Suburban Raccoons

Using raccoon poison to get rid of raccoons is absolutely the wrong way to go about it and not for the reasons you might suspect. The animal’s rights people will like this post. We are against the use of poison to get rid of raccoons. But not because we like raccoons or are concerned about being inhumane. Our rationale is quite different. You need to really understand how raccoons live and travel to understand the issue. There is just a much better way to deal with raccoons around your home. Especially if they are in your attic the way this one is shown in the picture.

First all they find a den in your home or some location where you do not want them to be. Usually, it is in the attic of your home. They climb the brick wall or they gain access via a tree that is close to your home to get onto the roof. Next, they push the soffit up at a point like the one shown in this picture and crawl inside in your attic. Now they have a nice safe place and a warm place to live, have their babies and make a mess of your place. They come and go every night as they go at night to forage for food. If the den is left vacant for any length of time another family of raccoons will just move into the vacant den.

Why Raccoon Poison Does Not Work

If you are unlucky enough to poison them, they may die inside your attic and create a really bad smell in the attic. Now you are facing thousands of dollars to get rid of the bodies of the adults and the babies that are smelling up your home. When it is all cleaned up, another family of raccoons is just going to move in. If you are lucky enough for them to die outside of your home or attic, then for sure another family will move in shortly. They can all tell when a den is vacant and unused!

In the worst case, you kill a family pet or the neighbor’s pet with the poison and the raccoons also die inside your attic. Now you have the neighbors mad at you and the bad smell inside your home.

Install a One Way Trap Door

We have written lots of posts about what you should be doing instead of using raccoon poison, so we will summarize here. We recommend you read a number of our posts about bylaws dealing with raccoons, trapping raccoons and also installing one-way trap doors to the entrance to the den inside of your home. Installing a one-way trap door across the entrance to the den is the only way and the best way to deal with raccoons compared to using raccoon poison. We tried loud music, mothballs and trapping raccoons. None of these work!

Once the baby raccoons are old enough to travel, install a one-way trap door across the opening into the den. Install strong wire mesh across all other potential entrances. The raccoons will be able to get out but they will not be able to get back in, which is very important. Once you are sure they are out, replace the one-way trap door with permanent wire mesh to block them and any other raccoon families from ever getting into your home again.

Make sure the Raccoon Pups are Old Enough to Travel

Making sure that the young are old enough to travel is VERY important. If they cannot get out and the parents cannot get in, it is very likely that the parents are going to destroy your roof trying to get to their young pups. They will do thousands of dollars in damage to your roof!

So forget about raccoon poison and try the tried and true method of dealing with raccoons.  Your comments are welcome. let us and the readers here about your solutions in dealing with raccoons! For more information about dealing with Raccoons around your home, click here.

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