Wildlife removal is the one area of pest control where the law, not the technician, decides what your options are. Knowing three rules tells you immediately whether a company is being straight with you.
Rule one: the one-kilometre limit
Under Ontario’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, wildlife that is trapped and relocated must be released within one kilometre of the point of capture.
Not “far away”. Not “out in the country”. One kilometre.
The reasoning is sound. Relocation over long distances moves the problem to somebody else, separates dependent young from mothers who then die, disperses disease between populations, and drops an animal into unfamiliar territory already occupied by others of its species, where its survival rate is poor.
What this means practically: trapping alone does not solve a raccoon in your attic. You release it a kilometre away, it knows exactly where a warm, dry, safe den is, and it comes back. Often within a day.
How to use this: if a company’s pitch is that they will trap the animal and take it far away, they are either describing something they are not permitted to do or they are planning to kill it and not telling you. Either way, that is the sales pitch of a company hoping you do not know the rule.
Rule two: exclusion is what actually works
The legitimate approach is one-way exclusion.
Every entry point into the structure is identified and sealed, except one. That one gets a one-way door — a device the animal can push through to leave and cannot get back through. Animals exit to forage on their normal schedule. After confirming the structure is empty, that last point is sealed and permanently repaired.
No trapping. No relocation problem. No animal dying inside your wall. And critically: the den is gone, so there is nothing to come back to.
This is why any good wildlife quote spends most of its detail on the repair, not the removal. Removing the animal is the easy half. Rebuilding the soffit, screening the vent, and flashing the roof-to-wall junction is what stops the next one — because a gap that suited one raccoon suits the next one that comes along.
Rule three: baby season changes everything
Raccoons in this region typically have kits in spring. Squirrels have two litters, roughly late winter and midsummer.
Excluding a mother from a den containing dependent young is both inhumane and self-defeating. She will do serious damage to your roof getting back to them — we have seen soffits and shingles torn apart by a determined female — and if she genuinely cannot get back, you have several animals dying inside your ceiling, which is a considerably worse problem than the one you started with.
The correct approach during baby season: locate the young by hand, place them in a heated reunion box mounted at the exterior entry point, and let the mother move them herself to one of her alternate dens. Raccoons and squirrels both maintain several. Once she has moved them and the structure is confirmed empty, the exclusion completes normally.
It takes longer and it costs more — typically $250 to $500 on top — and it is the only version that works.
What to ask: “It is April and I have a raccoon in my attic — how do you handle the kits?” If the answer does not involve locating them, you are talking to the wrong company.
Bats: a separate and stricter set of rules
Several Ontario bat species are at risk and protected, and the rules reflect that.
Exclusion is restricted through the maternity season — roughly June to mid-August — because pups are flightless and would be sealed inside to die. Work happens outside that window: exclusion via one-way valves fitted at the roost exit points.
Bats matter here more than people expect. Older barns, farmhouses and outbuildings across Oro-Medonte and Springwater hold established roosts, some going back decades.
On rabies, which is the part to take seriously: if a bat has had direct contact with a person, or if a bat is found in a room with someone who was asleep, or with a young child, or with anyone unable to reliably report a bite — contact the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit for advice.
Bat bites can be small enough not to wake someone or be noticed. If the bat can be safely contained without damaging its head, do not release it; it may need testing, and testing the animal is far preferable to the alternative. This is a public health call and it comes before any pest control consideration.
What a proper wildlife quote contains
- An entry point survey, written down. Not “we found where they got in” — a list, with locations.
- The exclusion method, stated as one-way doors rather than trapping.
- Baby season handling, if it is spring or midsummer, priced explicitly.
- The repair scope, itemised. This is usually most of the value.
- A guarantee on the sealed points, which is the only guarantee that means anything.
- Decontamination, quoted separately and honestly — see below.
Attic decontamination: the number that surprises people
Removal is often the cheaper half of the job.
Raccoons flatten and soil insulation, tear ductwork, and chew wiring. Squirrels gnaw structural wood and, more seriously, electrical cable. Accumulated urine and droppings in an attic are a genuine contamination issue and they saturate insulation, which cannot be cleaned — only removed and replaced.
Expect $1,500 to $6,000 for attic decontamination and insulation replacement, depending on the area and how long the animals were there. On a substantial raccoon infestation this is routinely larger than the exclusion cost.
Two things follow. First, be sceptical of a wildlife quote that does not mention the attic at all — either they have not looked, or it is coming later. Second, act early: a squirrel discovered in October is a much smaller bill than one discovered in March.
Insurance
Some policies cover sudden damage caused by wildlife; few cover gradual infestation, and most exclude it explicitly.
The practical advice is the same as for water damage: photograph everything, with dates, before any remediation work begins. The evidence disappears the moment the insulation goes into bags, and an adjuster pays on what can be shown.
The short version
- Nobody can legally relocate wildlife more than a kilometre. If they say otherwise, ask why.
- Exclusion plus proper repair is what ends the problem. Trapping alone does not.
- In spring and midsummer, ask specifically how they handle young.
- Bats are protected and cannot be excluded in maternity season. Any bat–human contact is a health unit call first.
- The repair and the decontamination are usually most of the real cost. Get them in the quote before you sign.