Raccoon and Wildlife Removal in Ottawa

The lasting fix for a raccoon in an Ottawa home is a one-way door over its entry hole, then every gap sealed. Ontario lets you, or a removal business acting for you, do this without a permit. A raccoon caught alive must be released within 1 km and 24 hours. Raccoons give birth from March to June.

In this directory, wildlife firms are listed with the pest control companies in Ottawa. This guide covers what the law allows, when to act, and how squirrels, skunks and bats differ from raccoons.

Who handles raccoons and other wildlife in Ottawa

You do, as the owner. The City of Ottawa's Wildlife Strategy says plainly that neither the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources nor the City responds to routine conflicts with wildlife on private property. Ontario's hire a wildlife agent page says the same of the ministry: it gives advice, not direct help.

So the free help in Ottawa is narrow:

• 3-1-1 for a sick or injured small wild animal, such as a raccoon, squirrel or skunk. Since 2018-01-05 a City by-law officer can take it to the Ottawa Humane Society or an emergency vet, according to Ottawa Public Health.
• Ottawa Public Health at 613-580-6744 (3-1-1 after hours) for any bite, scratch or bat contact. It assesses rabies risk; it does not remove bats.
• The Ottawa Humane Society at 613-725-3166 ext. 223 for wildlife questions that are not emergencies, from its wildlife page.
• 3-1-1 for a dead animal on a road or sidewalk. On private property, the City says it is the owner's responsibility.

For a healthy raccoon in the attic, the choice is the one the Wildlife Strategy lays out: wait for the animals to leave and close the hole yourself, or hire a wildlife service provider.

What Ontario law allows on your own property

Section 31 of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1997 is the rule. If you believe on reasonable grounds that wildlife is damaging or about to damage your property, you may, on your own land, harass it to deter it, or capture or kill it. You may not take more animals than needed to protect the property, or cause unnecessary suffering.

Raccoons, red squirrels and striped skunks are furbearing mammals under Ontario's wildlife schedules, and grey (black) squirrels are game mammals, so all four fall under this section. Ontario's summary of the rules, updated 2025-12-15, adds the conditions that matter most in a city:

• release a live animal within 1 kilometre of where it was caught
• release it within 24 hours
• release it on private property only with the owner's permission
• keep the work to your own property, and follow municipal by-laws
• do not destroy the den of a furbearing mammal without ministry approval; fox and skunk dens are the exception
• take a sick, injured or orphaned animal to an authorized wildlife rehabilitator

The regulation behind the release rule, O. Reg. 665/98, section 133, says "in close proximity to the capture site". The 1 km figure is Ontario's own reading of it, and the reason it gives is that the animal knows where its food and dens are and does not have to fight for new territory.

Who you can hire to do it

Section 132 of the same regulation lists who may act for you as your agent. The ones an Ottawa homeowner meets are a licensed trapper, a member of your immediate family, a municipal wildlife control employee, and a business whose work is primarily removing nuisance wildlife. Ontario's page is specific about the last one: a removal business may capture and release, "not kill".

No licence is needed to be a wildlife control agent, Ontario says, unless the agent uses body-gripping traps, firearms or pesticides. That is why the questions you ask before hiring matter more than any certificate on a website.

Shooting or trapping it yourself

The provincial act allows a property owner to kill a damaging animal, but Ottawa's Discharge of Firearms By-law 2002-344 limits where a gun can be fired. It bans discharge in the shaded areas on its Schedules A to N.

Outside them it still bans it within 450 metres of a school, place of worship or public hall, and within 450 metres of a registered subdivision once a building permit application is in. Check the schedule for your address.

Live trapping is legal within the release rules, but Ottawa Public Health's rabies advice is not to trap or capture wild animals that get into your home, and the Ottawa Humane Society says live trapping and relocation "is NOT the answer". While the entry point stays open, the next animal moves in.

When to act: winter dens and spring babies

Timing decides whether a removal leaves orphans behind. Ontario's small animals page says to remove an animal from your home in autumn, once the young have left the den or nest. The Ottawa Humane Society gives the birthing seasons a company should know:

Put Ontario's advice to act in autumn, after the young have left, beside the March to June birthing season, and late fall and winter is the window before the next litter. From March, ask any company before it starts how it will find and handle kits. The City's Wildlife Strategy warns that removal done wrong in birthing season can leave dead young in an attic or a wall.

Skunks behave differently. The Humane Society says they do not hibernate, and several females may den together over the winter, often under porches, decks and sheds. Squirrels do not hibernate either, though they spend long hours in their nests in cold weather.

How raccoon removal works

The City's Wildlife Strategy describes three ways wildlife service providers work: no trapping, using one-way doors at the access points; live trapping and release near the access point; and lethal trapping. Put together from the Strategy and Ontario's hiring checklist, an exclusion job runs in this order:

1. an inspection to find every entry point, from the roof line down to the foundation
2. a one-way door on the main hole, so the raccoon can leave at night and not get back in
3. in birthing season, the young taken out by hand and put in a protected box by the hole for the mother to carry to another den
4. the hole sealed once the den is confirmed empty
5. repairs to the vent, soffit or fascia the animal tore open, and cleanup of droppings

Most urban animals keep a main den and several spares, the Strategy notes, so an evicted raccoon usually moves to a secondary den. That den may be next door, which is why the City suggests talking to your neighbours and working together.

Raccoons in a chimney

Ontario says the easiest fix is to wait: after eight to ten weeks the mother and young leave and do not return. Do not smoke them out, and do not drop naphtha flakes or mothballs down the flue. The adult can climb out of a chimney; the kits cannot. Once it is empty, put a cap on it.

Squirrel removal in Ottawa homes

Squirrels follow the same provincial rules, with two litter seasons instead of one: spring, and late summer or early fall. Their teeth never stop growing, the Humane Society notes, so they gnaw constantly.

Ontario gives the typical case: a squirrel pulls open a plastic roof vent, and the fix after removal is a metal screen box over it. Work on the roof line is often a job for roofers in Ottawa, if the removal company does not repair it.

Two more points from Ontario's small animals page. A squirrel stuck in an exhaust fan or chimney can be let out through the house, or given a line to climb up. And if a squirrel spent a long time near exposed wiring, test your smoke detectors and check for chewed wire, or have one of the electricians in Ottawa inspect it.

Skunk removal: decks, sheds and porches

The Humane Society describes skunks as burrowers that den under porches, decks and sheds and in wood or rock piles, sometimes a foot underground. They are rarely aggressive unless cornered or defending young, and they warn before spraying: fur fluffed, tail up, front feet stamping.

Ontario lets you close a skunk or fox den without ministry approval, unlike other furbearer dens, but only once it is empty, and skunk young are born in May and June.

Ontario suggests blocking the spaces under decks and sheds and putting gravel around a building's base to discourage digging. If the gap is part of the deck itself, deck builders in Ottawa can skirt or close it. For skunks digging the lawn for grubs, Ontario suggests one-inch mesh chicken wire laid on the grass.

Bats in the house or attic

Bats are a health question first. Ontario's rabies page names bats with raccoons, skunks and foxes as the most common rabies carriers in the province, and says a bat's bite or scratch can easily go unnoticed. Ottawa Public Health notes that Ontario's most recent human rabies case, reported in 2024, followed a suspected bat exposure.

If you find a bat in the house:

• do not touch it, and keep children and pets away
• if anyone may have had contact, close the room, do not try to catch or kill it, and call Ottawa Public Health at 613-580-6744, or 3-1-1 after hours, for a rabies assessment
• if you are certain nobody touched it, close off the room and open a window or outside door so it can fly out

A colony in the attic is an exclusion job. Ontario's bats page says some bats fit through a 16 mm gap, and to seal from October to March, when they are hibernating elsewhere. The Humane Society says not to evict bats from May through August, while young may be inside. Never trap bats inside a building, and some Ontario bat species are endangered, which limits what anyone may do.

Health risks after the animals are out

Rabies spreads through saliva in a bite or scratch, Ontario says, not through blood, urine or droppings. If an animal scratches or bites you, Ottawa Public Health says to wash the wound with soap and warm water for 15 minutes, see a health care provider, and report it to them.

Ottawa Public Health's list of warning signs includes a wild animal that acts tame, has lost its fear of people, drools or froths, or cannot walk properly.

Droppings carry a different risk. Raccoon roundworm eggs are too small to see, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they take at least 2 to 4 weeks to become infective, so prompt cleanup helps.

The agency's advice: disposable gloves, an N95 respirator in a confined space, a light mist of water to keep dust down, and heat rather than disinfectant, since most chemicals do not kill the eggs. The City of Ottawa advises professional help with this part.

What changes the price of a removal

We looked for raccoon removal prices published by Ottawa companies and could not find three for the same job, so this guide prints none. A written quote should spell out the parts that move the total:

• how many entry points are sealed, not only the one the animal is using
• whether the work needs a ladder on the roof line, or happens at ground level
• whether kits have to be found and removed by hand, which is spring work
• repairs to vents, soffits, fascia or screens, and who does them
• attic cleanup, droppings removal and any insulation work
• any return visit to take the one-way door off and check the seal

Ontario's hiring checklist asks you to set up a building inspection, check the agent's insurance, get several estimates with a detailed description of the work, and ask for references. Our guide to pest control costs in Ottawa shows how published prices work for insects, and our guide to rodent control in Ottawa covers mice and rats.

Questions the Humane Society suggests

• Where will the animal be released? Anything over 1 km is outside the rules.
• Do you know the birthing season of each species, and will you wait if young are present?
• Is sealing the entry points part of the job, before or after removal?
• Have your staff had pre-exposure rabies vaccinations?
• What training do your technicians have?

How to keep wildlife out next time

Ontario's small animals page lists the measures that stop the next raccoon or squirrel:

• keep garbage in overnight or strap the lid shut, and do the same for the compost
• feed pets indoors, and clean up under bird feeders and fruit trees
• install a chimney cap and trim branches that reach the roof
• seal ground-level holes and warped siding, without sealing an animal inside
• block the space under decks and sheds, and keep the garage door shut
• use motion-sensitive lights or sprinklers to scare animals off

For mice, which are a different problem from wildlife, see our guide on when to call an exterminator in Ottawa.

Wildlife removal companies in this directory

These three listings in our pest control category are businesses built around wildlife, and on 2 November 2026 each one's own website said it removes raccoons and other nuisance animals. This is not a ranking, and we have not checked any claim on their sites. Listings claimed by their owner come first and the rest are in alphabetical order, as on our methodology page.

• Expert 2 Wildlife Inc

  Its Ottawa page lists wildlife management for raccoons, squirrels, skunks and birds, next to rodent, ant, cockroach and bed bug work. It advertises a 24/7 response and names Barrhaven, Orleans, Kanata, Nepean and Stittsville among the Ottawa areas it serves.

  See the Expert 2 Wildlife Inc listing

• Get 'Em Out Wildlife Control

  Its site has separate Ottawa pages for raccoon, squirrel, skunk and bat removal, plus attic restoration and soffit and fascia repair, and area pages for Barrhaven and Orleans. It also does insect and mouse control.

  See the Get 'Em Out Wildlife Control listing

• Wildlife Solutions Ottawa

  Listed in Barrhaven. Its site says it handles raccoons, squirrels, skunks, bats, birds, mice, wasps and rats, and works by exclusion rather than trapping and relocation: it finds the entry points, uses one-way doors where needed, then seals the openings.

  See the Wildlife Solutions Ottawa listing

Wildlife removal in Barrhaven and Orleans

Barrhaven, Orleans, Kanata and the rest of the amalgamated city share the same rules: the provincial act, the 1 km release limit, 3-1-1 and Ottawa Public Health. Wildlife Solutions Ottawa is listed in Barrhaven, and the sites of Expert 2 Wildlife and Get 'Em Out both name Barrhaven and Orleans among the areas they serve. The other general pest control companies on the hub cover more of the city.