If you ever played American football you may know why raccoons have a black mask of fur around their eyes that makes them look like back robbers. The purpose of the mask is to reduce glare in their eyes from bright light and sunlight. As we all know the raccoon is a nocturnal animal and rarely comes out in the daylight unless desperate for food. Most of the fur a raccoon has is part of an underfur layer that protects them from the cold, the layer of fur over that is aesthetic and used to protect the fur underneath. Raccoon fur makes up a large portion of their body. When wet or shaven a raccoon looks very thin and lanky. This is why raccoons can squeeze through very tight spaces. They are essentially a quarter of the size compared to what they look like. It’s all just fur, there is barely any raccoon at all. Their tales have concentric black rings, about five or six and they have longer hind legs that make it easier to stand and to get low to the ground to smell for food. This is the reason a dog can smell better than a human. Our olfactory senses are equivalent but the dog’s nose is lower to the ground.
The raccoon is blessed with five digits on its front legs. These digits are extremely dexterous and can manipulate things that only an animal with an opposable thumb would be able to manipulate. This is how they get garbage cans open, also by pushing them over which most adult male raccoons are more than capable of doing. Adult male raccoons can grow to be as large as a big dog. They are strong and capable and can manipulate building materials like aluminum or vinyl siding. They are very strong and they can break through strong materials and surfaces. They can make an entryway in your roof very easily and in a very short amount of time. They will enter it, liver there through the winter and defecate and urinate while also dragging in rotting corpses of other animals that they will eat part of and leave in your attic. They may leave on their own when the food runs out if it ever does, but more than likely it will stay there until you get it out.
While most people think the smell is a raccoon’s strongest smell it is not, it is touch which makes them very careful of what material they are willing to walk on. One way of getting raccoons to stop walking on a particular surface is to cover the surface in two loos layers of plastic like black garbage bags. Make sure the plastic is thin enough that it moves around and rubs together. This will freak the raccoon out and they will not walk on it. If you take away the areas where they like to defecate they may leave the property without entering your attic. Another reason a raccoon maybe defecating on your property is that they have invaded one of your neighbour’s attic and are using your property as a latrine to keep it separate from their home.
If you have a raccoon in your attic the best and safest way to get rid of it is to find the main entranceway and to attach to it a one-way door. This device is usually a steel cage with a steel frame that holds a spring-loaded door that is very strong. The raccoon will struggle out through the door but then finds when they return, that the door will not open from the other side. This is a humane and effective way of getting them out of your home.
