Animals Start Looking for Winter Homes in the Fall…Are You Prepared

Whether or not you like raccoons, opossums, squirrels and other natural critters, chances are you don’t like them enough to eagerly share your home with them. Yet, every autumn, these creatures begin looking around for some wintertime “digs,” and your home or garage may be a prime target of their interest. To better understand this issue and how to prepare for and overcome it, we offer the following illustration and tips.

A Raccoon’s Tale

Every fall, millions of homeowners will begin to prepare their properties for the coming season. That can mean raking leaves, doing all kinds of winterizing, and generally getting things ready for the demands of the coming winter weather. As they are doing this, though, their barns, sheds, garages and attics may also catch the attention of raccoons.

Triggered by the shift from warmer to colder weather and shorter days, they start looking at a few sites for winter housing. They are also thinking about safe places to live with their babies since the first half of any year is also what contains the months when raccoons are mating and birthing nests of babies and then preparing them to emerge in the spring.

They do go into a period of torpor or hibernation and sleep for huge periods of time throughout the winter months. This is why it can be tempting or even possible to ignore them in the late fall and early winter seasons since they are heading into that torpor and don’t “seem” problematic.

However, as January comes to a close, that one raccoon that has been quietly bedded down in your home will wake for mating season.

This can be a challenging season to attempt to eliminate them from your home or property, and particularly if a female has a nest and babies by the time early spring arrives. And that is why it is wiser and safer to take action in the fall season, long before the raccoons arrive and begin to settle in.

Proactive Steps Spare You Damage and Expense

Clearly, if you can keep them from appearing on your property at all, it will be a better solution than trying to eliminate them later. To do so, it is best to work with a team of professionals who can evaluate a home or property and identify the areas of risk. They will show you just how or where raccoons and other wildlife might find a foothold on your property, and then help you alleviate the potential risks. They may even show you where a few wily and savvy creatures have already started to do a bit of winter time homesteading.

The team at SWAT Wildlife specializes in human removal and control services, and make it their goal to assist homeowners address the kinds of damage that wildlife has the potential to cause during their fall nest-building seasons. They offer preventative services in addition to their removal options and are definitely a one-stop solution to the challenges of living with wildlife in the area and especially during the winter months.