Raccoon Sneaks in Townhouse Attic in Middletown, NJ

Challenge

A property manager of a townhouse in Middletown, NJ had concerns that there was an animal in the attic making noise only at night. I suspected it was raccoons since they only go out at night, but I never assume anything without first inspecting the property thoroughly. Upon inspection of the exterior of the unit, I could not find any access points at the roofline of the building. So then I inspected the attic and came across a raccoon at the far corner of the attic! I very cautiously left the attic.  If you ever spot a living raccoon in your attic, your best bet is to leave SLOWLY. You NEVER want to try and capture the raccoon for a few reasons. One of which is, you’re not going to catch it — raccoons are too dextrious and it could damage your property more trying to escape and possibly hide in the soffit.  Another reason is you can aggravate the raccoon and it could potentially attack you and then you gotta make a trip to the hospital — so again, DO NOT TRY TO CAPTURE THE RACCOON!

Solution

Once I left the attic I informed the manager about the situation.  Before I set up any traps, I needed to find an access point. Upon further inspection of the exterior, I found an access point at the ground level of the unit where there was a gap. Turns out the raccoon was gaining access to the attic by climbing up a PVC pipe that was underneath the siding. Nimble little critters, aren’t they? 

I then set up a positive trap in which we block off all access points so the animal has no choice but to go into the trap. By next morning we had our first catch. I also informed the manager of the complex that all buildings on the property have the same issue with gaps around their property at ground level and they should address problem ASAP so that there are no future wildlife issues.