The thumping starts after dark. Something heavy crosses the ceiling, pauses, crosses back — maybe with a chattering sound you can't quite place. In a Niagara home in late October, that is almost certainly a raccoon in your attic, and it is not just visiting. A raccoon moving in now is choosing a winter den. What you do in the first day or two decides whether this stays a straightforward removal or turns into a winter of damage overhead.
First: how to tell it’s a raccoon
Raccoons are the heavyweights of attic wildlife, and the signs match their size:
Heavy thumping and rolling at night. Raccoons are nocturnal and strong. Light, fast scurrying is a smaller animal; slow, weighty movement after dark is raccoon-sized.
Chattering and vocal sounds. Raccoons are unusually vocal — chittering, especially if young are present in spring.
A real entry hole. A raccoon needs a sizeable opening and usually makes one: a roof vent ripped open, soffit torn at a corner, or decking pulled up at the roof edge. Raccoons rip and tear — the damage is visible from the ground.
Droppings in one corner. Raccoons use a latrine — the same spot repeatedly — often on the insulation or a flat section of attic. That corner matters for cleanup later.
If that sounds like your house, treat it as confirmed enough to act. You do not need to climb up and meet it.
What to do first — tonight and tomorrow
Stay out of the attic. A cornered raccoon, especially a mother, can bite and scratch, and raccoons can carry diseases and parasites. There is nothing up there you need to check yourself.
Keep kids and pets away from the attic hatch, and bring pet food indoors. Secure garbage and green-bin lids — a reliable food source is half the reason it picked your street.
Do NOT seal the hole. This is the mistake that makes everything worse (it is common enough that we wrote a whole post on never sealing an animal inside). Sealing traps the raccoon in its den: it will rip and tear its way out somewhere worse, or die in the structure. And if there are young inside, sealing separates them from their mother.
Do NOT set your own trap. In Ontario, a captured wild animal generally has to be released within 1 kilometre of where it was caught — trapping and driving it away is not the legal or humane answer, and it leaves your entry hole open for the next raccoon. The Niagara SPCA's guide to living with wildlife gives the same advice from the animal side: leave the young alone, don't relocate wildlife yourself, and call a professional when an animal is inside the home.
Note what you hear and when. Times, where the sound travels, any entry damage you can see from the ground — that short report genuinely speeds up the inspection.
Book the inspection. The fix is a process, not a product off a shelf — see below.
Why Niagara homes get hit
Niagara gives raccoons everything they need, close together. Mature trees and escarpment woodlots give them travel routes and denning cover right up against the roofline — a branch near the roof is a bridge. Older housing stock in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland often has the soft spots raccoons test first: aging soffits, plastic roof vents, loose chimney flashing. And the food is reliable — garbage and green bins, bird feeders, pet food, and fallen fruit around orchards, vineyards and backyard trees. Add an attic that stays warm and dry all winter, and your roof is competing with a hollow tree — and winning.
That is why our wildlife removal in Niagara and wildlife removal in St. Catharines pages see the same pattern every fall: the calls come in waves as soon as the nights turn cold.
What happens if you wait
A denning raccoon does not sit quietly until spring. Insulation gets trampled flat and fouled with urine and droppings, losing its insulating value where you pay for heat. The latrine corner builds up — raccoon droppings can carry roundworm eggs, which is why cleanup is part of the job and not a DIY task. Entry damage widens as the animal works its hole, and in spring a winter tenant can become a mother with young in the attic, which adds a whole second problem. Every week of waiting is more attic to clean and more roof to repair.
How the removal actually works
Our raccoon removal work follows the same order on every Niagara job:
Inspect. The attic and the full roofline are checked to confirm the animal, find every entry point — not just the obvious hole — and check for young.
Fit a one-way door. Installed over the main entry, it lets the raccoon leave on its own to find food and water, and physically prevents it getting back in. No trapping, no relocation problem, no animal sealed inside.
Seal every entry point. Once the attic is confirmed empty, the door comes off and that last opening is sealed for good — vents protected, soffits reinforced, gaps closed. Close one door and they'll test the next, so the job isn't done until there is no next door.
Clean up. The latrine and fouled insulation are dealt with once the space is empty, so the smell that attracts the next animal is gone too.
How Regional Wildlife Services handles it
Regional Wildlife Services is owner-operated: Sean Thornton, 20+ years removing wildlife humanely, does the inspection and the work himself — the same person who answers the phone is on your roof. You can see the real work — torn vents, attic cameras, one-way doors going on — in our gallery of job photos from across the region.
Frequently asked questions
I can hear something heavy in my attic at night. Is it a raccoon?
Probably, if the movement is slow and weighty and happens after dark. Raccoons are the largest common attic animal in Niagara; squirrels are lighter and active by day, and mice are lighter still. An inspection confirms it before any work starts.
Can I just wait — will it leave in spring?
It may leave in spring, but by then it has spent the winter fouling insulation, building a latrine, and enlarging its entry. If it's a female, spring can also mean babies in the attic. Removal is simpler and cheaper in the fall, before denning damage accumulates.
Why not trap it and release it in the countryside?
Ontario's rules generally require a captured wild animal to be released within 1 kilometre of where it was caught. Relocation also just moves the problem and leaves your entry point open. A one-way door lets the raccoon leave on its own, in its own territory, and the sealing keeps it — and the next one — out.
What should I do if I find baby raccoons in the attic?
Nothing yourself — keep people and pets away and call for an inspection. Young are checked for as part of every removal, and the one-way-door process is timed so a mother is never sealed away from her young.
Which Niagara towns do you serve?
Across the region — Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Welland, Thorold, Grimsby and Port Colborne — and throughout our wider service area.
Heard thumping in the attic last night?
Call Regional Wildlife Services at 905-320-8984. We take phone calls and bookings 7 days a week; service appointments run Monday to Friday typically, and weekend calls book jobs in for the following week. We serve Niagara, Burlington, Oakville, Milton, Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Georgetown — and the sooner a winter den is dealt with, the less of your attic it takes with it. Ready when you are: contact us.
