Household Hints by Rosemary - Visitors In The Attic

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For the past two weeks we've had “visitors” at our home. We awoke one night to hear growls, thumps, bumps and general ruckus in the attic. When my husband checked outside he discovered the air vent from the roof had been torn off, a hole where it had been and a family of raccoons moved in. The mother had also given herself another escape route by tearing away some aluminum soffit.

Mother raccoon was a large aggressive female with as far as we could see by peeking through the vent in the peak of the roof, three or four small babies. Now, we don't mind sharing some space with our local fauna as long as they stay outside. But, we draw the line at them moving in, tearing up the attic insulation and racing up and down the drywall all night. Not to mention the fact they were directly about our bed and I had images of them dropping through the ceiling onto us. There was no decent sleep to be had; we moved into the guest bedroom at the back of the house to get some rest.

We had called the game warden when it happened several years ago and they rented us a live raccoon trap for thirty dollars. Unfortunately, we kept catching the wrong raccoon; each time my husband went up to remove the babies to join the trapped animal the mother came running to warn him off. She finally took them away one at a time when July came around and heated up the attic to unlivable temperatures. This time we knew we couldn't wait until July.

So, we checked the internet, family and friends and came up with a working plan. First, by lifting the access door to the space near the nest we put out basins of undiluted ammonia. This was very dangerous as we were not sure how close the female was to the door. Then my husband managed to squeeze through the main part of the attic and put in a radio and light, in accordance with internet instructions.

The radio and light were plugged in all during the daytime hours and, after a week, she finally took the babies and moved out. I hope she found a snug dry den.

We're happy the plan worked but, a better objective is to prevent them from getting in, in the first place. Protect your home against invasion by moving trees away from the house and cutting branches that overhang your roof. Seal air vents with screws, not nails; she was able to pull away two inch finishing nails. Seal loose soffit by making sure it's tight. Make sure your garbage cans have tight fitting lids and keep all pet food and feeding inside.

If you do have raccoons hanging around, discourage them by leaving a radio on, it need not be loud, just constant, and installing motion detector lighting. Spray ammonia around the trash area. I refuse to give up my bird feeders, but we do have bafflers on the poles as well as greasing them. None of these methods will harm the animals, but will encourage them to move on.

Don't forget, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is near, call your municipal government to find out when and where, and sign up.

Editor’s Note: These tips work  well for squirrels too!