longer it is up there, the worse the mess will be and the more likely that there could be other problems.
The character of raccoon calls change through the year. Late summer and fall seasonal calls focus more on what kind of mischief raccoons are getting into in the back yard. Calls in late winter and spring have an entirely different nature. This is when momma raccoon is looking for a place to make a den and have her babies. Late winter and spring calls focus on what is going on in the attic. (If you need to know exactly when raccoons or other animals are nesting, check out our Problem Animal of the Season page). This is because momma raccoon is thinking about denning and raising her young. Attics, in the opinion of momma raccoons, provide excellent den sites. They are dry, private, and warm, and have an abundance of fluffy nesting material (aka your insulation).
If you have a raccoon in your attic during denning season, odds are really good that it is a female with denning on her mind. The question then becomes whether or not she has delivered her litter. If she hasn’t, that is good, but it is really hard to know. Young kits do not make a lot of noise. It is better to assume that there are babies present.
Getting a raccoon out of your attic is hard, but getting a mother raccoon out along with her babies is way more complicated. Setting a trap somewhere and catching the raccoon in the attic may seem like a simple thing, but doing this can leave you with about five pounds of rotting raccoon in your walls or attic, not to mention the crying of the babies as they slowly starve to death. This is not a good option.
Risking trapping momma without taking babies into account is not a good idea. Most people begin to notice raccoon activity long before babies are mobile. There is lots of mewing, thumping, footsteps, etc. to draw attention can occur before the babies are ready to leave the den site. Attic noise comes to a crescendo right before she leaves the attic.
Once mom finds her way inside the attic, she can put her litter just about anywhere in the attic space. She is normally in some little boxed-in area that helps her form a nest (think momma cat in a cardboard box with her kittens). It can be right in the middle of the attic or over in the low ceiling which is super inaccessible. Momma raccoons seem to prefer the hard-to-access spots. If the insulation is blown in and really thick I have seen momma raccoons squash down some insulation to make a nest area in the middle of the attic. You should hope to be this lucky.
If the nest is in the middle of the attic you can consider just climbing up there and just grabbing the babies. This isn’t something that I recommend laymen doing though. You are at a definite disadvantage. You don’t know how momma raccoon is going to react to your presence in the attic. Going into an attic carries its own special risk even without an upset momma raccoon. Drywall ceilings will not carry the weight of a person, but raccoons can generally trot over them just fine. One misstep off a rafter and BAM you could fall through a drywall ceiling. Imagine, angry momma rushes… you step back… and CRUNCH! You are lying on the floor of the living room looking into the face of momma raccoon peering at you through the hole that you just made in the ceiling doing her raccoon chitter. NO GOOD! If you go up there, you better have a good plan….experience helps. This may be a job for a professional.
Baby raccoons, once removed, can be wrangled out by hand, and put into a recovery box where mom can find them. If you will do this, she can move them to an alternate den spot. Make sure that all current entrances , potential entrances, and alternate entrances into the attic are closed before you set the babies in the recovery box. Considering the size of a raccoon, it would blow your socks off to see some of the rooftop entrances that I have come across. (I can’t tell you how many times I have heard customers say “you mean she can go through THERE!). If you don’t seal everything, you are likely to just have mom carry them right back into the attic. This time she is likely to move them to a much harder spot to access and your situation will only be worse. If you have several entrances, it is probably better to get most of your carpentry work done before you move babies to the recovery box.
If things didn’t sound bad already, here is where it gets really tricky. Momma raccoon, as I already mentioned, has a strong instinct for putting her babies where nobody else can reach them. This is just survival instinct. This leaves you with a couple of options. They are:
1. Sit back and wait till she finishes raising the litter and the babies are mobile. (She will eventually check out of the maternity ward.) This way babies aren’t stuck in the attic when mom is trapped. However, this method has its problems. There will be an ever growing amount of poo, pee, filth, and damage to the attic. Wiring, ductwork, insulation can sustain further damage while she is in there. (She can sometimes accomplish two of these things at once. I once had a customer look up in the bedroom light fixture to see a pee puddle.) Things can get even worse once the babies start to tussle and play. Think five small rough housing puppies looking for a sneaker to chew up. Also, if there is a ceiling integrity issue, there will be a risk of mom falling through the ceiling into living spaces. This is not normally a problem, but the risk is there.
2. Option two is to trap mom and be prepared to cut a hole in the drywall to remove babies and place them in a recovery box. If you do this, you will have to follow the much of the same procedure mentioned above regarding sealing all current entrances, potential entrances, and alternate entrances into the attic are closed before you set the babies in the recovery box. If you don’t, you may end up repeating the process and cutting two holes in the drywall. This option can become mandatory if a baby falls into a void inside the wall. Most walls in modern homes are hollow. They are a wooden frame with drywall on both sides. If the carpenter somehow left an opening at the head of the wall, there is a chance that one or more of the babies can fall down into it where mom can’t reach. If this happens, you will begin to hear mewing noises and maybe some scratching closer to the floor. If there is a large enough void in the wall, momma raccoon may purposely place her litter in the wall. She is an excellent climber and she might do this if there are sufficient foot holds.
3. Try applying some Kick Momma Out Fluid. Yep, no joke, it really does exist. I keep it on the truck at all times with at least two bottles in the springtime. It has a funky smell, but this stuff can work magic in a tough situation. It has to be placed as close to the nest site to work. Getting it there may require some special tricks (you tend to develop a few over the years), but it can really be worth the effort. If all goes as hoped, mom will move babies out in a night or two to a new residence. This technique is not 100% effective, but well worth trying if you find yourself in a bad situation. It is a much gentler approach than others and can save a lot of destruction and cost. It tends to work better with newer mothers than experienced mothers and moms who haven’t denned on the site before.
Seeing raccoon make repeat visits to your roof or climbing a tree next to your house can be a sign of trouble. If you have this, it is better to schedule an inspection than to wait till you hear raccoon noises in the attic.
Most raccoon calls pertain to removing raccoons from attic. But if you have a raccoon inside the living areas of your home, you have a serious situation! Be careful. You probably need to go ahead and call us to handle this.
1. Keep your distance from the raccoon. Do not corner the raccoon.
2. Keep children and pets in a secure locked location away from the raccoon. If you cannot secure the raccoon, it might be better to wait outside until we arrive. The bottom line is don’t get bitten!
3. If someone has been bitten or made contact with saliva, try not to let the raccoon escape. Close the door to the room the raccoon is in if you can do so without risking another bite. It will need to be tested for rabies. Call us to come and remove the animal. You will also need to call either your doctor or local health department regarding testing.
4. If no one has made contact with the raccoon or its saliva, open a door or window to the outside and allow the raccoon to leave on its own.
Once the raccoon is out of the house, you will probably need to schedule a home inspection. Though it is very common for raccoons to make a home in attics, it is relatively rare for raccoons to show up in occupied areas of a building. You should probably read about How Raccoons Get into Your Home once your situation is secure.
