Are raccoons in your chimney in Memphis TN?  Raccoons are the most commonly found wildlife in chimneys. Chimneys are similar to hollow trees, which are a favorite nursery spot for mama raccoons.  In chimneys, you can also find a little family of raccoons or even a single bachelor.  Raccoons are very good climbers. They will easily climb onto your roof and into that nice warm, safe chimney.

Typically raccoons begin breeding around December and have their young in the Spring. When Spring arrives, you may hear baby raccoons crying. Raccoons typically can have around three to five babies during this time.

NEVER seal or cap your chimney before removing baby raccoons. During the day the mother raccoon leaves her babies to search for food and water. The babies usually sleep all day and you will not realize they are still there. If your chimney is sealed with the baby raccoons inside, the mother raccoon will tear your home apart trying to get to her babies. If the mama raccoon is unable to get to her babies, you will hear them crying and they will eventually die.

Some homeowners will want to turn on their fireplace believing that since the animal got in by itself, it will get out as well. This is extremely inhumane as the babies are often too young to climb the chimney, and will slowly burn to death as a result.  The mother raccoon will do everything she can to save her babies, and most of the time she will die in the fire as well. 

If you think you have raccoons in your chimney, our best advice is to close the damper tightly until you can reach a qualified Wildlife Technician.  Our technicians are skilled at removing raccoon families from your chimney.  If you have a mother raccoon with babies, sometimes we will use eviction fluid to try to make the mother move her babies on her own.  However, this will not always work so sometimes trapping is the only way to go.

And please, do not open your damper no matter what.  The raccoons may have nested on top of the damper, not realizing that it can be opened. Opening your damper could dump a terrified, soot-covered raccoon into your living room, and you can just imagine the mess that would make! 

Apex Wildlife Control is here to help!  Our Wildlife Technician will come out and perform an interior and exterior inspection of your house.  He will ask questions about its condition. Do you think raccoons could have access to the attic? Is there a specific time of day or night that you hear the most activity? Describing the type of noises you hear can help with species identification. Depending on the species, some are more active at certain times of the day.

During the interior inspection, the technician can listen to the chimney from the inside to locate the position of the raccoons. The technician will then go into the attic to look for signs that raccoons have been in the attic. He will look for droppings, chewed wires, and damage to your HVAC, or duct work. Afterward, he will then perform an exterior inspection. This will include use of a ladder to inspect your chimney from top to bottom for entry points. He will look for any missing bricks or gaps in the foundation.  You may just need a chimney cap over the top of the chimney which is a quick and easy fix. When our technician has completed his inspection, he will give you a quote to repair the area.

Trapping services differ depending on whether there are babies or not. If there is any indication there may be raccoon babies inside, we use an eviction fluid. This fluid gives off a scent that sets off a biological reaction in the mother raccoon to protect her babies. This may take a couple of days to take effect. Once it does, the mother raccoon should move her babies to another area with no further prompting from us. This will keep the raccoon family safe and is the best way for babies to survive. If we try to trap the mother raccoon and babies together, she may attack her own young. This is due to her stress. She could even reject the babies if they are placed in separate cages.

If there are no baby raccoons in the chimney, we insert an excluder trap over the main entry point. We then seal all the other areas where the raccoons could get in or out. The raccoons have to go into our trap if they want to get out. After we have trapped the raccoons, we relocate them 25 miles away so they are not able to come back. Once we have removed all raccoons, we seal up the last entry point. After this sealing process (also known as an exclusion) is complete, you will once again have a quiet raccoon-free home.

With a full exclusion, we provide a one year warranty on all of our work. This warranty will cover any of our work that an animal may try to tear out or damage. If the specified wildlife does get back through an area we have sealed, repairs to the exclusion are at no cost to you. This warranty is not only renewable, but also transferable which adds value to your home should the time come to sell it.

The little fellow shown in the photo seems bummed to be evicted from his nest, but rest assured that there are better places for him out in the wild.  With all the fleas, ticks and mites raccoons carry, along with the bacteria from their feces and urine, these animals can make your family very sick when they are in close proximity.  Plus raccoons are prone to rabies and distemper, so they should never be allowed around your pets. 

As cute as raccoons are, unfortunately they just don't belong in your home.