Raccoon troubles...

[DISshopkeeper]

I saw a raccoon on my deck the other night! When I investigated the next AM, I spotted it's climbing tracks, up my rain spout, across a small roof, and up INTO THE SOFFIT OF MY SIDING!!! It's LIVING there.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!


I am TOTALLY freaked out! I called our township's animal control and they are going to see if they have a trap available. A TRAP!!! OH GOD I'm GONNA HAVE TO SEE IT CLOSE UP!!!!!!!!!!!

And guess what, it was my dog that clued me in. Friday night he made a barking sound I have never heard before and then started barking INTO the bathroom. The small roof she (due to my reading, I'm convinced it's female) cuts across is RIGHT OUTSIDE the bathroom window. I mean she could look right in if she wanted!!!!!!!! GROSS GROSS GROSS!! So it was warm Friday and the bathroom window was open and I guess the dog heard her walking by!!! I knew something was up, he was freaking me out.

Females look for a nice, enclosed, quiet place they can have their babies at this time of year. The article I read (weirdly enough in Friday's Phila Inquirer) said that you can sometimes chase them with daytime noise. So I am trying that. I have a boom box BLASTING right near where I think she's nestled. I am also periodically hammering on the walls.

IS THIS DISGUSTING AND CREEPY OR WHAT!!!!

Anyone else ever dealt with this?? Any advice???

 

[Briar Rose 7457]

we have sliding glass doors that lead out to our deck. our house is adjacent to 18 acres of undeveloped woodlands. we have lots of racoons, they like to come up to the deck and look through the glass doors into the house.

but we're lucky that they haven't gone further than the deck.

good luck with the exterminator.

 

[Chattyaholic]

Poor little raccoon!!

No, seriously, I know they can be little buggers. At our other house the garage needed a lot of repair and there were spots where critters could get inside, and one morning I went out to get into the car and in the corner, right in front of the car, was a huge raccoon staring at me!! I must have scared him off because we never saw him in there again.

We have problems with them sometimes when we go camping at the state parks. Last time we left a plastic container (with the top screwed on tightly) with a few peanuts in the bottom on the picnic table, plus a couple of empty pop cans. During the night I could hear the pop cans and the container of peanuts being "played with." I got up and opened the door and shined a flashlight outside, one raccoon scampered off but the other snarled at me and started up the steps!!! I quickly shut the door!! The next morning the container of peanuts was OPEN and the peanuts were gone.

 

[Blondie]

Are you talking about Godzilla here, or just a little Raccoon?

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Godzilla to me, Blondie!! You want her at your house????? I'llhave to relocate her somewhere!!!!

 

[WDWHound]

Many years ago, I was a volunteer with Wildlife Rescue. We saw a lot of this situation. You should be aware that this is probably a momma Racoon looking for place to raise a family. As such, she will be VERY protective of her new found home, so be careful not to confront or corner her.

There are two simple things you can do to encourage her to leave, but you want to act before she has her pups (she will be much more resistant to leaving after that).

1) Place some amonnia soaked rags in the attic as close to where you think she is living as possible (best to do this in the evening, a couple of hours after sunset when she is likely to be out looking for food). Racoons hate the amonnia smell and will frequently move to escape it.

2) Place a boom box in the attic, put a raucus CD in it (acid rock worked well for us), set it to repeat play, turn it up as loud as you can bear and leave it playing in the attic for several days. The noise will really annoy the racoon (we had one actually throw the boom box out of the attic!) and encourage her to leave.

These steps worked about half the time we had people try them. Again, let me stress that you should not confront or corner the racoon. When you go up into the attic, make lots of noise so that you don't surprise her. If you see the racoon while you are up there, leave right away and try again at another time. If you see Racoon pups in the attic, leave and dont go back up. Once the racoon has babies, its time to call in professionals. You do not want to be on the receiving end of a momma racoon protecting her young.

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Thanks, hound! I was wondering what smell they would hate. I was about to try nail polish remover. I think (HOPE) she is just in our soffit. We have bedrooms on the third floor, that's where my kids sleep. There is a crawl space behind where she is. our cats like to hang out in there. I'm going to try the ammonia. And I do have a boombox blasting up there today.

 

[pumba]

able to and have carried rabies.......do not let them get close to your doggie or to a family member......racoons do not usually stay up in the day time hours......they usually do their running at night......so please be careful....catch it and let the animal control officier take it someplace OUT OUT FAR

 

[faithinkarma]

They used to get into our garbage. No matter how secure the lid was they would manage to knock the can over and get the lid off. Even those rope ties you put around the cans, they removed with seeming ease.

If the lid proved stubborn to them they would gleefully drag the entire can off into the brush behind our house to work on it at their leisure.

I hated them.

One night when I was away husband burned a snack he was baking on a cookie sheet. The smell was so bad he put the entire cookie sheet out in the driveway. The next day we saw the trail of burnt bits into the brush, but we never did find the cookie sheet again. ( not that we wanted it lol )