Suburban Raccoons

Raccoons 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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