Repellents are the first and easiest thing that you can try if
you have raccoons in your attic or chimney. Especially when a
female raccoon is concerned about having a safe place to raise
her young, a harassing presence including any scent (predator
urine is good, as is raccoon eviction fluid discussed below) and
noise (radio) might encourage her to leave the attic with her
young.
That said, in general there are many long-standing old wives’
tales about animals and repellents, and there are many modern
products sold meant to evict unwanted critters from property and
homes, and most all of them are bogus. Some of the old-fashioned
standards include naphthalene (moth balls), ammonia, bleach, and
even human hair. The idea behind these repellents is that they
simply create an unpleasant odor that raccoons don’t like, which
encourages them to leave. In my years of experience as a
wildlife removal professional, I’ve seen many of these tactics
used in an attempt to evict raccoons. I’ve never seen them work,
but that’s also because in the cases they do, I’m not called
out. The problem is that an attic is large and well-ventilated,
and the odor isn’t very strong. A raccoon will often just move
to another, less offensive part of the attic.
Even in cases in which the odor is strong, it’s not enough
incentive to make the animal leave. Once a raccoon has
established a home in an attic, it takes more than a bad odor to
make it leave, because it (or the babies) truly might not
survive if it has to leave, so a little (or even very powerful)
scent isn't going to do the trick – you wouldn’t abandon your
home if someone spread some mothballs inside. This is a wild
animal that needs to survive, and it will tolerate quite a bit
in order to keep its home. That includes all of the current
repellent and deterrent products sold.
If you do an online search, you will find all sorts of raccoon
repellants sold, many with confident money-back guarantees. Most
of them are made of …mothballs. In fact, most
animal repellents sold are made from either mothballs or coyote
urine. I’ve been to many homes at which the homeowner has placed
a great deal of mothballs in the attic – one had fifty pounds of
mothballs! – and the raccoons didn’t care. They also don’t
respond to coyote urine. Some people recommend the use of bright
lights, strobing lights, or noises. The most common noise
deterrents are regular radios and ultrasonic high-pitch sound
emitting devices. Once again, I’ve seen both of these tactics
used multiple times to no effect. In fact, the FTC has issued an
official warning against the high-pitch noise machines, stating
that they are 100% ineffective and fraudulent.
A product called raccoon eviction fluid sometimes works on a
female with young. This fluid is from the glands and urine
of an adult male raccoon. A male raccoon will kill any
young not its own, so that the female goes back into heat.
Thus, the scent of a male might convince the female to move
away. This product is usually only available to trappers.
Read more about the only known effective repellent, raccoon
eviction fluid.
It’d be nice if a simple product would solve the problem. That
goes for any most any cheap and easy fix for a serious problem.
The truth is that repellents rarely work. Go ahead and try every
one of them if you’re not convinced, and then take care of the
problem properly when you discover that cheap repellents and
deterrents are pointless.
If you want to enlist the help of a professional, I believe
that most of the wildlife control operators listed on this wildlife
removal directory, which includes listings for 450 US
cities and towns, do a competent job. I've also compiled a list
of good raccoon experts in several major US cities. But before
you hire anyone, be sure to read this guide and gain a good
understanding of the matter at hand, and ask whoever you wish to
hire the right questions, and be sure that they remove the baby
raccoons as part of their wildlife control solution! If you want
to use a repellent for raccoons in the house, as stated, the
eviction fluid will help in cases with young.
Read more articles about raccoons:
How Do You Remove
a Raccoon Stuck in a Dumpster?
How to Keep
Raccoons Out From Under a Shed or Porch
How to Keep Raccoons
Out of My Garden
How to Keep
Raccoons Out of My Garbage Cans
Will
Repellents Get a Raccoon Out of the Attic?
Do Mothballs or Ammonia Help
Repel Raccoons?
Home Remedies to
Keep Away Raccoons and Get Rid of Them
Will a High-Pitch
Sound Deterrent Machine Work?
Wildlife Education - Information, Advice, and Techniques for the
Safe Removal of Raccoons from Attics