Will Repellents Get a Raccoon Out of the Attic?

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You’ve probably already made the educated guess that no, repellents will not get raccoons out of your attic. And as an experienced wildlife removal professional, I can confirm. Of course, there have been cases where different deterrents have worked in making raccoons leave an attic, but these are more like exceptions to the rule rather than bulletproof raccoon removal tactics. Raccoon eviction fluid is one repellent that has been successful in aiding people to get rid of female raccoons that have made a natal den in the attic, and I will talk more about it below.



Odor repellents. In theory, strong harassing odors will urge a raccoon to find a safer place to nurse its young, and this can be accomplished by using different powders and sprays that are available in stores and online. Almost all of these so-called raccoon deterrents are made with naphthalene – in layman’s terms, mothballs. Either you go about it with deterrent products available on the marketplace or directly with mothballs, bleach, ammonia or other sorts of popular remedies that you’ve heard might work, the chances of success are close to none. Yes, there’s always the chance that a raccoon will prefer to find another non-smelly spot and leave your mothball bomb of an attic, but if the raccoon already has babies, it will certainly prefer to endure the nasty smell instead of putting its young in danger by moving them. In addition, attics are usually pretty decent in size and well-ventilated. This means bad odors will easily disperse, not causing such a big issue with raccoons as we might think.

Sound repellents. There are two solutions that come with sound repellents. One might work while the other definitely does not work. A radio in the attic might make the raccoon feel unsafe, and determine it to leave in search of a safer place. If you want to try this, make sure the volume on your radio is high, and leave it on for three or four days to see if it does the job. While there’s a slight chance that the radio trick might be effective, this is not the case with ultrasonic high-pitch sound emitting machines. These devices are totally ineffective, no matter what the ad says.

Visual repellents. You may have heard that you can get rid of raccoons from your attic by putting some bright lights or stroboscopic lights up there. It won’t work. If the raccoon wants to set camp in your attic, a visual deterrent won’t be the thing that changes its mind. In the odd case it does bother it enough, it will simply find the least exposed spot and resume its activity.

Raccoon eviction fluid. Available either in paste or liquid form, raccoon eviction fluid contains male raccoon urine and male raccoon gland secretions. It’s highly usual for different species of mammals to have males kill babies that aren’t theirs so that they can mate with the female, thus assuring the survival of their own genes. Male raccoons will also sometimes do this. This is why raccoon eviction fluid is the only raccoon repellent that might work. A female raccoon might choose to move her litter because it senses the danger of a nearby male. Now, it might work or it might not work, but it’s definitely a safer bet than all the other deterrents and home remedies. If the mother has a safe alternative, she could choose to move her young, but there’s a big chance that she will take the risk of a male maybe getting to her young rather than taking the risk of she herself harming her young by moving them.

The best way to get raccoons out of your attic is by removing them with the help of raccoon traps. For more information on how to do this yourself or how to find professionals who can do the job for you, feel free to further browse through this website.

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