How to get raccoon out of your attic

Here is a way to clear out your attic:
1) find out if there are any baby Syracuse raccoons in the attic
2) get a trap big enough to hold the female raccoons
3) with somebody's help capture the baby raccoons when the female is away
4) use the baby raccoons as bait to trap the female
5) seal up all possible entrances and exits from the attic that raccoons could use

Having a Syracuse raccoon in your attic is a nightmare of epic proportions. The resident raccoon will damage the roof by ripping lining up to make a den, it will pee all over the place to mark its territory and if you are unlucky it will keep you awake half the night. The second thing about having a New York raccoon in your attic is that it is a female and nearly always will have cubs in its den. You not only have to to remove the female which can be done by trapping her but you have to remove the cubs as well and they cannot be trapped, they have to be removed by hand. If you wait until the female is out of the house foraging you can round up the cubs and use them to trap her when she returns. Do not think the babies are helpless and try and pick them up with bare hands, use a set of heavy gloves when handling any wild creature, even baby ones.

When you are collecting cubs is very wise to have a second person watching out for the female, if she returns and finds you with her cubs she will attack so having some warning is advisable. After you have rounded up all of the Syracuse raccoons you can then set about sealing up the entrance she was using to get in and out of the attic so even if she returns she cannot use it again. Also while you're up there have a look around and see if there are any other possible places a raccoon could use as an entry exit point and seal them up as well.

Some of you may be asking will the Syracuse raccoons ever leave the attic voluntarily, as in, move out. The answer is, not likely and if they do it will be about 8 to 9 months before the babies go their own way and then mama is free of them, the babies will definitely leave but whether the female will or not is another matter.

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