wildlife control in Pennsylvania: The Complete Homeowner's Guide

What to look for

Red foxes den under sheds and decks. Coyotes are mostly a yard and pet issue rather than a building one. Big brown bats occupy older attics and roof spaces, often for many years before anyone notices. The state's own health data explains why the handling rules are strict. Pennsylvania has recorded more than 350 rabies positive animals annually since 1995, with 409 in 2010, and the raccoon strain is predominant. Nearly every species on that list is one homeowners routinely try to trap themselves. Pennsylvania straddles continental and temperate zones, with median summer highs near 85F, winter lows around 22F, humidity about 68 percent and roughly 42 inches of rain a year. That is a real winter with a long, wet shoulder season on either side, and the wet part is what opens buildings up. Trim stays damp, mortar joints spall, and flat roof edges lift. Six species drive most of the work. Raccoons take attics, chimneys and flat roof parapets. Striped skunks and groundhogs work at ground level, with groundhogs doing structural harm by burrowing under porches, garage aprons and retaining walls.

• 1Scratching or scurrying sounds in the attic or walls, especially at dawn or dusk.
• 2Droppings or urine stains near entry points or in attic spaces.
• 3Chewed wires, wood, or insulation.
• 4Unpleasant odors from decaying animals or accumulated waste.
• 5Visible damage to soffits, vents, or roofline.
• 6Animal tracks or rub marks on siding or chimney.
• 7Sightings of animals entering or exiting your home.

Treatment options and typical costs

Prices are typical published ranges. Ask what’s included before you compare quotes.

What the state lets you do, and what it does not.

What remains is the approach that works anyway. Seal the building, use a one way door so the animal leaves under its own power, close the last opening behind it, and repair the damage. That sequence is legal for every species on the list, does not involve handling anything, and is the only version that stops the problem from repeating. If your animal is on the exception list, the timeline changes completely and it runs through the Game Commission rather than through a contractor. Pennsylvania's approach to nuisance wildlife is less restrictive than many neighbors. The Game Commission's position is that a landowner may take wildlife that is destroying property, and the exception list is short and specific: deer, bear, elk, beaver, bobcat, fisher, wild turkey, migratory birds, and threatened or endangered species. Those require going through the agency. People read that permission as a green light for a cage trap and a drive to a state game land, and that is where it goes wrong. The second rule cancels the first for the animals that matter most. Skunks, raccoons, bats, groundhogs, foxes and coyotes are rabies vector species and should not be relocated, so the option that most homeowners have in mind is not available for almost anything they are likely to catch.

wildlife activity by season.

The most useful first step in Pennsylvania is to note where you have seen wildlife and when they appear, because that timeline is what lets a provider focus on the right area instead of treating the whole property. In Pennsylvania, checking the foundation, gaps around doors and windows, and any moisture or clutter near the structure usually turns up the conditions that are letting them in. Scheduling before the busy stretch, rather than after it, tends to mean faster service and a more accurate quote, and a local provider can point out the conditions that matter most in Pennsylvania.

Reading the rabies numbers without overreacting.

Hundreds of positives a year across a large state does not make the raccoon in your attic likely to be rabid. It does mean that the population carries the virus continuously rather than in isolated waves, which is why the state treats relocation as unacceptable and why licensed operators have handling protocols. The household rules that follow are simple. Keep dogs and cats vaccinated, because pets are the layer between wildlife and people. Do not touch any animal, alive or dead, with bare hands. Treat a bat found in a bedroom as a health matter and contain it for testing rather than releasing it. And take daytime activity in a nocturnal species seriously enough to call rather than approach, particularly with raccoons in a state where their strain is the one circulating. Pennsylvania publishes enough surveillance data to give you a real sense of scale. More than 350 animals have tested positive for rabies every year since 1995, and 2010 produced 409. The raccoon strain is the predominant variant in the state, which matches the eastern pattern where raccoons rather than skunks or foxes carry the dominant terrestrial variant. What that means in a house is more measured than it sounds.

Groundhogs, porches and the damage nobody sees.

A step separates from the porch, a slab cracks along a line, a retaining wall bulges after a wet spring. By then the animal may be long gone and the homeowner is looking at a masonry bill without ever connecting it to the burrow they filled in last year. Doing it properly means three things in sequence. Confirm the burrow is unoccupied, especially outside the spring months when young are present. Backfill and compact the void rather than just capping the hole. Then trench quarter inch hardware cloth along the skirt or footing line with the bottom edge bent outward, so the next groundhog meets metal at every point it tries to dig. On Pittsburgh hillside properties, where retaining walls carry real load, this is a job worth having someone competent look at before the wall tells you about it. Of the six species on Pennsylvania's common list, the groundhog does the most structural harm and gets the least respect. A groundhog burrow is a substantial excavation with a main entrance, a soil mound, and one or two concealed exits. Dug under a porch slab, a set of poured steps, a garage apron or a retaining wall, it removes the compacted fill those elements were bearing on. The symptom arrives late.

Row homes, twins and shared roof spaces.

Second, sealing your section can push the animal into a neighbor's space rather than out of the building, which solves your noise and creates theirs. Third, the repair often involves flat roof and parapet work that is closer to roofing than to pest control. The better approach is to talk to the neighbors on both sides before work begins, ask the operator to inspect the roof line across the adjoining properties where access allows, and time the sealing so the animals have an exit that leads outside rather than sideways. In Allentown and Reading, twins raise the same issue on a smaller scale, with a single shared attic serving two households. A detached house has a boundary. A Philadelphia row home does not, and that reshapes the whole job. Party walls often stop short of the roof deck, parapets run continuously, and cornices and flat roof edges connect one property to the next. A raccoon that enters through a lifted parapet flashing at one address can travel along the block, and a bat colony can occupy the roof cavity above several houses while only one homeowner ever hears anything. The practical implications are worth knowing before you hire anyone. First, an inspection limited to your own footprint may miss the actual entry point.

Timing a job through a Pennsylvania year.

Use the time for gutters, trim repair, branch cutting and garbage discipline. July and August bring dispersal noise as juveniles move on their own, and it is when most people finally call. Booking now usually means work in early autumn, which is exactly right. September and October are the working window. The ground is still diggable for mesh trenching, roofs are dry, litters are mobile, and you get ahead of the movement that starts as nights fall toward the 22F median low. Erie's season runs earlier than Philadelphia's, so adjust north and west. November through January is verification. Check the seals, watch fresh snow for tracks converging on the house, and deal with anything that got in before the repairs were finished. February and March start with chimney and attic denning. Female raccoons pick a site well before anyone hears them, and a call at this stage is the cheapest version of the job you will ever get. April through June is the closed season in practice, even where nothing forbids the work. Raccoon and skunk young are immobile, groundhog litters are underground, and bat colonies are raising pups. Sealing now strands animals inside masonry and framing you cannot open.

Simple ways to keep wildlife away

• Fit a locking stainless chimney cap, since open flues are the most reliable raccoon den in older Pennsylvania homes.
• Trench quarter inch hardware cloth around porches, sheds and garage aprons and bend the buried edge outward.
• Rebuild damp or rotted fascia and soffit corners rather than painting over softened wood.
• Keep gutters and downspouts clear so runoff is not undermining porch footings and retaining walls.
• Screen gable and ridge vents with hardware cloth fastened by screws, not staples.
• Check flat roof parapet edges after each freeze and thaw cycle, when seams lift.
• Cut branches back at least six feet from roofs on older tree lined streets.
• Use locking lids on trash and keep cans off porches and stoops overnight.
• Fill and monitor old burrow openings in the yard so a vacancy does not get reoccupied.

Questions people ask

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