A raccoon in your crawl space is a problem that won’t resolve on its own. Raccoons treat crawl spaces as dens, soiling the area with waste, tearing up insulation, and potentially raising a litter of babies. Getting them out safely requires a specific sequence: confirm what you’re dealing with, check for babies, remove the animals humanely, clean up thoroughly, and seal every entry point so they can’t return.
Signs a Raccoon Is Living Under Your Home
Raccoons are heavy animals, typically 10 to 30 pounds, and they’re not quiet tenants. You’ll hear thumping, scratching, and shuffling at night, especially between dusk and dawn. Raccoon vocalizations are distinctive: chittering, purring, and growling that sounds nothing like the skittering of rats or the light scratching of squirrels. If babies are present, you may hear high-pitched whining or crying during the day when the mother is out foraging.
Outside, look for tracks near foundation vents or gaps in your skirting. Raccoon prints look like tiny handprints, with five long fingers on both front and back paws. You may also notice damaged vent screens (raccoons are strong enough to rip through standard builder-grade mesh), torn vapor barriers, or compressed and soiled insulation visible through vent openings. A strong ammonia-like smell coming from under the house is another telltale sign, as raccoons establish latrine sites where they repeatedly deposit waste in the same spot.
Why Raccoon Waste Is a Serious Health Concern
The biggest risk from a raccoon in your crawl space isn’t structural. It’s biological. Raccoon feces commonly contain the eggs of a roundworm called Baylisascaris procyonis. A single raccoon can pass millions of these microscopic eggs per day. Once deposited, the eggs develop into their infectious form within two to four weeks and can survive in soil for several years.
If accidentally swallowed by humans (which can happen by touching contaminated surfaces and then your mouth), the larvae hatch and migrate through the body. They can cause serious eye disease, brain damage, spinal cord damage, or death. Severe cases are rare, with about 25 reported in the U.S. since 2003, but the consequences are serious enough that proper cleanup matters. Children and pets are at higher risk because they’re more likely to come into contact with contaminated soil or surfaces.
Check for Babies Before Doing Anything
Raccoons give birth from March through June, with peak season hitting around May and June. Litters range from two to six kits. If you find a raccoon in your crawl space during these months, assume babies are present until you’ve confirmed otherwise. This matters because baby raccoons can’t walk or follow their mother out of the den for the first several weeks of life. If you seal the mother out while immobile kits are still inside, the babies will die under your home, creating an entirely different problem.
Before installing any exclusion device or sealing any entry point during baby season, you need to either visually confirm the crawl space is empty or hire a wildlife professional who can locate and safely remove the kits. If babies are found, they should be placed in a warm, protected box near the entry point so the mother can retrieve them and relocate the family herself.
How to Get Raccoons Out
The goal is to make the raccoon leave voluntarily and then prevent it from coming back. There are several approaches, and they can be combined.
Harassment Techniques
Raccoons prefer quiet, dark, undisturbed spaces. Disrupting that environment can push them to relocate. Bright lights aimed into the crawl space, a radio tuned to talk radio near the entry point, and rags soaked in ammonia placed near the den area all make the space less appealing. These work best when used together and sustained over several days rather than applied once.
Raccoon eviction fluid, a commercial product made from male raccoon glands and urine, is designed to trigger a fear response in nursing mothers. The idea is that a mother raccoon smells a male (which can be a threat to her kits) and moves the litter to a safer location. Testing has shown mixed results. One study found a 50% success rate with one brand, while another brand performed no better than plain water. Eviction fluid is worth trying during baby season as a first step, but it’s not reliable enough to count on alone.
Ultrasonic repellent devices, despite their marketing, have repeatedly failed to demonstrate effectiveness in controlled testing.
One-Way Exclusion Doors
A one-way door is the most reliable humane removal method outside of baby season. It’s a device installed over the raccoon’s entry point that lets the animal push out but prevents it from getting back in. The door is mounted directly over the hole, secured with screws, and oriented so the flap opens outward. If the entry hole is larger than the door, you cover the surrounding area with steel mesh or plywood first, then mount the door over the opening.
After installation, give it a few days for all raccoons to exit. Then inspect the entire perimeter of your home for new holes, since raccoons will actively try to re-enter. Once you’re confident the crawl space is empty and no new entry points have been created, remove the one-way door and permanently seal the opening. Do not use a one-way door if you believe babies are inside. Kits that aren’t yet mobile won’t be able to use the door. If you install one and still hear sounds, remove it immediately, wait a few weeks for the babies to grow, and try again.
Cleaning Up After They’re Gone
Once the raccoons are out, the crawl space needs to be decontaminated before you seal it permanently. This is not a step to skip. Roundworm eggs are invisible to the naked eye, and standard household disinfectants don’t kill them.
Before entering the crawl space, put on disposable gloves, rubber boots (or disposable boot covers), and an N95 respirator mask. The mask is critical in a confined space like a crawl space, where disturbing contaminated material can send eggs and fungal spores airborne. Never use a leaf blower or vacuum cleaner for cleanup, as both will aerosolize the eggs.
Use a shovel or metal scoop to remove feces and any contaminated soil into heavy-duty plastic garbage bags. Bag and discard soiled insulation the same way. Wipe down hard surfaces with hot, soapy water and paper towels. For areas where feces were in direct contact with surfaces, boiling water or a portable propane torch (on non-flammable surfaces like concrete or bare dirt) can destroy roundworm eggs through heat, which is one of the few things that reliably kills them. After cleanup, double-bag all waste, launder your clothes in hot water with detergent, and scrub your boots before bringing them inside.
Sealing Your Crawl Space for Good
Raccoons are strong, persistent, and dexterous. Standard builder-grade vent screens, which typically use thin 1/4-inch mesh, are not raccoon-proof. Homeowners have reported raccoons ripping through these screens with little effort. For a permanent fix, you need 16-gauge (or heavier) galvanized steel hardware cloth with openings no larger than 1/2 inch, secured with screws rather than staples. Some homeowners have found even 1/4-inch mesh insufficient against determined animals and have doubled up with stainless steel mesh for added strength.
Walk the entire foundation perimeter and inspect every vent, pipe penetration, and gap where siding meets the foundation. Raccoons can squeeze through openings as small as four inches across. Pay particular attention to corners, areas where utility lines enter the home, and any section where soil has eroded to create a gap beneath the foundation. Gaps at ground level should be sealed with hardware cloth extended six to twelve inches below grade to prevent digging.
Also address what attracted the raccoon in the first place. Unsecured trash cans, pet food left outside, fallen fruit, and accessible bird feeders all draw raccoons to your property. Removing these attractants reduces the chances of a repeat visit, even with a well-sealed crawl space.
What Professional Removal Costs
If you’d rather not handle this yourself, professional wildlife removal typically runs $300 to $1,500, depending on how many raccoons are involved, how many entry points need sealing, and whether the job includes exclusion work. Independent operators often charge $200 to $1,000, with lower overhead keeping prices down compared to franchise companies. Most companies offer free or low-cost initial inspections.
Crawl space cleanup, insulation replacement, and decontamination are almost always quoted separately from the removal itself. These remediation costs can add several hundred dollars or more depending on the extent of contamination and damage. If raccoons have been living under your home for weeks or months, destroyed significant insulation, or established multiple latrine sites, professional remediation is often the more practical choice simply because of the scale of work and the health precautions involved.