Wildlife Removal in the Salt Lake Valley

Timing tells you a lot. Heavy, deliberate movement at dusk usually means raccoon. Fast scampering in daylight hours is squirrel. Rapid light scratching after dark that starts in October is usually mice or rats rather than wildlife. Fluttering at dusk near a gable end suggests bats.

Raccoons enter through roof edges, gable vents, and chimneys, and females in spring are looking for a safe place to raise kits. Rock squirrels and fox squirrels chew soffits and vent screens. Skunks and striped skunks den under decks, sheds, and concrete porches through gaps at grade.

Voles are an outdoor-only problem: they tunnel under the snow all winter and reveal surface runways and girdled young trees in March.

The most common mistake in wildlife work is sealing a hole in spring while a litter is still in the attic. The mother tears a new hole to get back in — often causing worse damage — and any young left behind die in the cavity.

Correct spring practice is to locate the nest, remove the young by hand, and use a one-way door so the mother exits and cannot return, or reunite the family outside the structure. Only after activity has stopped is the entry sealed.

This is also why timing matters for pricing: a spring raccoon job with kits is more labor than the same job in November.

Utah's bat species are protected, and several are species of concern. They eat enormous quantities of insects, and they cannot legally be exterminated. Exclusion is the only appropriate approach.

Exclusion must be done outside the maternity season, generally avoiding roughly June through mid-August when flightless pups are present. Sealing during that window traps pups inside the structure.

Do not handle a bat with bare hands. Utah does have rabies in bat populations, and any direct contact — especially a bat found in a bedroom with a sleeping person or a child — warrants a call to the health department.

Removing an animal without sealing the building guarantees a repeat. Exclusion means heavy-gauge steel screening on gable and soffit vents, chimney caps, sealed roof-line junctions, reinforced soffit corners, and buried L-shaped hardware cloth aprons around deck and shed skirting.

Then the contamination: raccoon latrines can contain roundworm eggs, bat guano accumulations pose a histoplasmosis risk, and soaked insulation holds odor that draws the next animal in. Serious jobs include removing contaminated insulation, sanitizing, and re-insulating.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regulates the handling of protected species, and relocation is restricted — moving a raccoon across the valley is generally not legal and typically just relocates the problem or kills the animal.

Some species can be handled by a homeowner, others require a licensed nuisance wildlife operator, and some situations should be reported to the state rather than handled privately. When in doubt, call the DWR's regional office before setting a trap.