I mean I like the guy. He’s really cute, the couple of times I’ve seen him.
But by the sound of it (it’s really more a crawl space than an attic so I can’t get up there) he’s trying to burrow throught the ceiling. Plus he’s scaring the cats.
So we have one of those humane traps (somewhere). This being a better option than my SO’s idea of getting a harpoon.
What do I bait it with? If I catch him, how far away do I have to take him so he won’t come back? Can I drop him off at the house of someone I don’t like?
Anybody have any other ideas? Anybody have any experience with this?
Okay, I don’t really have any personal experience with raccoons in the attic (although some people think I have bats in my belfry, hyuk-yuk-yuk). But as a professional hired killer, I’ve picked up a thing or two about trapping techniques.
If you have a humane trap (or two or three), you might try baiting them with bacon. It has a strong odor which may attract it and they’ll eat almost anything, so try that.
Rather than trap it, you may try some exclusion techniques. The raccoon has to leave the attic to forage for food. Watch for where it emerges (this will probably be shortly after sundown). You may have to spend more than a few evenings staring up at your roof line before you actually see it, so be patient. Then go up to the attic and firmly fasten some strong wire mesh over the hole. While you’re at it, do a thorough inspection of the attic and repeat the process with any other holes you may find. This will also help to keep squirrels and bats out of the attic as well. Remember, the latter two don’t require as big an access point as a 'coon.
Make sure you don’t have any overhanging tree brances resting against the side of the house or on the roof. These are natural bridges not only for large climbing animals, but also for nasty destructive insects like carpenter ants. They also increase dampness by dropping extra amounts of rainwater on the house and then subsequently keeping the sun off so it doesn’t dry as quickly.
And keep your attic as free of clutter as possible. This not only reduces pest harborage, but would make Martha Stewart proud of you.
My cousin had a neighbor who for some reason enjoyed having the little bandits around, so she spread dry Purina dog chow around on their shared porch and drew quite a few.
If you try dave’s technique you’d better ask the coon if it celebrates mothers day.
Use the live trap and bait with peanut butter.You can use jelly if you want. That will make sure you aren’t catching cats.
After you catch him/her just look for teats. If she has them you’d better let her go until about the middle of june or so.
Thats when she will start teaching the kits to hunt. They will be with her when she prowls. AT NIGHT.
Thats when you seal her entrance to the house.
Good Luck
Oh my God! Good call justwannano. What do I see today but the raccoon making here way across the roof with a tiny little baby raccoon held in her mouth like a kitten (or, I guess, very much like a baby raccoon, but up till now I’ve only seen cats do that.)
Definatly the sweetest, cutest, fluffiest evil distructive nuisance I ever seen.
I don’t know whether to lure them out and trap them or volunteer to babysit.
If I don’t do anything when will they move out on their own? Or will I have no roof by then? I mean the only worse would be one of the babies gets left up there when I plug up the hole and I have a dead raccoon in my attic. Alternativly, I think there may be more that one hole so it might not do anything fixing that one.
47% of the yards in my area were found to have the dangerous Raccoon Roundworm. When you have raccoons in your attic they poop there & you breath this crap.
You can call the SPCA. You can call a local animal catcher. You can wait out at night for them to come out but what would you do? Try to get yourself some rabies or whatnot?
But you have to find how they got in first. So call a catcher & pay the $50 or so. They should let you know how they got in.
ALso, clean up the poop so you aren’t breathing it.
Not only is this bad for you it’s bad for all your wanted animals and the bastard’s will destroy every damned thing in the attic, including the insulation, and wiring!
Two years ago I moved into a home with raccoons living in the attic. Tons of hard nasty work later the holes were all sealed and the buggers were gone. Not an easy task, but there WAS one little glimmer of light at the end of that particular tunnel: Your homeowners insurance will pay for it all. Having the coon removed, having the poop removed, having the insulation repaired/replaced. Cost me 120 bucks or so out of pocket, the job cost like 2k. And the professionals handled it all. I highly reccomend this course of action. Check with whomever holds your homeowner’s policy. And the boombox idea is a good start, by the way, that’s how WE initially got them out.
Hijacking a bit, I had squirrels in my attic. I ignored them as a nuisance until someone pointed out that they’ll likely chew on the wiring, creating a fire hazard. They had taken up residence before I moved in, here. They had years to create entrances. I got some good advice for getting rid of them.
First, set up the baited traps near the exit holes. After a couple of weeks, when the trap remains empty for a few days in a row, put paper over the holes. If there are still squirrels in the attic then they’ll punch through the paper to get out to forage. Set the trap up by that hole and catch a couple more. Eventually, you’ll go a couple of days with the papers intact and you can effect more permanent repairs.
Apparently, with squirrels you have to transport them several miles to keep them from returning. I assume racoons are similar. The animal control in the city I live in was set up to do that. Just leave the animal in the cage and give them a call.
On the bait, one thing the pest guy I talked to pointed out was that squirrels are sight feeders. So you want to give them a smell to attract them, but also put pecans or some similar large nut on the bait for them to see. I don’t know if racoons are also sight feeders, but it may help to include something visual to attract him.
