https://www.wildlifehotline.com/evicting-raccoons/
If you have animals in your attic, 99% of the time it is spring time and the animal is a mother, preparing to give birth, or already nursing her young. Most Mothers choose a spot to rear young during January or February and approximately 60 days later they give birth. Typically they have a litter of 3-6 young. Most babies are born completely helpless, eye still shut, barely fuzzy, and unable to maintain their own body temperature. Mom stays with them up to 23 hours per day, even skipping days worth of her own feeding in the first week.
If you HEAR or SUSPECT something living in the attic, and it is NOT the DEAD OF WINTER, please assume that there are babies present!!! This is the #1 mistake that people make when trying to evict animals! Trapping Mom and ‘relocating’ or ‘removing’ her only to find four babies a couple days later is heart wrenching and it is why we raise so many orphans per year. If you set a trap in your attic and catch ANYTHING – please check everywhere in the attic for babies before releasing the trapped animal. Call us 24 hours for advice at 1-855-WILD-HELP. We’re happy to help.
There are many reasons to attempt to evict animals from your attic yourself: It’s simple, effective, and low-cost to free compared to pest control companies that cost at least $200 to take on an attic job. Pest control services will harm and often KILL the animals they catch. You will have to repair the entry holes yourself anyway, or hire another company to do that. You have much more incentive to do this work correctly the first time than a company who depends on your repeat business! Plus – It’s EASY! No traps required, no bait, no heavy leather gloves, or animal handling experience.
The advice for raccoons which is given works on squirrel as well. It comes down to making the space inhospitable for the animal through a variety of rather inexpensive means. Light, Radio noise, cayenne pepper, ammonia soaked cotton balls, etc.
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