Raccoons Have Invaded My House!

[BruiseLee]

I was watching the boob tube last night, when I heard weird noises coming from the kitchen. When I went to investigate, I found three raccoons eating my cat's food! An adult and two young ones. I grabbed a broom, and they ran out the pet door.

The problem is from there, they tried to get into my hot water heater housing. I hit 'em with my garden hose, and it looked like they were trying to dig under my house!

I have a crawl space under my house, and I often find some of the wood and metal mesh covers broken or pushed aside. I see tuffs of fur caught on the ragged edges of the metal mesh. I'm afraid these raccoons are trying to make my home their home! I've looked under the house, and haven't found a nest or anything like that so far.

I've had raccoons come though the pet door before, but not while everyone was home and making a lot of noise. The cat goes nuts when we keep it inside, that's why we got the pet door.

Any suggestions on what to do? Shooting is out of the question. For one thing, I live in the hills of Los Angeles, and I don't want to spend time with the local gang members because I shot a raccoon!

Bruise

 

[Sigman]

I started to suggest one or more of those live rectangular cage type traps...but you've got to stop them from getting in. You are going to have to stop them from getting in that pet door. It's got to go or at least be closed up until they stop invading. They're pretty smart though! You may have to get a pest management company involved?

 

[Wolfen]

Try coyote urine.

But it might p--- off your cat /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Wolfen]

Coyote urine powder

 

[ledfanfromjuno]

buy a havahart live cage trap for raccoon size animals. Place either or better yet use both at the same time, peanut butter and a tin of sardines on a plastic plate or whatever at the proper place in the trap according to the instructions for the particular trap you buy.

Peanut butter and sardines are, according to ragnar benson's book on poaching, supposed to be very popular in general with raccoons. If they don't take the bait, you could always just put more of the catfood the raccoons are already going for in the trap.

Some small animals, like raccoons, like to travel along the sides of buildings under cover, such as a long board leaning against the house. You may want to lay a long board along the outside wall to your house next to the entrance of your door they are crawling through. The combination of the fragrance from the sardines and peanut butter and the comfort of the board giving the raccoon a false sense of security by hiding it from view, may be enough to lure it to its doom.

If you catch your own cat, just let it go since the havahart trap doesn't kill or even injure the animal.

Drive the raccoon FAR away from your home, like 30 minutes down the freeway in another rural area. Let it loose, and take precautions so it doesn't bite you. Or you could call the local animal shelter or pet hospital or humane society or city pound and ask to drop it off. Maybe they'll release it themselves. Call a city pound a little far away from you so they won't release it anywhere close enough to your home for the raccoon to find its way back to your home.

 

[Marty Weiner]

I think that the L. A. City Animal Control Department will loan you traps that will safely contain them. If I remember correctly, they will come out once they are trapped and release them somewhere else.

Just remember that these raccoons are VERY DANGEROUS and can bite & claw causing horrific damage to the human body, so be very careful in dealing with them.

Marty

 

[Pellidon]

I once used ground black pepper as a deterrent. I noticed that they sniff the ground a lot while meandering. After trying yelling, throwing rocks, firecrackers, cap guns, water and talking rationaly, sprinkling the pepper around the areas I wanted them away from seemed to work. They must not like a snout of pepper.

 

[d'mo]

My wife and I have successfully repelled squirrels and chipmunks from our garden with a dusting of cayenne pepper powder.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

..have you tried an angry post about it in "Cheers and Jeers" ..?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Quickbeam]

Check around for magnetically activated or electronically activated pet doors as well. The collar for the cat has a magnet or RF transmitter on it that unlocks the pet door when it gets very close.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I am interested in getting one of those doors for my cat, but I was wondering what keeps it from being activated/unlocked if the cat is near the door on the inside? I am hoping it can be set to allow for 1 admittance, then lock and allow no exit or entry till reset..

 

[Big Tex]

Marty is right. A trapped boar coon can be a handful. I've trapped a few in my Havahart(which is a very good trap). I need to remember the recommended bait since I just always used cat food. Good luck and watch out for your fingers.

 

[JOshooter]

Maybe if you moved out of CA and changed your name the racoons would have a hard time finding you.

 

[Xrunner]

You could trap them in your kitchen using cat food as bait! They would never suspect that. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Sorry, I couldn't resist.

-Mike