Gotta Raccoon In The Attic

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I woke up early to the sound of something I thought was on the roof so I went outside with a flashlight and saw two glowing eyeballs in the attic vent on the side of the house. But I've been in the house all day and haven't heard anything. I'm wondering if he only goes into the attic at night and goes some where else during the day. I'm thinking of blocking the attic vent. Thoughts?
 
I would think he gets in and sleeps during the day, and once active at night, you hear it in and out and so on. Nocturnal critter.
 
You definitely don't want to encounter the thing in the attic or while on a ladder, raccoons are vicious little buggers and can do a lot of damage. Still vividly remember watching a nature show that featured a raccoon tearing a rabbit to bloody shreds before finally ripping its head clean off. Unfortunately for me, I was eating my dinner at the time...
If it really is active during the day, there might be something wrong with it...the only times I have seen raccoons out and about in daylight, they were acting strangely and I suspected they might be rabid.
 
You'd better hope it's a lone male and not pregger's female ...

The sooner you deal with it (or pay someone to do it), the better.
 
Originally Posted By: dnewton3
You'd better hope it's a lone male and not pregger's female ...

The sooner you deal with it (or pay someone to do it), the better.



This exactly, and then find how it got in and secure that. Raccoons are vicious when cornered or threatened.
 
Catch it out and seal up where it is getting in. I had a squirrel get in my attic years ago and while I was on vacation for 2 weeks it chewed down through the drywall ceiling and destroyed my house. Pulled up into the driveway and saw all curtains and miniblinds half hanging in every window and initially thought I'd been robbed. He ran out after I opened the garage door. Spent two weeks in a hotel while insurance put the house back together. 4 straight weeks in a hotel was rough.
Somehow the little bugger made his paws bloody trying to dig his way out through multiple walls, there were bloody paw prints everywhere, even on the ceilings
 
Contact your local city animal control and have them loan you a trap. Then call them to come get the critter when its caught.

Been thru this before at my mothers house.

Use Tuna or a can of cat food if there is no danger of catching stray cats..

If there are alot of strays in your area go with marshmellos or white bread or both..

A hungry coon eats anything it can get its paws on..so put up all your outside foods.
 
Originally Posted By: krismoriah72
Contact your local city animal control and have them loan you a trap. Then call them to come get the critter when its caught.


I'll have to look into that. Thanks
 
When I was a kid, the Duxbury building inspector surprised a raccoon in a chimney. The attack gave him a fatal heart attack. My folks' Havahart was never the same after catching one. It bent the bejeezus out it attempting to escape. BE CAREFUL !
 
Use Kentucky Fried Chicken for bait. The smelly greasy chicken is an irresistible draw.

Out here the rangers use KFC when they do a census for various critters and the first to answer are the raccoons and foxes followed by possums and coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats. They all love KFC.
 
Originally Posted By: Warstud
Gotta Raccoon In The Attic


Excellent title for a country song right here.

Get it out before it has babies. That day is coming soon.
 
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Originally Posted By: dbias
Catch it out and seal up where it is getting in.

That's what I did when a raccoon took up residence in my attic. I parked myself outside just before dark to watch it come out. It took a while, but once out I boarded up the entrance and went to bed.

There are a few tricks I learned along the way.

One was they hate the smell of ammonia. Soak a few tennis balls with ammonia and toss them in the attic.

The other was that you could tape newspaper over the entrance to see if there is any activity in or out. This is good when you're not sure if the raccoon is still there.
 
Originally Posted By: dbias
Catch it out and seal up where it is getting in. I had a squirrel get in my attic years ago and while I was on vacation for 2 weeks it chewed down through the drywall ceiling and destroyed my house. Pulled up into the driveway and saw all curtains and miniblinds half hanging in every window and initially thought I'd been robbed. He ran out after I opened the garage door. Spent two weeks in a hotel while insurance put the house back together. 4 straight weeks in a hotel was rough.
Somehow the little bugger made his paws bloody trying to dig his way out through multiple walls, there were bloody paw prints everywhere, even on the ceilings


We had a squirrel in the attic of our first house and I was 100% sure that I had caught it out of the house when I was home during the day just before we left on a short vacation. Hustled the ladder out and found the little gap he was using to get in, which I sealed up with a piece of aluminum siding that I nailed into place and also caulked.
Get home from our little trip and my next door neighbor rushes over and tells me there was an AWFUL racket in my attic while I was gone! Yep, the bushy tailed rat was trapped inside and he went berserk trying to get out...luckily, he didn't get into the house proper. Rushed the ladder back out and found that the squirrel had actually chewed through enough of the aluminum siding patch to squeeze out, leaving pieces of fur and a lot of blood behind.
The thing bit through metal!!! Learned a lesson from this one.
 
We have had one of these too. My advice is to get someone that knows what they are doing to get it out. Do not try DIY..These animals can carry Rabies.
After that try to find out how it was getting in and take care of that.
 
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Id put a bunch of garbage food on the ground on that side of the house and wait. When they come out at night to eat, 22LR to the head. Problem resolved. Then seal up the hole.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
We had a squirrel in the attic of our first house and I was 100% sure that I had caught it out of the house when I was home during the day just before we left on a short vacation. Hustled the ladder out and found the little gap he was using to get in, which I sealed up with a piece of aluminum siding that I nailed into place and also caulked.
Get home from our little trip and my next door neighbor rushes over and tells me there was an AWFUL racket in my attic while I was gone! Yep, the bushy tailed rat was trapped inside and he went berserk trying to get out...luckily, he didn't get into the house proper. Rushed the ladder back out and found that the squirrel had actually chewed through enough of the aluminum siding patch to squeeze out, leaving pieces of fur and a lot of blood behind.
The thing bit through metal!!! Learned a lesson from this one.


My exclusion company only patched all the exterior holes and left the attic to garage one not patched. He said if you seal everything and it was trapped, it'll go crazy and chew through everywhere.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Id put a bunch of garbage food on the ground on that side of the house and wait. When they come out at night to eat, 22LR to the head. Problem resolved. Then seal up the hole.


This, and maybe with the KFC bait mentioned earlier. If you are legally allowed to discharge a firearm where you live, this is the quickest way to deal with it.

My buddy got a whole family of them at his house, there were like 5, got 'em all with the 10/22 in short order.
 
Originally Posted By: Whitewolf
We have had one of these too. My advice is to get someone that knows what they are doing to get it out. Do not try DIY..These animals can carry Rabies.
After that try to find out how it was getting in and take care of that.


They carry a lot more than rabies. I know of exterminators who won't mess with them.
 
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