Raccoons in Attic ! Why Do Raccoons love Attic?

Raccoons like to get into attics as they provide a perfect nesting/den site — attics are dry, warm and quiet. Raccoons can gain access to your attic through many possible locations such as around chimneys, roof vents, loose or missing soffit or fascia. These are all perfect access points for a determined raccoon. Raccoons use their keen sense of smell to locate damp rotting wood. They then target these areas on your roof to gain access to the attic, ripping up shingles and digging through the softened, rotting wood.

Raccoons are also attracted to other weakened areas of your attic because they are able to feel the heat loss from the roof and notice where drafts are coming from. They find these areas and start chewing and ripping their way in. These access holes can end up quite large, some as large as a pizza and they end up destroying the integrity of your attic and your roof, causing leaks and/or floods. One heavy rain fall can lead to a lot of damage to your home.

Damage by Raccoons in the attic, home, house, to insulation

When raccoons are in your attic they disturb the insulation, either packing it down or moving it around. This leaves open spots in your attic, which diminishes or even eliminates the insulation’s effectiveness in keeping your house warm. This can lead to ice damming on your roof, often leading to costly leaks.

Raccoons in the attic/home/house raise health and safety concerns

Since attics are fairly large, raccoons tend to have both sleeping quarters and latrines (bathroom) in the attic. Accumulated raccoon poop (feces) and urine damages the ceiling in your home. It doesn’t take much for the poop and urine to eat away at the ceiling, resulting in staining in the rooms below, or even collapsing to the rooms below. This is dangerous because it can expose your family to serious health risks from the build up racocon poop that carries disease and the associated mold that develops from moisture of the raccoon poop and urine. The last things you want on your ceiling are giant yellow stains and brown spots with mold growing around it. Removal of raccoons and their feces/ urine is a specialist job.

Source: Raccoons in attic