It’s no mystery how the raccoon got in. We have a cat door leading to our basement, and the cats can go out the garage door during the day. At night, we close the garage door. The raccoon, being nocturnal, must have been sleeping in the basement and then found itself unable to get out of the garage. It opted for another exit — through the cat door and into our house.
Besides breaking some vases and candles, the raccoon also managed to turn on a burner on our stove.
Once we (O.K., my husband) went downstairs and turned on the lights, the creature ran into the basement and eventually outside.
But unable to sleep, my husband and I started researching ways to keep raccoons away. Ammonia. Mothballs. Cayenne pepper. Irish Spring soap. Motion-detection lights and loud music.
But as I later found out from Jim Horton, owner of QualityPro Pest and Wildlife Services in Tarrytown, N.Y., those options, if they work at all, are usually temporary.
“Raccoons will just kick the mothballs to the side,” he said. And if too much of some those homemade remedies are used — like the ammonia or mothballs — they can become toxic.
Wildlife experts say that how you address the problem depends on the extent of the invasion. If you have one scared animal running through the house, open the doors and hope it runs out, Mr. Horton said, adding that it can also help to close your blinds or curtains so the animal sees the light from the door and goes toward that.
Don’t try to pick it up. There’s a possibility of rabies, and also being attacked by a frightened animal.
“The worst thing you can do is chase it,” said Tina Toti, an animal lover in New Rochelle, N.Y. She will help anyone — friend or stranger — remove these types of animals from a house and take them away. She doesn’t charge, but asks that a donation be made to a local animal shelter.
(Full disclosure: I’ve used Ms. Toti to capture another errant raccoon in our basement. She discovered its paw was trapped in a broken glass jar and got it to a veterinarian. It is now happily recovering at a rehabilitation center.)
Ms. Toti has a few tips: “In my experience, skunks have a huge weakness for sweets. Marshmallows or jelly gumdrops do the trick. I have used a very long stick with one of those treats at the end of it and tapped them on the nose and slowly walked them out of the door.”
Squirrels and raccoons are trickier to get out. The best bet, said Ms. Toti, who told me she was vaccinated against rabies, is to call a professional. The longer the animal is in your house, the more damage it can cause, and the greater the potential that it can leave behind fleas, ticks and mites, she said. And don’t even mention feces.
If you don’t want the animal killed, and there is no reason to unless it is rabid, be sure to inquire what the trapper plans to do with it once it is caught.
But once the animal is gone, you need to figure out how it got into your house. My friend Veronica told me how, a few Christmases ago, she heard little nails on her downstairs floor.
Like me, she bravely sent her husband down to investigate. Things had been knocked askew, but there was no animal in sight. The next day, though, when they went to decorate the Christmas tree, a squirrel came racing down the branches.
It had come, as is common, through the chimney. So make sure that you have chimney caps and that they’re adequately protecting against wildlife.
And here’s some other advice from experts to keep out wayward animals:
¶ Don’t leave pet food and water outside.
¶ Use metal or durable plastic trash containers and secure lids with elastic cords.
¶ Stack firewood on a frame that keeps logs at least two feet above the ground.
¶ Trim branches that extend over your roof.
¶ Check exhaust fan openings, kitchen and bathroom vents and above gutters to see if they’re providing an opening for animals.
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Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/your-money/ridding-the-house-of-errant-raccoons-and-other-animals.html?partner=rss&emc=rss