Suburban Raccoons


Vicious Raccoons

December 21st, 2014 ernie Posted in Pets No Comments »

Viscous RaccoonsThis poor little guy was probably separated from his mother at birth and is now being raised by this lady. He just wants to snuggle and stay warm, bond with her and cuddle. For a period at least he will consider this lady as his surrogate mother, but that will change as he matures. They possess dangerous claws and teeth that become very dangerous and effective weapons. They are also wild animals and can become vicious raccoons. Although they can be domesticated to some extent, why would you ever take the chance.

Difficult to Understand

It is hard to understand how he could grow up to be a 30 pound snarling and dangerous animal that can cause a lot of physical damage to a person. You just have to look at the picture below to see what a raccoon can do to someone’s face and body if they are provoked in some manner to attack, to defend their space or their family of pups. This girl got off lucky compared to many pictures we have seen online of people who have been attacked by raccoons. She will be scarred for life both physically and emotionally. Her life is ruined unless she can get access to a really good plastic surgeon. wild raccoons

Raccoons have really strong teeth and claws that they use to open shells, nuts, etc. They are sharp and can tear and cut if they are provoked in some manner. They may look cute especially the babies, however, if there is an adult around and they think that you are endangering their babies, they will attack to drive you off. Raccoons always travel in pairs and will protect their young in the same manner. If one is removing the babies, the other may be attacking you if they feel that you are a menace.

Vicious Raccoons

Most raccoons are not that vicious unless they are provoked in some manner. They will typically ignore humans, especially in urban areas where they abound. They are used to being around humans and do not feel threatened normally. In most cases, they will just run off and will hide. The trouble starts when humans are too aggressive, the raccoons feel cornered or they have young babies to protect. This is when they can turn on you and become the vicious raccoons that they are. They have the tools to defend themselves and they will go on the attack so always give them your respect and steer clear of these animals. Call in professionals to deal with them if they are a pest in your area or worse have established a den in your attic. Never try to remove them yourself.

Raccoons will stick around if there is a food source for them. This includes garbage, food stored for other animals, bird feeders, and so on. Remove and or protect all potential sources of food for them. So that they have no reason to spend time in your area. They will move on and establish dens close to other areas of food sources. They will leave your home, pets, and children alone. If you have neighbors that leave their garbage out this will attract raccoons. You may want to mention to them that this is a source of food for raccoons and skunks. Same thing with bird feeders which also attract squirrels.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Raccoons as Pets

December 7th, 2014 ernie Posted in Pets No Comments »

raccoons as petsAre raccoons good pets or are they an animal that are inherently wild and not to be trusted? There are many people who actually keep raccoons as pets as shown in the picture on the left. This man and many other people consider them as pets having raised them as babies to be around humans and to mind the same way that a cat or dog might. Yet there are numerous stories of mauling by raccoons that has left many people scarred physically and emotionally for life. So is it a good idea to consider raccoons as pets or should they be avoided?

One couple recently in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was recently ordered to get rid of her pet raccoon or the city would do it for them. Instead, she and her husband choose to move outside the city where the city bylaws could not touch her. She has moved in with friends who accept the notion of having a raccoon as a pet in their home. They must be really good friends. Because there are not many people would take a friend in with a pet raccoon to go along.

Raccoons as Pets

Compare the next picture to the one above. This is obviously an angry raccoon who is probably wild and has been trapped or cornered. He is ready to fight and could do a lot of raccoons as petsdamage with his teeth and his claws! The raccoon in this picture is ready to defend himself or his pups, one of the two. A raccoon and any animal once cornered will fight to get free, clawing and biting to defend themselves. A raccoon in this situation will do a great deal of damage to the person or other animal that might be attacking them. Also if a parent raccoon feels that their pups are in danger, they will also defend them viciously. This includes attacking and dealing as much damages as possible.

Sick or Diseased Raccoons

There is one other situation that raccoons can be very dangerous. This is when they are sick or diseased with rabies. They will act in a very different way than normal and will attack just about anything. Most animals in the wild will run the other way if they can when they encounter humans. But not those that are diseased, defending the young or if they are cornered.

So what does this have to do with raccoons as pets? Even though they are domesticated, perhaps even from when they are a baby, they still have a wild streak in them. They can turn on their owners as they get older and more temperamental. If they are exposed to other wild raccoons, instinct can kick in and the next thing that happens is that they turn on their owners.

We have seen many pictures online showing the results of mauling by raccoons. We will show one such picture in our next post along with a baby raccoon that is cuddling up to their owner which it thinks is obviously her mother! Imagine! How could such a cute animal turn on it”s owner? More to come, stay tuned.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Feeding Baby Raccoons

June 7th, 2014 ernie Posted in Pets No Comments »

Feeding Baby RaccoonsAs cute as they are and as cute as this picture looks, we really do not recommend feeding baby raccoons. Rather, we should let nature take its course which in many cases would mean the demise of these baby raccoons. You are probably asking why we would take this seemingly harsh approach. The answer is that they are considered a menace in urban, suburban, and even rural areas. There are more than enough raccoons around as it is. In addition, these particular raccoons will grow up depending on humans. They will not learn to survive in the wild. They will end up not doing very well as young adult raccoons.

As they grow are you prepared to continue feeding them. You probably will have to keep them in cages so that they do not get into just about everything in your home? When they are finally released into the wild to be on their own, they will not have any of the skills needed to survive. They did not have the benefit of the training that adult raccoons would have given them. They will likely not survive very long.

Urban Areas – Feeding Baby Raccoons

There are actually many raccoons living in urban areas. They will have four or five dens often in the attic of people’s homes. Much to the distress of the people who own these homes. We recently saw a report on a news show where baby raccoons were removed from an attic and placed in a box outside. The mother had been driven from the attic so that the babies could be removed. Permanent repairs were made so that she could not get back in. These babies were so young they were still blind and needed the mother to support them.

The theory was that by placing them in an open box, the mother would come back later on. She would remove them taking them to one of her other 5 dens in the neighborhood. Since this was an urban area, this really means someone else’s home! Funny, this was recommended by the removal company which would mean another call for them. More profit for them as they remove the same raccoon family from someone else’s home. Capture them and take them into the country somewhere. Let them fend for themselves. The adult raccoons came and picked up every one of their babies. They took them somewhere they considered safe for their little family.

Damage From Raccoons

All of the animal rights readers will cry foul at this suggestion. However, after you have to pay the $500 to remove them from your own home and pay to clean up and repair damage to your own home. You may have a different opinion. The damage can run into thousands of dollars replacing the insulation and fixing the area that they used to get into the attic in the first place.  Dealing with raccoons and feeding baby raccoons just makes the overall problem much worse for someone since they will end up in someone’s home sometime.

If you have not had this problem and want to make sure that you avoid any issue with raccoons have a professional evaluate your home for all possible entrance locations for raccoons, squirrels, and birds. You can then decide if you want to take the next step in installing heavy gauge chicken wire across all potential openings so they cannot ever get into your attic.

This step should be taken by all new homeowners as far as we are concerned, but then the cost will deter many people until such time that they have to deal with the problem first hand.

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Raccoon Rodent

December 7th, 2013 ernie Posted in Pets No Comments »

Raccoon RodentThey are so cute, how could raccoons be considered rodents? Most urban consumers view then as cute looking cuddly-looking animals that coexist in urban areas. Occasionally these raccoon rodent cause the odd problem around the neighborhood getting into someone’s garbage. They might see them the odd time around their yards or even walking down the street. That is about it.

Many people consider them cute until they make a mess of their garbage at night. They have to go out and clean it up or the garbage man will not pick up their garbage. Until they dig up their lawns looking for grubs. They can make a huge mess of their lawn. Or perhaps until they get in their attics and have babies up there. They leave feces all over the place. And they ruin the ventilation in the attic causing mildew and mold to begin to form. They can cause thousands of dollars in damage. When this occurs, they are no longer considered cute.

Raccoon Rodent are Pests

Rodents are pests and raccoons are clearly pests. Therefore in our minds they are rodents that should be kept out of urban areas all together. Unfortunately there are laws and regulations that prevent suburban people doing what they really want to do about raccoons. However I am sounding pretty anti raccoon here in this post. There is a right way to deal with the problem and a wrong way to deal with the problem.

Deal with them properly by finding the right solution to keeping them out of your garbage. Or stop them from digging up your lawn and getting into your attic. Be humane at what you do, otherwise someone will report you. You could end up in jail literally. There was a report of a man being jailed just last week in the news for not treating a raccoon humanely. Avoid jail by employing the right solution.

Raccoon Rodent Solutions

The garbage issue is really quite simple. Either buy garbage cans that cannot be opened by animals or just wait until the morning of garbage day to put your garbage out. Raccoons do not like to be out during the day, preferring to range for food at night.

Grubs in your lawn is a little more difficult. Basically you want to remove all food sources from around your home so you need to get rid of the grubs. There are some great products that can be purchased at Home Depot and Lowes that deal with grubs. Buy it and apply according to the instructions at least three times over the late summer and fall to kill all of the grubs. You may have to do this over two years to really get them all.

Finally the best way to keep them out of your attic is to install heavy gauge chicken wire across all potential openings into your attic. If they are already in your attic, you need to install a one way trap door so they can get out and not back in. Home owners really need to pay attention to whether there are baby raccoons in their attics. If there are and they cannot travel on their own, the parents are going to rip your roof apart to rescue them. Unfortunately you just need to wait until they are old enough to travel or go into the attic yourself and get them. They may be stuck in a corner where they are impossible to get at and you do not want to have them die in there either. The smell will be very bad.

Health Issues

There is another reason not to go into the attic. In the feces of raccoons there are micro worms which can live for a long time and you can actually ingest them into your lungs which will cause very serious problems to your health. The best idea is to let them get old enough to travel on their own and then install the one way trap door.

This is the best way we know of dealing with raccoon rodents in suburbia!

AddThis Social Bookmark Button


?>