NEED LOCAL HELP? We have wildlife removal professionals servicing 95% of the USA. Click here to hire a local raccoon removal expert in your home town. Updated 2018. But read the below advice first!
Humane removal is the best way to get rid of raccoons. This entails trapping the raccoon in a live cage trap, and releasing it in a safe place in nature. Beware though, it’s probably illegal for you to do so, depending on your state or county rules and regulation around wildlife control. You may choose to avoid the law, and trap and release the raccoon yourself, but I can tell you it’s no walk in the park. Additionally, you’ll probably end up doing more harm.
If you do decide to humanely remove a raccoon from your attic, make sure you do it by the book. First, identify where’s the access hole the raccoon is using to get in and out of attic. Then, go in the attic to look for the kits. Search thoroughly, they can be extremely well hidden. Once you’ve found the litter, pick them by hand, and gently put them in a pillow case. Use a live cage trap with a divider, and place one or two cubs in the end part of the cage. Wait for the mother raccoon to come rescue her cubs. Once she’s in the cage and the gage door is closed, lift the divider. Take mother and all cubs somewhere away from your property, put the cage down somewhere near some sort of shelter and open the door. Let the mother do her thing. Even if she immediately runs away, she will come for her kits pretty soon. While doing all of this, be sure to wear proper protective gear.
Aside from the illegal factor, why is it not okay for you to trap and relocate a raccoon? For starters, if you have a raccoon denning on your property, probably in your attic, that raccoon is most definitely a female raccoon that has a couple of cubs that she needs to feed and raise. If you remove the coon mother, the kits will die an awful death, death by starvation, and then they’ll rot in your attic, leaving their tiny corpses to emanate an unbearable smell. In addition, while you might think you’re doing the raccoon a favor by releasing it in nature, there’s little chance that you truly are. Natural environments that can support increases in raccoon population are almost all gone in the US. Abnormal increases in raccoon population in these places will lead to disease outbreaks, starvation, and damage to other animal and plant species that live in the area.
Hiring a wildlife removal professional is the safest and most efficient way to get rid of raccoons from your attic. Make sure you have a discussion before hiring them, and you inquire regarding their methods of removal and relocation so that you can be sure it’s going to be humane and eco-conscious.
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