Wildlife in Ontario is protected by the Ministry of the environment. However, to become a wildlife technician requires absolutely no licensing or training which is why it is important to do your research before hiring a wildlife technician to get something out of your attic. However, if you want to hunt them for fur or relocate them more than a kilometre away you will need a trapper’s license. While all the tools of the trade are domestic products you can get from home depot the process is not easy. You must climb a ladder to your roof and do an inspection for all possible entryways and then seal them all properly with long bolts and very wide washers to hold the steel mesh down you will be using the seal off all but the main entrance the animal has been using. You can figure this out by stuffing all the holes with newspaper and then waiting to see which hole has the paper pushed back out. This is very likely to be the main entranceway. You will then need a one-way door which can also be purchased from home hardware. When selecting the door do not go cheap there are doors that just have bent in wire to make it more difficult for the animal the get back in but won’t prevent it. The best one-way doors have a spring locking door that lays against a steel frame that locks the door in place so the raccoon cannot get back in no matter how hard they try. It is also important to know that raccoons have a vast reproductive mating season. If you have a raccoon in your attic during the late winter, spring summer or early fall then you can assume it is a female with likely immobile babies based on how soon you figure out that they are in there. If the babies are immobile then you will have to go into the attic, preferable in the day when the raccoon is sleeping and collect the baby raccoons and put them in a small box and put the box on the ground near the one-way door so the mother will find them easily. This is the most effective and human way to do this but can also be dangerous as you must go into the den of the beat itself. If you have a raccoon in your attic between October and December there will be no babies and all work can be done from outside.
If this sounds like a lot of work it is. It’s a massive effort and really you need at heights training and at least some experience in wildlife control and possibly as a roofer. This is why professionals are much more practical. They can do the baby inspection in the attic safely and remove them humanely without risk of infection from the various illnesses raccoons carry including rabies of which they are the vector species. They are not a minor infestation, raccoons are aggressive and large and they can harm a human severely if they think it is trying to kill their babies. So be prepared for that interaction if you want to do this on your own.
The trapping of the animal outside of the attic can also be done. It is very important though to check the attic still for babies and to relocate the raccoon with her babies as she will be far more calm and docile if she has her children. You can do this with any type of humane trap but be warry, you cannot trap a raccoon on your own and then call a professional to relocate it. The technician’s insurance will not allow them to handle a domestically trapped raccoon so the relocation is up to you, make sure you don’t take it too far, raccoons do not survive well in new environments they do not already understand well.
