A single raccoon weight cannot break through your ceiling, but more than one raccoon (especially a group of families weight in one spot) is strong enough to fall through your ceiling.
An average adult raccoon weighs 20lbs, so up to 7 of them in a single spot up there could cause a fall-through.
Drop ceilings are the weakest and most susceptible. Drop ceiling tiles are made of a fiber material that looks like a shredded cardboard box. These ceilings are a bit fragile and are certainly not made to support weight like that.
The drywall is fairly strong. As far as it hasn’t been weakened by the roof leaking water into it for a prolonged period of time, a raccoon is not going to fall through. There may also be a layer of plywood on top of the drywall.
The only thing that got raccoons off my roof was an electric fence. They learn quickly.
If you get a professional to catch them, others will take their place.
ALSO SEE: Can Raccoons Be Potty Trained?
How to Get Rid of Raccoons in the Ceiling
Raccoons chose to invade homes because they are warm, safe, and dry. They often live between floors, and in the attic, so you’ll hear them walking on the ceiling
Here’s how to get raccoons out of the ceiling:
Animals that live in the attic include opossums, rats, squirrels, and more. So, determining which one you’re dealing with will allow you specifically take an approach that will be helpful in solving the issue at hand.
See also Can Racoons kill Cats? How to Prevent a Confrontation!
You should inspect the ceiling or attic space for scat (poop) and footprints.
If you spend enough time outside your home, you may be able to find the animal crawling up and down your house from time to time.
Another helpful tip in determining what animal is in your home is listening to the noises in the attic and determining what animal is making the noise.
Next, you should search for entry points. Do a full inspection of the house, and locate any entry point you can find.
Raccoons are big animals so it is not hard to find. They will use a big opening and often tear open roof ducts, or vents, or they rip the soffit out, or they can even break open a hole in the roof.
Once the mother coon has been denied entry, now it is time for you to remove any baby raccoons.
If you fail to do this, the babies will suffer and starve to death, and create a big noise for two weeks, and then die, rot and stink for many weeks.
You can slip on gloves and remove the babies by hand, by crawling in the attic or cutting a hole in the ceiling to remove them.
You can use humane traps on raccoons.
I find out that using live baby raccoons is the best bait. It is effective in luring the mother in.
Sometimes, you can lay special traps directly on the entry/exit hole. In some special cases, experienced trappers are able to enter the attic and snare the raccoon by hand, with a snare pole, no traps are needed.
Now that the raccoons are out of the way, it is time to repair the hole they used to get in, or you’ll just get more raccoon problems in the future!
Wear gloves, long clothing, and a nose mask and begin to clean the area the raccoons were living in. You can use alcohol spray to disinfect the area but watch out for naked wires.
You should Call for backup if you’re too chicken to do it yourself. It is best that way. Plus, it is illegal in some states to trap wildlife without a license.
See also Can a Racoon get out of a Dumpster? What to Do!
How Do Raccoons Get In Your House
- Through your pet door
- Through trees close to your home
- Biting their way through the roof or walls
- Hole(s) on your property
- climbing the downspout of the attic
ALSO SEE: How to Cook and eat a Raccoon
Raccoon in Attic What to Do
The first thing to do is to figure out if there are little baby raccoons in there or not. In most cases, they are usually there. If so, remove the babies and trap the adult female, and then find out how the family got inside the attic. Once done, seal the entry holes shut. Clean up raccoon waste afterward.
Can raccoons live in a hot attic?
Of course, they can. It’s why they are there in the first place.
Will Raccoons Leave on Their Own?
No, they won’t. As far as a place is safe, dry, and warm, raccoons can nest there for life.
Can Raccoons Fall, Scratch, Break, Or Crash through Ceiling?
While it is unlikely that a raccoon will crash through your ceiling, it’s still a possible scenario you can’t rule out. The average adult raccoon only weighs about twenty pounds, but some have been known to weigh as much as forty. This means a raccoon could absolutely come through your ceiling, though it would require a bit of force from the other end.
Signs of A Raccoon In The House
- Sounds in Attic
- Activity in your home at night
- Nesting Materials
- Visible Damage to wiring, rooftops, support beams, roofing tiles, furniture, and drywall.
- Fecal deposits
- Raccoon Sightings
See also Can Racoon Damage Roof + Ways to RaccoonProof Roofs!
Raccoons in walls, ceilings, and crawl spaces
Yes, chimneys and attics are common raccoon homes, but a resourceful raccoon can make a den just about anywhere in your house.
Raccoons may live in the ceiling tiles of your home. Sometimes, babies find their way down into wall voids from the attic or through an external entry hole.
Other times, a baby raccoon in an attic falls into a void and becomes trapped.
Solution
Knock on the ceiling or wall at the spot where the sound is heard to measure how mobile the animal is, whether likely it is an adult or a young one.
Call in professional help to search for the young coon. If it’s, an adult, you can use mild harassment to encourage an adult animal to leave.
Raccoons may use ductwork to explore or (less often) to the den and they can sometimes become trapped.
Solution
Get a professional inspector to do their thing then call a local wildlife professional or rehabilitator to have someone stand by to assist with the humane removal of the raccoon.
Raccoons may explore or attempt to live in crawl spaces and sometimes use them as dens in which they are born and nurture their young.
The result of this is structural damage and raccoon waste in latrines.
How To Get Rid Of Raccoons Under House
Hire professionals who can humanely evict the animals while keeping the raccoon family intact.
it may be safest to get professional assistance with the clean-up of a raccoon latrine before attempting other repairs.
Raccoons are able to chew on wires, but it isn’t a common behavior. The presence of wire damage more likely indicates the work of squirrels.
Solution
In any case, if wires have been chewed or climbed upon, have an electrician inspect and repair them as needed.
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