How To Get Rid Of Animals In The Attic
Raccoons may be adorable, intelligent creatures but they can also cause extensive damage to your domicile. They're also one of the most common rabies-carrying species and they can spread other diseases like roundworm salmonella, tetanus, and Listeriosis.
Raccoons effectually your belongings aren't but a threat to y'all; your animals are also at take a chance. Dogs that come up into contact with raccoon saliva can develop Coonhound Paralysis or Canine Distemper (CDV).
You see evidence of raccoons around your home: tipped trash cans, emptied pet food bowls outside, and knocked-down bird feeders. You may even spot raccoons walking through your yard or fifty-fifty right up to your dwelling to peek in your windows at dark. These steps will help y'all get rid of raccoons around your holding for proficient.
In this article, I'll share at a ton of important facts about raccoons, and most importantly, how to get rid of raccoons for good.
Quick Navigation: What's in This Guide?
- Here Are the All-time Ways to Become Rid of Raccoons
- 1. Secure Trash Cans
- 2. Don't Leave Pet Nutrient Outside
- 3. Raccoon-Proof the Bird Feeders
- 4. Consider an Electric Fence
- five. Protect Roof Vents and the Chimney
- six. Seal Entry Points Nether Sheds and Decks
- 7. Prune Effectually the Yard
- 8. Find the Point of Entry into Cranium
- 9. Use an Excluder One-Manner Door (Cranium)
- 10. Utilise a Alive Trap (Under Deck or Dwelling house)
- 11. Scare the Raccoon Out of the Den (Under Deck or Home)
- 12. Utilise Scents to Scare Away Raccoons
Hither Are the Best Means to Go Rid of Raccoons
one. Secure Trash Cans
If it's easy to get into your trash cans, you're substantially laying out the ruddy carpet for raccoons. It isn't enough to just close the hat, either; raccoons are perfectly capable of lifting and removing trash can lids in search of food. They'll fifty-fifty knock the trash can over and pry it open up if the hat doesn't come off easily.
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The best fashion to secure your trash is with a cheap trash can lid strap. This low-price solution also keeps out flies and dogs.
2. Don't Exit Pet Food Outside
Any pet nutrient dishes you lot accept outside for your canis familiaris or cat should be brought inside earlier it gets night. Raccoons love finding pet food, peculiarly when at that place's a water dish nearby. Yous'll run into them picking upwardly the kibble with their easily and dunking it in the water earlier eating. The problem is when you leave pet food outside, raccoons will make a addiction out of stopping by your house. They may fifty-fifty make up one's mind to nest under your porch or deck for easy access to what seems to be a reliable source of food.
3. Raccoon-Proof the Bird Feeders
If you have bird feeders, you've probably already dealt with chipmunks and squirrels trying to steal the bird nutrient. Raccoons also love finding a huge supply of basics and seeds. Making your bird feeders raccoon-proof will as well go on squirrels and chipmunks at bay to save the bird seed for the birds.
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You tin can stop raccoons from climbing your existing bird feeder pole with a wrap-effectually bird feeder baffle or stopper without removing the pole. Don't use a regular squirrel baffle because they aren't large plenty to finish a raccoon.
Another option is but bringing your bird feeders inside every night although this does get tedious.
Related Article: 12 Best Squirrel Proof Bird Feeders
4. Consider an Electrical Fence
Raccoons are attracted to all types of nutrient sources, including compost piles, koi ponds, and gardens. One of the easiest means to protect these areas from raccoons and brand your dwelling house less inviting is a simple electric fence kit.
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This electric garden fence kit is a very affordable solution to go along raccoons at bay and protect your prized tomatoes, corn, and melons. Yous can likewise apply it around your pond to keep goldfish and koi safe from prowling raccoons. The fence analeptic comes with 250 anxiety of 17 guess spool aluminum wire. It won't damage raccoons and other pests who touch the fence but it will provide a memorable shock.
v. Protect Roof Vents and the Chimney
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Raccoons love to climb into chimneys to nest and raise babies. Vents can also requite piece of cake access to the cranium. To block entry, choose quality stainless or galvanized steel roof vent covers and chimney covers — not aluminum or plastic models that raccoons can easily rip off.
This galvanized steel vent cover protects vents from damage. Information technology's also a smashing way to prevent raccoons from getting back into your attic if they've already nested in that location earlier. The sturdy blueprint and wire blueprint volition go along out well-nigh anything, including roof rats, squirrels, bats, birds, and raccoons.
For your chimney, choose a galvanized steel model similar this one from Draft Male monarch to guard against raccoons and other pests.
6. Seal Entry Points Nether Sheds and Decks
Don't go far piece of cake for raccoons to set up a den under your shed, deck, or porch. Potential entry points should be sealed off earlier the raccoons observe them. If raccoons have already moved in under your home, read the guide beneath for removing them first before you seal up the area.
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A cost-effective and simple way to raccoon-proof the open area under a shed or porch is installing a metallic mesh barrier. A galvanized metal mesh should be installed partially hugger-mugger to keep raccoons from excavation it up or angle it out of place. Dig a trench effectually your shed or the opening of your deck and bolt the steel mesh to the side of the structure. Make certain it's buried at least six inches nether the ground and dorsum-fill the trench.
To seal off open areas beneath your shed, deck, or porch, use a durable 10-guess galvanized steel mesh. This mesh should be installed at to the lowest degree 6 inches deep below the ground and back-covered. This type of galvanized metal mesh is a good pick as long as it's mounted deeply to the deck or shed to forestall raccoons from vehement information technology away or digging under it.
seven. Prune Around the Yard
To reduce possible nesting areas on your property, it'due south a skillful thought to give your lawn some TLC. Become rid of any woodpiles on your holding then work to trim tree branches that hang over the roof. There should exist at least a five-foot gap between any branch and your roof. Make sure y'all don't take any arbors or trellises that requite a raccoon piece of cake access to the roof. While you're tidying upwardly your chiliad, make sure you selection up whatsoever fruit or nuts that have fallen from your trees as they're an like shooting fish in a barrel and attractive source of nutrient for raccoons.
How to Get Rid of Raccoons in Attics
Raccoons are intelligent and great at adapting to new environments. In urban and suburban areas with reduced den sites and nutrient sources, your home will look like a bang-up place to motility in.
Raccoons don't build their own dens; they prefer to make their home in a rock or tree hollow. Of course, raccoons have learned that sheds and attics offer great protection and close access to food. Attics provide raccoons with shelter and warmth and they often come with insulation material that can be used to build a nest. Considering they're great at climbing, getting into your attic may not pose much of a problem at all. The Tips below should get rid of raccoons in the attic and keep them out.
8. Detect the Point of Entry into Cranium
A raccoon merely needs an opening about iv″ across or smaller. Hither are merely some of the means raccoons can go into your attic:
- Plumbing mats. The vents on your roof that connect to your plumbing system to exhaust sewer gases are a great entry point for raccoons. To install these vents, a pigsty is cut in the roof for the pipe. The opening is and then covered with a rubber mat that'southward easy for raccoons to pull up and chew through.
- Roof border. The edge of your roof can be vulnerable to raccoon impairment. If the border of your roof is compromised by years of rain, raccoons can chew through the damaged wood and shingles to go access to the attic.
- Roof and soffit intersection. The place where your soffit rests above the section of roof (ordinarily where a lower and upper roof meet) is an easy entry point for a raccoon. Raccoons just need to push button the soffit open with their shoulders and hands and climb within.
- Roof vents. Your roof vents ventilate your cranium. As raccoons explore your roof, they'll experience the warm air escaping and realize there'south a cozy den inside. Raccoons can easily destroy "pest-proof" aluminum and plastic vent covers.
In one case y'all find how the raccoons got in — don't make the mistake of sealing the opening!
There'due south a proficient gamble you'll but seal baby raccoons away from their mother. As y'all should exist looking at first-mitt evidence of how destructive raccoons can exist, the terminal thing you want is for the mother raccoon to tear your business firm apart to reunite with her babies.
9. Use an Excluder One-Way Door (Attic)
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After identifying how the raccoons got in, you can place a one-way door live trap that allows the raccoon out but non back in.
The Tomahawk Excluder is a skillful choice as it's affordable, sturdy, and reusable.
Fix the trap so the raccoon will leave the opening to fodder simply instead become stuck in the trap. This may take hold of only the mother or it may catch young raccoons besides.
If baby raccoons remain, you volition need to physically remove them and relocate them with the mother. We'll go over the all-time fashion to practice this next.
What if you notice baby raccoons in the attic?
- You can brand the attic inhospitable and disturb the nest past spraying a strong-smelling substance like cider vinegar and release the female parent. The female parent raccoon will return to your cranium to retrieve the babies and motion on to an alternating nest.
- You can carefully remove the babies from the attic. If yous do this, place them in a warm towel on the ground next to the trapped female parent at the edge of your belongings. Release the mother and, equally long as you have covered the entrance to your attic, she volition take the babies and relocate.
If the mother raccoon has already been trapped and released or killed and you lot find orphaned babies in the attic, they probably have a death sentence as well. In many states, orphaned raccoon babies are considered "nuisance" progeny and they can't be rehabilitated legally. A wildlife center probably won't take them.
Releasing Trapped Raccoons
Trapping the raccoons in your attic is just the first step: next comes how to go rid of the raccoons for good.
Before we go over how to release trapped raccoons, a word of circumspection:
Some states require on-site release or on-site euthanasia of trapped nuisance animals similar raccoons. In Ohio, for case, it's illegal to relocate any animal with a loftier potential for rabies, like skunks, raccoons, and bats.
These laws are in place for good reason. They assistance stop the spread of rabies. They also protect the animals. Research shows relocated animals have a poor rate of survival in their new location because they don't know the surface area or how to forage and may face attack from native animals.
That means you may accept a choice: killing the raccoon on your property or releasing information technology correct in that location.
That doesn't have to be a bad affair. Raccoon mothers maintain alternate nest sites just in case their primary nest is destroyed. In one case the raccoons are trapped and out of your attic, you should be able to merely repair the damage, shut their access, and let them go so they tin return to their secondary nest — outside of your dwelling house.
How to Get Rid of Raccoons Nether House or Deck
While an cranium is ane of the best dens for a raccoon — it'due south warm, comes with included nesting material, and it'due south safe from predators — the expanse under your deck or porch or in your clamber infinite is a close 2nd.
The proficient news about getting rid of raccoons nether the business firm or in a crawl space? There'due south less chance of finding babies compared to raccoons in the attic. Female parent raccoons with a litter prefer creating a den off the ground such equally in a tree or cranium. If you have a raccoon under your house or deck, it's probably a male raccoon or a female without young. This makes getting rid of the raccoon much easier.
Removing raccoons from nether your deck or shed requires a simple approach: trap the raccoons, use an exclusion barrier to preclude them from returning, then allow them go.
Hither are the steps to take to go rid of raccoons under a house or shed.
10. Use a Alive Trap (Under Deck or Home)
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Set up your alive raccoon trap near the opening where they're getting nether the structure. Make sure y'all bait the trap properly. While raccoons will eat almost anything, including pet food, the best thing to use is marshmallows. Raccoons dear sweets and marshmallows won't attract a cat into the trap.
Once the raccoon is trapped, you tin can install an exclusion device as explained below. Make certain all animals living nether your firm or shed have left before installing an exclusion method!
Once the exclusion method is in place, you can release the raccoon. Unless you're going to impale the raccoon on your property, it's recommended to release it close to where it was trapped. In many states, this is also required. As long as the exclusion method is in place, the raccoon won't move back nether your shed or deck.
Related Article: five Best Means to Get Rid of Skunks
Rubber Tips for Alive Trapping Raccoons
At present that we've gone over means to get rid of raccoons around your belongings, nosotros'll explore how to go rid of raccoons under a house or in an cranium. This often involves live traps to temporarily remove the raccoons earlier they're released on the property (or euthanized).
If you choose to live trap a raccoon, remember that raccoons can be very dangerous. In addition to the diseases they can spread, they tin can also exist vicious when cornered or trapped. Use extreme circumspection when trapping and releasing a raccoon.
Once a raccoon is caught in a trap, handle the trap very carefully. Raccoons can and will attain through the muzzle to destroy or hurt anything they tin can — including yous! Make sure you wear heavy-duty gloves when handling the trap. Never stick your fingers into the trap or hold the trap close to your body. It helps to identify a heavy blanket over the trap while you move it to help calm the raccoon and reduce the chance of injury to yourself.
Side by side comes the almost unsafe role of trapping a raccoon: releasing it safely. The good news is animals aren't like humans; when released from a trap, their instinct is to seek comprehend and safe, not get revenge.
Most traps allow y'all to open the door without getting your hand too shut to the cage itself. You may even be able to dispense the mechanism with a pole to stay far abroad from the cage. Identify the muzzle on a level surface and remove the blanket. Stand behind the muzzle then it opens in the opposite direction and facing shrubbery or foliage that the raccoon tin can meet right abroad. When you open the cage door, the raccoon's instincts should take information technology in the opposite management of y'all.
eleven. Scare the Raccoon Out of the Den (Under Deck or Habitation)
An alternative to alive trapping the raccoon temporarily is waiting for the raccoon to go out to hunt or scaring them away from the den. You can use a portable radio and a mechanic'south low-cal or a rag soaked in cider vinegar to brand them exit the area. Always confirm that the animals have left the area before using an exclusion method.
How to Exclude Raccoons from Under the House
Make sure you check and confirm there are no raccoons — especially baby raccoons — under your deck or house. Adjacent, seal up any entrances the raccoons were using. If you have lattice under your deck, nail craven wire over it.
Related Article: 9 Best Mole Traps
12. Use Scents to Scare Away Raccoons
If raccoon are coming into areas that y'all do not want them to like in the garden, around chickens, or effectually rabbits then certain scents may change there presence. Pull a fast one on urine could exist used to scare the racoon abroad. Also having cat or dog tin reduce the likelyhood of raccoons coming effectually since these animals are seen as perdators to raccoons. Hond dogs are used to tree raccons so they can exist easily hunted. Raccoons also endeavor and avoid other scents such as ammonia and peppers.
Signs of Raccoons
Raccoons aren't small. When you have raccoons in your attic or around your abode, they'll leave behind tell-tale signs. Picket for the following signs of raccoons and and then take steps to go rid of them if they're besides close to your dwelling house.
Harm to Your Home
Raccoons can be very subversive. If you lot suspect a raccoon problem, audit your home for harm such as:
- Chewed electrical wiring
- Soffit damage
- Damaged or pulled-off gutters
- Turn-upward or ripped off siding or shingles
- Gnaw marks or holes near windows or other possible entry points
- Impairment to your HVAC or air duct systems
- Damaged vents, including outdoor and roof vents
- Damage to insulation in your attic
Raccoon Nesting Materials
Raccoons like to make cozy dens, whether they build their dens in a tree or under your home. You may see nesting material strewn around your hard, in your attic, in your garage, or under your deck. Raccoons will use almost any organic material for nesting like newspaper, article of clothing, or cloth. Sometimes they'll even steal nesting material from your trash.
Raccoon Droppings
Raccoon droppings are easy to recognize. Y'all'll usually find raccoon droppings in the garden, near your trash cans, in your thou, on a raised horizontal surface like a log, or effectually a tree. Raccoons defecate in a communal expanse called a latrine. Raccoon feces is dark in color, two to three inches long, and with a tubular shape. You tin easily tell raccoon feces autonomously from dog poop by the presence of berries, twigs, and undigested matter.
Raccoon Prints
Raccoon prints are definitely distinctive: they look like tiny human feet and handprints with hook marks at the ends. You'll probably see these small footprints around your trash, garden, and garage. Yous may even see scratch marks on your bird feeder post, flower pots, and trash cans.
Raccoons Knocked Over Trash
If you become outside and observe your trash cans tipped with trash strewn everywhere, there's a skillful chance raccoons have identified your home as a source of food. Tipped-over trash doesn't mean you necessarily take a raccoon trouble merely you could if y'all don't have steps to prevent it.
Raccoons Patrolling
If you have raccoons nearby, you will probably run into them patrolling your holding at night. You may see the reflective eyes in the bushes, most your trash cans, under your porch, or in the garden. They may climb upwardly copse, explore the trash and garden, or walk in a direct line across the lawn. Raccoons are curious; you lot may even come across them peep in your windows if they tin can attain. It's normal to see raccoons occasionally walking through your property but nightly sightings mean they probably take a den or food source nearby.
Signs Yous Accept Raccoons in Your Attic
You lot sometimes hear noises coming from your cranium. What could it exist? While it may be squirrels or even bats, loud thumping noises may exist a sign that a female parent raccoon has fabricated your cranium into her den to raise her young. The post-obit are signs of raccoons in the attic:
- You hear thumping sounds or what sounds like an animal walking in the cranium
- You hear them leaving after sunset or returning at night
- Some noises may happen during the day even though raccoons are nocturnal
- You may hear whining or high-pitched crying sounds from baby raccoons (or kits)
- You see damage to your roof. This may be located on the edge of the roof or at the vents or soffits
Visually audit your cranium for raccoons is a expert idea, although do this with care. You may encounter the raccoons in the cranium or babies left backside while the mother searches for food. Raccoon droppings and urine may as well exist visible.
Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Rid of Raccoons
What to Practise if You Find Abandoned Baby Raccoons?
What happens if you detect what appears to be abandoned or orphaned baby raccoons in your attic, under your deck, or elsewhere on your property? This isn't uncommon simply at that place's a good take chances the babies aren't abased; their mother is probably out looking for food.
Raccoons unremarkably accept litters of 3 to 7 young or kits. Raccoons are born with fur and open up their optics once they're 19 days onetime. By the age of 6 to vii weeks, infant raccoons weigh around 1.v pounds and are fix to be weaned. They will stay with their mother during the autumn and some may remain with her during the winter.
Information technology's very common to see unattended raccoon babies during the twenty-four hours or night if yous find their den. The female parent uses every risk she gets to forage for food and she may fifty-fifty exist active during the day, peculiarly in the spring and summer when the babies are small.
Female parent Raccoon May Return
Unless the mother raccoon is unable to, she volition return for the babies.
If you find the baby raccoons outside of their den, you can protect them until the female parent returns by placing a towel and upside-down laundry basket over them. You can also put the babies in a cardboard box with a towel to keep them warm. When the mother returns, she will tear open the box or flip the laundry handbasket to go them.
If the baby raccoons are in a den on your patio, in your chimney, in your cranium, or under a deck, you can use the mother raccoon'south dedication to force them to relocate. Y'all can carefully remove the babies from the den while wearing protection to avoid catching any diseases. Place them in a cardboard box with air holes close by just outside of the den. Use exclusion methods similar steel judge mesh to shut access to the den and expect for the mother to render and relocate the babies to another den site.
Practise Raccoon Sprays and Raccoon Repellent Work?
Yous'll see lots of raccoon repellents on the marketplace but the truth is most don't work. Concrete removal and exclusion methods are the best ways to tackle a raccoon problem. With that said, some raccoon sprays and products tin be useful at temporarily driving raccoons out of their den so you tin seal it up.
You can use a hot pepper spray to assist baby-sit your garden and other areas against raccoons. Bonide Hot Pepper Wax Creature Repellent is marketed for gardens only information technology can as well be practical around other areas prone to raccoons like the trash or effectually your shed. All the same, it isn't guaranteed to work and exclusion methods are a better bet. To go raccoons to leave their nest so you can install an exclusion barrier, yous can try spraying apple cider vinegar or soaking a rag in vinegar and leaving information technology near the entrance.
What Kind of Damage Can Raccoons Cause?
Raccoons aren't just cute little "burglars;" they're also notoriously destructive. 1 of the greatest dangers of raccoons is their feces which can spread roundworms and other parasites and diseases.
If raccoons get into your attic, they can quickly cause all-encompassing harm. Raccoons will tear into your habitation to proceeds entry to the attic, destroy your insulation, and fill the space with feces and urine. Raccoons tin can also harm your electrical and ventilation systems which can lead to a fire or water harm.
Even if raccoons don't actually get into your home, at that place'south another trouble they exit behind: overturned trash cans and trash all over your lawn.
Related Article: 13 Best Ways to Get Rid of Groundhogs
My proper name is Christine and I'm living in Southwest Ohio where I was born and raised afterwards a decade spent living in Southern California.
While I loved working every bit a Pest Command Technician in Western Ohio, I did not enjoy the hours.
I decided to find a new career and now I piece of work as a writer and help others find solutions to their pest problems online.
In my free time, I savour traveling and going to as many metal concerts equally possible.
Source: https://www.pestcontrolgurus.com/get-rid-of-raccoons/
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