What substances could you use to get raccoons out of your attic without injuring or killing them?

Answer 1

Okay, here's the deal. As stated, the vast majority of the time, the raccoon in the attic is a mother with babies. You don't trap the mother and leave the babies up there to cry for two weeks, die, and cause a big odor. First, you go into the attic and find the babies! That's right, you explore the whole attic and remove the young by hand. Be careful, there's a protective and ferocious mother raccoon nearby! Actually, I've removed hundreds of raccoon litters in my lifetime, and I've never been attacked. But there have been some close calls, so do so at your own risk. It might be a good idea to wait until the mother isn't nearby the litter before removing them. Of course, when in an attic, be mindful to walk only on the wooden beams, or you'll fall through the ceiling. And be careful not to get insulation on your skin. I wear a HEPA filter mask to avoid breathing in airborne dust particles. And I wear thick gloves, particularly when handling wildlife, even baby raccoons, which are usually gentle, but can bite and claw. I put them in a pillowcase, and bring them out of the attic. They can often be very hard to find. The mother raccoon stashes them in a safe place, often down at the very tight edge of the attic, down in the soffit, or down a wall. I usually find myself climbing through very tight quarters to find the young. It can be hard to do, but a 75-year-old woman I know, a wildlife rehabber, has done it, so I guess it's possible for anyone! I bring the young outside, and then - here's one of the tricks to solving a problem with raccoons in the attic - I use the babies as "live bait" to trap the mom! There are usually four babies, so I set two traps (one is backup) with two babies in the back of each trap. They are held back there by a metal cage divider. A mother raccoon is very protective of its young, and will do anything for them, so it will always enter a trap to get to its young, even if it is smart and "cage shy". I set the trap against at least one wall and put a heavy divider, such as a concrete block or wooden plank on the other side so that the mother does not try to reach through the trap from the outside first and trigger it. This happened once in my life, and the poor mother dug a rut about four feet deep in its struggle to get inside the cage. Also, there's a chance that the mother raccoon will injure her babies if she can reach in to them easily. I want the mother to go into the trap. Once she's trapped inside, she usually bends the divider bars easily and she's reunited with her young. When I retrieve her, I slide out the metal divider. So there you go, I never use bait. I always target the exact raccoon I want, the mother, and I remove both her and all of her young, so they are all out. If I were ever to trap a raccoon with visible nipples, I'd be sure to go find the young, and if I could not, I would release the raccoon on the spot, so as not to leave orphaned young. There are other ways to remove them all without using the "babies as bait" method. One good method is to mount a trap onto the entry hole into the attic before entering the attic. Then when you enter the attic, you scare the mother raccoon out with your presence (make noise or chase it with a snare pole) and it will run out of the attic, out its hole, and right into the trap! Or, if the mother raccoon stands its ground in the attic, you can physically capture it with a professional snare pole. A thrashing, angry, strong raccoon on the end of a snare pole is not a tactic for the faint at heart. It should be immediately transferred to a holding container, such as a solid-wall box trap, which you should bring into the attic upon entry, along with the snare pole, thick gloves, mask, pillow case, head lamp, etc.