Suburban Raccoons


Can Raccoons Climb Houses

December 21st, 2016 ernie Posted in Raccoon Intelligence No Comments »

can raccoons climb houseThe answer to the question, Can Raccoons Climb Houses is definitely yes! As you can see from the picture, these raccoons can climb up the brick wall and onto the roof. Once on the roof they are able to explore possible entrances for sites into your attic. This is what they are looking for. A nice warm protected space that they can use to raise their babies in safety. The writer of this blog, personally had this particular problem. Raccoons were climbing up the brick at the front of our house, onto our roof and into the attic over our living room.

If you have this problem, it is very important that you deal with it immediately, before they do a lot of damage. The rest of this post will cover the best ways to get rid of these raccoons and keep them permanently out of your attic.

Can Raccoons Climb Houses

If they are on the roof, they probably are already inside your attic. Don’t waste your time on trying to trap them, use loud noises or mothballs to try and get rid of them. It is just a waste of time and frustrating as well.

The best way to get rid of raccoons who are in your attic, is to build a one-way trip door at the entrance to the den in your attic. This one way trap door will allow the raccoons to get out of the attic, but not back in. If you do this quickly as soon as you notice raccoons around your home or in your attic there will be little damage.

Once you are sure they are out of the attic, remove the trap door and install heavy gauge wire mesh across all possible entrances to the attic. This will keep them out and avoid further damage.

If they have already had babies and they are in your attic, you will have to wait until they are old enough to travel before installing the trap door. Adult raccoons will literally tear your roof apart to rescue their babies.

Review some of our other posts on this subject and also about dealing with removing the raccoon scat from your attic. There is a serious health concern that should be dealt with before entering the attic.

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Can Raccoons Climb Ladders

March 21st, 2016 ernie Posted in Raccoon Intelligence 7 Comments »

Can Raccoons Climb LaddersThe answer to the question, can raccoons climb ladders, is definitely yes! The picture on the left portrays one that is actually up quite high having scaled this ladder many feet. They can also climb up a brick wall as well. The writer has direct evidence of this. They climbed up the front of our house, onto the roof over the garage, and then managed to get into the attic over our living room. They built a den there and had a great time until we finally got them out and kept them out. More on that later.

Raccoons have a lot of dexterity in their feet or hands as some of us might refer to them. They can hold onto ladder rungs easily as well as get their claws between bricks to catch hold of crevices and pull themselves up. Never underestimate a raccoon, they are very intelligent and pass along what they have learned to their young.

Can Raccoons Climb Ladders

Whether they climb ladders or brick walls, it usually means trouble for homeowners and property owners in general. Solutions such as loud noise, mothballs, or trapping them simply do not work. They always come back because they can smell a vacant den and noise and moth balls do not scare them anyway.

The best solution is to install a one-way trap door over the opening entrance to the den so they can get out but not back inside. Once they are out, complete repairs if needed and cover the area with heavy gauge wire mesh that they cannot get through. Make sure you apply caulking to any nails that were used to hold the wire.

Also if they have pups inside you are going to have to wait until they are old enough to travel on their own. Otherwise, the adults will tear the roof apart trying to rescue them.

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Can Raccoons Climb Brick Houses

May 7th, 2015 ernie Posted in Raccoon Intelligence No Comments »

Can Raccoons Climb Brick HousesRaccoons can climb brick walls of houses and office buildings! They possess the dexterity in their claws to hold on and position themselves to almost run up a wall of a home or low-rise office building. This particular raccoon overdid it somewhat by ending up on the outside of a brick wall on the fourth story of a building. An animal control officer is attempting to rescue him before he falls or gets in through an open window. The last thing you might expect is for a raccoon to come into your apartment on the fourth floor through the window, but it is definitely possible as shown in the photo on this page.

Can Raccoons Climb Brick Houses

Many homeowners may have thought they were safe from raccoons if there were no trees with overhanging branches over the roof of their home. True it does make it a little more difficult for a raccoon to get on the roof, but they definitely can climb the brick and if there is a spot where they then can get on the roof, they will do it. Sometimes they climb the brick and push the soffit on the underside of your home away and climb into your attic as well. Either way, if there is a way raccoons will find the entrance into your home’s attic. They are very smart animals with a lot of dexterity in their claws.

So what do you do if you have a raccoon or a family living in your attic? By far the best method is to install a one-way trap door across the entrance to the den so they can get out but not back in. Also, block any other potential areas as well to avoid them getting into your attic by other means. If they have babies inside your home, you are going to have to wait until they are old enough to travel on their own. If you do not wait, the parents will literally tear your roof apart trying to get into your home to rescue them and cause a lot more damage.

Hire a professional to guide you as to the best approach, but do not let them tell you any other method than the one way trap door. Your just wasting money otherwise. We have lots of posts on this site about raccoons and removing them. For more information refer to many of the other posts.

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Raccoon Pests

June 7th, 2013 ernie Posted in Raccoon Intelligence No Comments »

raccoon pestsRaccoons are considered pests for sure by many consumers, especially when they have been in your home or your attic or have just taken your garbage can all apart and scattered the garbage all over the street. When you live in the country, you expect to have to deal with these things from time to time. But when you live in suburbia, raccoon pests are not really at the top of your mind. So when raccoon pests invade they suddenly go from cute little animals to being pests. You want them out of your house as fast as you can.

These guys in the picture are resting comfortably in the eaves trough. They are not afraid of humans at all. Although it does not show it in the picture, they probably have found their way into this persons attic. The parents are setting up home to raise their young. You must either get them out before they have babies or after the raccoon pups are old enough to travel on their own. In the process they are going to do a lot of damage to your home. It is also not easy to get someone to come and clean out your attic for you.

Raccoon Pests and Animal Rights Activists

There are lots of people who do not have to deal with these pests, but under no circumstances can you harm one of these cute little animals. They do not care about the damage that raccoon pests are doing to your home, they just do not want you to harm them. They feel that a live animal is much more important than your home and that you should not use poison or use non humane traps to get rid of them.

In fact they should not be harmed in any way! In some locations you cannot trap them and let them out a long ways from your home. You must let them out within 2 or 3 blocks of your home where they were trapped. This is according to local bylaws. this is a total waste of time, since they are going to find their way back to your home that very night.

Avoid Using Posion

Well it turns out that they are right, but for the wrong reasons. Poison and non humane trapping is not the right long-term solution. The reason is that once a den which is inside your home is vacated, other raccoons will just move in. There are many families of raccoons in a neighborhood and they are all looking for vacated dens that they can move into. So doing away with one family or removing one family is just going to make room for another family of raccoon pests to move in.

The right way to get rid of these raccoon pests is to install a one way trap door over the entrance to the den. This allows the raccoons to get out of the den, but not back in to the den. Before you do this make sure that the baby raccoons, if they are any, are old enough to get out on their own. Otherwise they could die inside your home and the parents might do a lot of damage to the home trying to rescue the baby raccoons. Raccoons are very maternal about their young and you do not want to risk even more damage to your home.

Install Heavy Gauge Wire Mesh

Once the raccoons are out, you can then install a permanent wire mesh over the opening. You will probably want to also repair the entrance and any damage done on the inside as well. Make sure that the wire mesh is heavy gauge wire and that it is securely secured to your home. If you are doing this installation yourself, take care to use heavy gauge wire mesh. Screw nail it into the roof. Use silicone caulking that is water proof to plug the holes where the screw nails enter to prevent water damage. If in doubt, hire an expert to install a one way trap door.

For more details on this solution and also health related issues, refer to other posts on this site that discuss these items in more detail.

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Raccoon Intelligence

December 7th, 2012 ernie Posted in Raccoon Intelligence 1 Comment »

Raccoon IntelligenceWe do not really know just how intelligent raccoons are and the research we did to find scientific information about raccoon intelligence did not turn up much information. We did find some studies from the 1905 time frame that suggested that raccoons are good at solving problems and memorization. Based on personal experience and observations of raccoons living in our neighborhood, I would say they were highly intelligent as far as the animal species goes. We have a number of reasons for feeling this way since we have had a direct relationship with urban raccoons over the past year. This is based on first-hand experience.

Raccoon Intelligence

Here is our list which is totally unscientific, but based on practical experience:

  • Raccoons have thrived in urban settings
  • Raccoons have found dens in trees, homes, attics, etc in urban areas
  • They have found food in the garbage bins
  • Raccoons routinely open garbage cans
  • They live on grubs in our lawns
  • Raccoons learn to avoid traps
  • They steal food out of traps without setting them off
  • Suburban raccoons are not afraid of loud noises
  • They scale homes and office building brick fronts easily
  • Mothballs and other such things are not bothersome to them
  • They are simply not afraid of humans
  • Raccoons are very loyal to their mates and pups
  • They seem to be able to find new dens easily
  • Raccoons can tell when a den has been vacated
  • They have a great deal of dexterity with their paws
  • They pass what they have learned down to their young

As we said this is not scientific, but they have sure been able to survive very nicely as homes have been built and taken over rural areas where they traditionally live. Raccoon intelligence has clearly been demonstrated in our opinion. Other species are endangered as a result and in many cases wiped out from these areas were urban sprawl has taken over. In our neighborhood, there is not one of my neighbors who has not seen raccoons in their yard or up in one of their trees in the past few years.

Raccoons Are So Intelligent that they Will Not Enter Traps

We tried trapping a family of raccoons that had settled into our attic.  We used a humane trap and planned to take them into the country if we were able to catch them. Turns out they were too intelligent for us and the trap. The trap we used was a long cage with a trap door that was set off when the raccoon would step on a false floor where the food was. These raccoons were just too smart for that. They would reach in through the wire mesh of the trap and grab the food off of the trigger mechanism without setting off the trap. Every morning when I went out the food would be gone and the trap would be empty.

Call in the Raccoon Removal Experts

We finally had to call in the experts to have them get rid of them for us. They built one trap doors in front of the opening into our home’s attic. This way all of the raccoons could get out but not back in. This is very important. Before you install the one-way trap door you have to make sure that the raccoon pups, if there any, are old enough to get around by themselves and are coming outside. They have to get out of the attic and through the trap door so that they cannot get back in.

Raccoon parents are very loyal to their families. They may literally be tearing your roof apart to get back into where the pups are and rescue them. In fact, you could have a much worse problem than you started with if this happens. We have seen pictures and have some on this web site of roofs that have been torn apart by raccoons. They are trying to get to their young pups out of the attic. With rain and snow, you could have a great deal of additional damage to your home.

You may disagree with the writer about the intelligence of raccoons, however, based on what we have seen and the list we provided at the top of this post, they clearly are intelligent and have learned to adapt to their changing environment which is a significant achievement.

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