Damaged Dormer Invites Raccoon to Take Up Residency in Freehold, NJ
Challenge
As this homeowner in Freehold, NJ walked out to her car one evening to leave for work, she saw a raccoon emerge out of her attic! Terrified, she called our office and I was sent out.
I inspected the roof and noticed that the dormer was damaged due to wood rot and created a big hole. This happens when moisture runs off the tops of the dormer roofs and splashes up on the bottom segments of the underlying dormer siding. Although raccoons are extremely intelligent and have razor-sharp claws to allow them to easily break into homes, they are extremely lazy. They will always use the path of least resistance when breaking into a home and always travel on the same path when re-entering an area. Since there was already a hole in the dormer, the raccoon had to use little effort to break into the attic.
Solution
I installed a positive set directly over the access point. The positive set consists of a nose cone, which safely guides the raccoon into a two-gaited, multi-catch trap. I also set-up several baited traps along the raccoon's path and near the access point. It's called a positive set because we are positive that only the raccoon will enter the device and be safely caught.
Shortly after, the raccoon was caught safely in the multi-catch and I relocated it to a humane location. I also disinfected the entire attic and sealed up the opening with metal flashing.
