Don't Forget The Little Ones

Lately we have received calls regarding adolescent raccoons in attic spaces, under decks and in crawl spaces throughout the area. These animals were abandoned by the mother, possibly the mother was killed on the road or was trapped by a homeowner and relocated to a nearby park. This time of year when the adult raccoon is removed or relocated by a homeowner, they could be causing another unforeseen problem for themselves. Over the years I have accumulated story after story from experiences dealing with nuisance animals. The following is another story where homeowners thought they were solving a problem only to cause another.

Not to long ago I received a call to help with a problem a resident was having. Apparently something was making scratching noises in their attic space and they needed someone to come and check it out. Over the phone they told me that they constantly see squirrels on their roof and wondered if one had made its way into their attic.

Upon the arrival of our new client’s home, we noticed that the property was heavily wooded with several trees growing up against the house. My first mental note was to have the homeowner trim back the trees far enough to prevent animals from climbing up and jumping onto the roof.

The homeowner greeted us outside and after an introduction and a few pleasantries; my attention turned to a large live trap in the garage. The homeowner explained that a couple of days ago, he was experiencing a problem with a raccoon stealing the grease drip pan from his barbecue grill. He had successfully trapped and relocated the problem raccoon to a nearby park. As he was telling me this, I could see the cartoon light bulb dimly lit over his head. He continued to explain that, a couple of days later he and his wife could hear meowing and scratching sounds in his attic. They feared there might be animals in their attic so they decided to call in a professional. As he concluded his story, at this point the light bulb was fully lit, he asked if it was possible that he removed a mother raccoon from babies in the attic. My thoughts exactly….

As my son, Erik and I lifted ourselves into the attic we noticed that the screen from a rotary roof fan had been chewed, mangled and laid on the insulation just below leaving an opening for animals to enter. Further inspection showed an unbelievable amount of raccoon feces spanning the entire attic area. Some feces looked dried and as if it had been there for several years. Mental note #2, all of this feces is a calling card for other Raccoons and the homeowner need to clean it up as quickly possible.
The highest point in the attic was only four-foot tall and it angled down in four directions towards the outside eaves. We did a cursory scan of the attic space and discovered that there

Little Raccoon Trapped in an Attic

were no animals visible. We sat in silence for a few minutes until we heard the faint meows of adolescent raccoons.


After a more detailed search we located the two small animals. They were tucked deeply in one corner of the attic near the lowest point of the rafters and behind electrical wiring that had been chewed upon. Mental note #3, electrical wiring needs to be repaired before it becomes a fire hazard. I crawled on my belly, as close as I could; however I wasn’t able to reach them by hand. I tried to extract them with my catchpole only to have them disappear into the eaves.

We decided to set live traps and wait it out. As we left for our next assignment, I was concerned if the raccoons possibly still nursing; would they be tempted to enter a trap with solid food. Several hours had passed when we received a call from the homeowner. They heard the trap set off and as instructed they called us on our mobile telephone. One down, one to go. A couple more hours later we had the second raccoon. Before we left I made several recommendations from all of my mental notes and other standard common sense suggestions to prevent future invasions.

While driving away we determined that the adolescent raccoons had been without their mother, food (other than what was in the trap as bait) or water for at least 4 days. Erik and I decided to bring them home to re-hydrate them before releasing them back into the wild. It is very satisfying to us to be able to release these and all animals back into an environment conducive to their well-being. They were sent off well fed and well hydrated and most importantly they were released to experience a new world together.

These two raccoons were very lucky, if the homeowners hadn’t heard them meowing; they would have soon died. The homeowners were equally as lucky, if the raccoons had gone un-noticed and died, the aroma from the decaying carcasses would have been overwhelming for at least a week.

Never approach a wild animal including infant, adolescent or adults, unless you are 100 percent positive there is no danger. Even infant wild animals can cause serious damage to a finger or a hand.