Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Who am I, The Beastmaster?
Jainarayan
Veteran
OK, I have a thing for animals... I've rescued, re-homed, and well, we know about the cat. Maybe it's my lot in life.
Some years ago we had a female raccoon invade the attic to give birth. Dec./Jan. is when they start to den and give birth. The kits are usually weaned by May-July. I used my neighbor's Hav-A-Hart trap to trap them and relocate them... the mother on one day, the two babies (weaned) over the next two days. The mother did extensive damage to my attic. Then I had another raccoon hanging around my house and neighbors' houses. Trapped and relocated that one. I was raccoon-free for about 6 years until now. I think there is another one. I hear something scampering in the attic. I've set the trap and baited it with cat food, they love cat food. No raccoon yet but I hear something up above. So does my cat. The dilemma I think I have is this:
If the mother has already given birth, and I trap and relocate her, the babies will die. Even if I could get into the attic (it's kind of tough to get into) and retrieve the babies, it's too cold to just put them wherever I put the mother. She picks a place because it's safe and warm for the babies. In either case, they'd die. Or I could simply tough it out until late spring/early summer when the babies are weaned and they all go off on their own. I can only hope, taking that approach, she doesn't do damage like the last one did.
I don't want the babies to die, but I don't want freakin' raccoons in my attic! I've contacted animal removal services in the past but they were no help, and I fear they kill the animals. What's the dharmic thing to do here?
Some years ago we had a female raccoon invade the attic to give birth. Dec./Jan. is when they start to den and give birth. The kits are usually weaned by May-July. I used my neighbor's Hav-A-Hart trap to trap them and relocate them... the mother on one day, the two babies (weaned) over the next two days. The mother did extensive damage to my attic. Then I had another raccoon hanging around my house and neighbors' houses. Trapped and relocated that one. I was raccoon-free for about 6 years until now. I think there is another one. I hear something scampering in the attic. I've set the trap and baited it with cat food, they love cat food. No raccoon yet but I hear something up above. So does my cat. The dilemma I think I have is this:
If the mother has already given birth, and I trap and relocate her, the babies will die. Even if I could get into the attic (it's kind of tough to get into) and retrieve the babies, it's too cold to just put them wherever I put the mother. She picks a place because it's safe and warm for the babies. In either case, they'd die. Or I could simply tough it out until late spring/early summer when the babies are weaned and they all go off on their own. I can only hope, taking that approach, she doesn't do damage like the last one did.
I don't want the babies to die, but I don't want freakin' raccoons in my attic! I've contacted animal removal services in the past but they were no help, and I fear they kill the animals. What's the dharmic thing to do here?
0
Comments
as for real advice.. the government setup something like animal control for this reason... why not use it? they will deal with the animal as the law sees fit. It is an animal from nature... it should go back. Animals live and die(same as humans) all of the time. Look at it this way.. if those babies survive then they will live to pass on tough genes to the next generation
There may be a local zoo that could take them or animal preserve.. there is the popcorn park zoo near me.
I did some more reading and found I'm somewhat mistaken... the mating season is in Jan.-Mar., with the babies born later. I'm still concerned though because last time it seemed the time frame was 3 months earlier.
Ferrets are mischief personified. There is nothing they don't find fascinating or can't get into. Every time I moved the sofa I found things I didn't even know went missing. The word ferret actually comes from Latin meaning 'little thief'.
I'm a little less concerned now that if I trap the mother, the chances of the babies having been born are slim to none, but...
but when all is finished, if you do not mechanically prevent future animal incursions, into your attic, then you are responsible for those outcomes.
This still doesn't prevent you from finding out your self what is up there with a bit of quiet patience and a bright flashlight. A black light will also show you their urine trail to and from their entrance, if you need to take it further. (Roof rats can be disuaded from living in an attic with electronic rodent emitters).
You still don't have enough info to make a decision.
Live trap and release was a contracted price of @ $125.00 per raccoon.
Either 5 similar looking raccoons were caught over a period of a week or one raccoon kept coming back when released at the end of the block. The wallet drain only stopped when he fortified his domicile.
When relocating them, it must be at least 1 mile away for a female, and at least 5 miles for a male. That's about the radius of their territories.
I've read that ammonia is offensive to raccoons. It's one of the things to use to repel them, especially around garbage cans and other places they can hide out. Soak rags with it and leave them. I haven't tried it. When there's been a rash of raccoon incursions into the neighborhood we've had to put heavy objects on top of our garbage receptacles. My neighbor opened hers to put garbage in, and out popped a raccoon. She screamed so loud (the woman, not the raccoon
So if you are the Beastmaster, I'm the Beastmistress.
I do dislike raccoons only because they commit mass murder upon my beloved ducks and geese
But back to the rats . . . very very destructive, not to mention filthy with all the pee and poop (had a batch of them in the house two winters ago, destroyed insulation and wall board etc etc). My Jetta's wiring was destroyed by rat chewing, costs more to have it fixed than I paid for the darn thing. I won't murder them, but I will repel them. There's this product I found made of fox urine and lots of pepper type stuff that I spray onto my car tires and the wiring every week or so. It smells 'peppery', not chemical, and the only danger is getting some on your finger then sticking it in your eye. I just got some other stuff in the mail to put in the shed where I keep my poultry feed (another fave for the rats) called Fresh Cab by Earthkind, comes in four packet boxes on Amazon, and it has similar stuff to the spray, smelly stuff that smells OK or semi-pleasant to us but repels varmints, including raccoons. I just put a couple packets (like big fat tea bags) in the feed shed yesterday so we'll see how it works.
Gassho
I hate seeing them as roadkill too. In fact when I released them years ago I hoped it was an area far enough off the road that they wouldn't be roadkill. I released two adults in a county and state park (highly illegal, but meh...I didn't get caught). I released the two babies (they were cute fat little balls of fur) into a wooded area near the county reclamation center. The woman at the Humane Society shelter saw them and said they were ready to go off on their own, but they had taken so many relocated animals on their property it was becoming overpopulated. She said they'd become "garbage dump raccoons".
One of them didn't like me, and rushed me when I opened the cage... a 1 lb furball rushing a 200 lb human. That may be because I accidentally pinched his tail putting him in the carrier. I stomped on the ground with my boots, but the little shit still turned around to snarl at me, then turned and slowly sauntered off like his shitlets didn't stink.
Many years ago part of Asbury Park was left in the dark because a rat chewed on a power cable. That must have been :hair: for the rat, not to mention the last thing it ever chewed on.