Tag Archives: how to get rid of raccoons

Raccoons

Major Reaction

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There are raccoons in the cellar of our home, and they are going to kill me.  I know I sound dramatic, but I’m not!  I have never had pets so I’ve never experienced any animal related allergies until now and they are more awful than I ever could have pictured.  It’s a mother and I’m pretty sure she has babies down there, if I can get close enough to listen at the vent I can usually here soft animal sounds coming from inside.  I think she tore the vent cover off and that’s how she got in there because I have looked around for any other entrances to the cellar and they’re all only from the inside of the house; it was completely sealed off from the outside except for that one vent.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with the raccoons in the cellar, I never go down there; truthfully if I wasn’t having major allergies because of them, I’d just let them stay until they were grown and gone before I reinstalled the vent.  The problem is that our air conditioning system is down there along with our water heater and electrical boxes and such.  Basically, these raccoons aren’t just in the cellar, they’re being blown all through my house by way of the vents.  I can’t go anywhere without my eyes puffing up and my nose running uncontrollably!  Not to mention the hives on my skin, it looks like I’ve been stung by hundreds of bees!

I tried scaring them out myself just by making loud noises from upstairs and I turned off the air system so it’s not blowing through the house, but now I’m either sweating or freezing along with slowly dying from these allergies!  I need help getting these raccoons out of the cellar and I need it fast. I’ve practically drained my pharmacy of Benadryl and Claritin D but I just lay awake at night, miserable!  They have got to go, and they have to leave YESTERDAY!  I don’t know how much longer my body can take of this before either I move out or I suffocate! PLEASE HELP!

Raccoons

A Watery Grave

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I think there might be a dead animal in the crawlspace of my house? About two weeks ago I started to smell something strange when I was in the kitchen but I kind of passed it off as just bad food or even my imagination.  The problem is that it has only gotten worse and I cleaned out my fridge and all of the cupboards and pantry, so I know it’s not rotting food.  It’s the worst around the sink so I even had my plumber come and clean out the lines but he said they were good as new, and when I mentioned the smell he didn’t think it was coming from the pipes, but the crawlspace.

Earlier this year I noticed a couple of raccoons running out from the side of my house, and when I checked it out I found a small gap between the house and the dirt and when I shined a light down it, I could see into the crawlspace.  I wasn’t sure then if the raccoons were living there because I had never heard anything, but now I think that that might be what the dead animal smell from the crawlspace is.  We had some really heavy rain towards the middle of February that caused the crawlspace to flood, and if the raccoons really were living down there, it’s possible that when it flooded one couldn’t get out and drowned.

So really, my concerns are doubled.  First, that there is possibly a dead animal in the crawlspace, and second that there still might be other raccoons living down there (with the corpse ick!).  I’m trying to find someone to come out and see if either of those things are true, and to fix them afterwards.  I just want to go back to living in a clean, fresh kitchen when I didn’t worry about animals living and dying in my crawlspace and my only concern was flooding.  That is what I need, can anyone help!

Raccoons

Out of Ideas

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We’ve tried everything to get rid of the raccoons in the attic, but at this point it seems impossible.  They’ve been there for what, a couple of months now?  I can’t pinpoint an exact time because we actually didn’t know they were there until a month or so ago, which is when we first saw the mother raccoon go into the attic.  Before that, we just heard the occasional bumps and creaks that we gave the old house credit for.  We would have been none the wiser if our neighbor’s cat hadn’t gotten into a tiff with the raccoon, leaving us to investigate the commotion and catch the raccoon crawling through a gap in the soffit.

After that we listened carefully to the sounds from above the ceiling, and it became fairly clear to us that there was more than just one raccoon in the attic, she had babies, so we started to do our research.  Anything we could think of we looked up: how to get rid of raccoons in the attic, trapping raccoons, the most effective raccoon removal methods; all of it.  After we made a list of possible solutions, we started to check them off one at a time.  We turned the lights on in the attic, we started playing loud music during the day when we were gone, we set traps outside where we thought we might catch the mother, and we even put ammonia soaked rags up there with a fan to blow the smell around.  We took every step possible, and we thought it had worked.

Not long after we had started harassing the raccoons, I saw the mother leave the attic with what looked like a baby in her mouth. We were ecstatic! After we celebrated for a minute, my husband went out and sealed off the gap we saw her entering and exiting through.  We went to bed happy that night, thinking all was well.  Of course, happy endings are for fairy tales and the next night the raccoon came back, tore the soffit open again, and has been hiding out there for the last 4 days (she hasn’t left once).  We can’t hear any babies anymore, but we don’t know what she’s doing up there and we have nothing left to try.  Please, we need some serious help to get rid of the raccoon in our attic, I can’t keep doing this.

Raccoons

How To Get Rid of Raccoons

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Raccoon climbing chimney
Raccoon climbing a chimney to get inside a home.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

If you want to know how to get rid of raccoons, I suggest you do NOT do what we did!

Our backyard is absolutely lovely.  It’s spacious, half of it is wooded and, at the back, it abuts a small creek.  We have a shed with a woodpile next to it, a garden area, a lot of green lawn and even enough room to have a swing set with a slide for the kids to play on.  We have a dog, so we keep the dog food outside for him.  In short, it’s an idyllic backyard . . . for us and apparently for raccoons.

It didn’t occur to us we’d have to figure out how to get rid of raccoons when we moved in, but now it’s something I think about all the time.  I worry about our dog outside at night; I worry about my children when they’re outside playing.  What if there is a rabid raccoon?  I worry about my house.  What if they decide to claw a hole and get in?  What if they build a raccoon nest in my attic?

Raccoons are opportunistic and will eat almost anything.  So, our backyard provides a literal smorgasbord for the family of raccoons that live in the woods out behind our house, and I’m afraid they’ll start seeing my home as their home.  The woodpile apparently houses little rodents, which raccoons eat.  Our dog has a big bowl of dog food, which raccoons eat.  Our garden vegetables are just ripening, which raccoons eat.  The birds are nesting and laying their eggs, which raccoons eat.  The creek out back provides a perfect water source for them, and lets them wash their food, as they like to do.

We’ve seen them clawing and tearing at our storage shed, and it’s just a matter of time before they get in.  I dread the day they decide to tear into our home and have babies in our attic.  The holes they make are a pain to repair, but we have to get them repaired or they’ll just let other animals in, like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, rats or snakes.

So, if you want to know how to get rid of raccoons, call a professional to have them removed off of your property and out of your home, and then don’t provide them free board and lodging like we did.

Of course, there is a little bit of entertainment value.  I caught the family of raccoons out back one night, playing on the swing set.  They had climbed to the very top, were jumping up to move the swings, and one of them even slid down the slide.  They had a great time and the kids and I laughed watching them.  They’re really cute, from a distance, but a real nuisance to your home and property.