Raccoon
Black mask, ringed tail, handlike front paws. The only one of these that regularly tears into roofs and chimneys. Droppings are dark, tube-shaped and piled in one spot.
Licensed raccoon removal · Orange County, NY
Raccoon Removal Services Across Orange County, New York
Raccoons are strong, clever and not the least bit shy about tearing a hole in your roof. In spring, the usual call is a mother raccoon with kits in the attic or chimney. The rest of the year it is trash, decks, crawlspaces and garages. We connect you with licensed local wildlife operators who know how to get them out without making things worse.
- Mother and kit removal
- Chimney caps and roof repair
- Latrine cleanup guidance
Rabies is present in Orange County raccoons. Keep your distance.
Raccoon rabies has been established across the Hudson Valley since the early 1990s, and raccoons remain one of the most common animals to test positive in New York. A raccoon that stumbles, circles, seems paralyzed, acts unusually aggressive or oddly tame should be left alone. Keep kids and pets inside, and call the Orange County Department of Health or local police for an animal acting sick. If anyone in your family or a pet has been bitten or scratched, wash the wound with soap and water and contact a doctor or vet right away.
A raccoon out in daylight is not automatically rabid. Nursing mothers often forage during the day in spring. Behavior is what counts.
Where raccoons den on Orange County properties
Raccoons need a dry, protected den, and a house offers several. The attic is the most expensive one. Raccoons get in by ripping open a weak soffit, peeling back the edge of the roof at a corner, pushing through a roof vent or tearing a gable vent screen. Once inside, they trample insulation, tear ductwork, and pick one area as a toilet.
Chimneys are a spring favorite. A mother raccoon will climb down an uncapped flue and give birth on the smoke shelf just above the damper. The first sign is often chittering or whining from the fireplace in April or May. Lighting a fire to smoke them out is dangerous and can leave kits trapped.
Lower down, raccoons den under decks, porches and sheds, in crawlspaces through broken vents, and in garages left open overnight. They also use hollow trees and woodpiles, then come over at night for trash, pet food, bird seed, grubs in the lawn and fish in the pond.
Raccoon, or one of the other usual suspects?
Several Orange County animals cause similar problems. Knowing which one helps the operator bring the right equipment.
Opossum
Gray body, white face, bare pink tail. Uses existing openings rather than making new ones, so it shows up under decks, in garages and in crawlspaces more than attics.
Skunk
Black with white stripes and a distinctive smell. Dens under porches, sheds and slabs, and digs small, cone-shaped holes in lawns hunting grubs.
Woodchuck
Also called a groundhog. Large brown rodent that digs big burrows under sheds, decks and foundations, with a wide dirt mound at the entrance. Active during the day.
If the noise is light, fast and in the early morning, read our squirrel removal page. Lighter scratching at night often points to mice.
How the raccoon year plays out
- January – March
Mating season. Males roam widely and females start looking for secure dens. Late winter is when many new holes appear in roofs and soffits.
- April – May
Kits are born, usually several to a litter, in attics, chimneys and under decks. Removal now must account for babies.
- June – August
Kits follow the mother outside and learn to forage. Families raid gardens, trash and fishponds. Dens may still be in use.
- September – December
Raccoons fatten up for winter. Young raccoons disperse to find their own territory, and some find your crawlspace.
The Orange County landscape raccoons thrive in
Raccoons live wherever woods and water meet people, and that describes most of the county. Streams like Moodna Creek, the Wallkill, the Neversink and the Delaware, plus the swamps and wet woods around the Black Dirt region, provide food and travel corridors. The forests of the Hudson Highlands, Harriman and Sterling Forest give them hollow trees for dens.
The highest call volume tends to come from wooded neighborhoods next to that habitat: lake homes around Greenwood Lake, houses backing onto the woods in Tuxedo and Highland Falls, and the subdivisions carved out of woodland in the Goshen, Chester and Blooming Grove area. Older homes in river towns like Port Jervis add uncapped chimneys and tired soffits to the mix.
Farm country has its own version. Barns, corn cribs, chicken coops and silage around Montgomery, Walden and Pine Bush feed raccoons well, and farmhouses with old slate or metal roofs often have gaps they can exploit.
What happens when a licensed operator takes the job
- Inspection. Roof, chimney, attic, soffits, vents and foundation are checked to find the den and every entry, and to see whether kits are present.
- Removal. Depending on the setup, the operator may use a one-way exclusion door on the entry, live cage traps, or hand-remove kits and use them to draw the mother into a reunion box so the family leaves together.
- Handling under state rules. Raccoons are a rabies vector species in New York, and the DEC places strict limits on what can be done with them once captured. Your operator will explain the lawful options. Moving a raccoon to another town is not one of them.
- Repair and prevention. Heavy-gauge steel mesh, chimney caps, vent guards and soffit repair keep the next raccoon from reusing the same entry, since others will smell where the last one lived.
- Cleanup. Contaminated insulation and latrines are removed and the area treated, or you get a referral to a restoration company for larger attic cleanups.
Health risks worth taking seriously
- Rabies
- Spread through bites and scratches. Raccoons are a primary carrier in New York.
- Raccoon roundworm
- Eggs in raccoon latrines can survive for years and cause serious illness if swallowed, mostly by small children and pets.
- Leptospirosis
- A bacterial disease spread through urine, which can contaminate standing water and soil.
- Canine distemper
- Common in raccoons, dangerous for unvaccinated dogs and often mistaken for rabies because of similar symptoms.
Raccoon removal near me in Orange County, NY
If you are searching "raccoon removal near me" or "wildlife removal near me" at 2 a.m. while something rips at your roof, you want a real person who does this for a living. Removing raccoons for a fee in New York requires a DEC Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator license, and we only connect callers with licensed independent operators.
Those operators cover the whole county, from the riverfront in New Windsor to the farmland of Minisink. Many also handle skunks, opossums and woodchucks, so describe everything you have seen.
Pricing factors, and why DIY raccoon removal rarely ends well
Raccoon removal is priced on the situation, not per animal. A raccoon under a deck that can be excluded with one door and some buried mesh is a smaller job than a mother with kits in a third-story attic. The main factors are where the den is, whether babies are present, how many trips are needed to check traps or doors, roof height and pitch, the cost of repairing the entry (a chimney cap is simpler than rebuilding a corner of fascia and soffit), and how much attic cleanup is needed.
Raccoons are large, can be aggressive when cornered, and carry diseases that matter. Homeowners who trap them often catch the wrong animal, a neighbor's cat or a skunk, or catch the mother and leave kits to starve in the attic. Releasing a trapped raccoon elsewhere is illegal under DEC rules for rabies vector species. And sealing an entry before the animals are out pushes them to tear a new hole, sometimes straight through a ceiling.
If you want to do something yourself, focus on prevention while you wait for a pro.
Make your property less appealing to raccoons
- Use trash cans with locking lids, or keep them in a closed garage until pickup day.
- Feed pets indoors and take bird feeders down at night or entirely in summer.
- Install a stainless steel chimney cap on every flue.
- Trim branches back from the roof and keep vines off downspouts.
- Close off the space under decks and sheds with buried, L-shaped hardware cloth.
- Lock chickens in a predator-proof coop every night.
- Pick up fallen fruit and secure compost bins.
Questions about raccoons in and around the house
How can I tell if there are baby raccoons in my attic?
Listen for high-pitched chirping, whining or chattering sounds, especially in April, May and June. Baby raccoons are vocal. If you hear them, do not seal any openings, and tell the operator so they plan for a family removal.
Will a raccoon leave the chimney on its own?
Sometimes, once the kits are old enough, but you would be waiting weeks with the risk of damage and odor. A pro can remove the family and cap the chimney so it does not happen again next spring.
Is it safe to clean up raccoon droppings myself?
Raccoon latrines can contain roundworm eggs that are hard to kill and dangerous if swallowed or inhaled as dust. Large or attic latrines are a job for a professional with protective gear and proper disposal.
Can I shoot or poison a raccoon?
Local firearm laws, hunting seasons and DEC rules all apply, and poisoning wildlife is not legal. A licensed operator is the safe and lawful way to handle a raccoon living on your property.
Will mothballs or ammonia drive raccoons out?
Rarely for long, and a mother with kits will not leave them. Exclusion and repair are the reliable approach.
Raccoon removal across Orange County's towns and hamlets
Raccoons are everywhere from Highland Falls to Sparrowbush. Find your area for local wildlife and pest details.
Newburgh & the Hudson Riverfront
- Newburgh
- Town of Newburgh
- Balmville
- Gardnertown
- Orange Lake
- New Windsor
- Vails Gate
- Rock Tavern
- Cornwall
- Cornwall-on-Hudson
- Mountainville
- Highland Falls
- Fort Montgomery
Middletown & the Town of Wallkill
- Middletown
- Town of Wallkill
- Scotchtown
- Circleville
- Mechanicstown
- Howells
- Wawayanda
- Slate Hill
- New Hampton
- Mount Hope
- Otisville
Montgomery, Walden & Pine Bush
- Montgomery
- Town of Montgomery
- Walden
- Maybrook
- Pine Bush
- Crawford
- Bullville
- Thompson Ridge
- Campbell Hall
- Hamptonburgh
Goshen, Chester & Blooming Grove
- Goshen
- Chester
- Sugar Loaf
- Washingtonville
- Blooming Grove
- Salisbury Mills
- South Blooming Grove
Monroe, Woodbury & Tuxedo
- Monroe
- Harriman
- Central Valley
- Highland Mills
- Woodbury
- Kiryas Joel
- Tuxedo
- Tuxedo Park
- Southfields
Warwick Valley & the Black Dirt Region
- Warwick
- Greenwood Lake
- Florida
- Pine Island
- Bellvale
- New Milford
- Minisink
- Westtown
- Unionville
- Johnson
Port Jervis & the Upper Delaware
- Port Jervis
- Deerpark
- Huguenot
- Cuddebackville
- Sparrowbush
- Westbrookville
- Greenville
Get the raccoons out and the roof shut tight.
A free call connects you with a licensed Orange County wildlife operator who handles removal, repair and cleanup.