Raccoon Exclusion in Spring Lake, NJ
Challenge
Recently, a customer in Spring Lake, NJ received a call from his neighbor who informed him that she saw a raccoon enter his summer home late one night. Upset, the owner called our office and I was sent out to assess the situation and safely capture the raccoon.
As I inspected the home I could smell a strong odor of raccoon urine emanating from the upstairs bathroom. I continued my inspection to the attic and that's where I discovered that the raccoon made a latrine in the attic around the area where the upstairs bathroom was. The sheetrock ceiling in the bathroom was so stained and wet from the raccoon urine that, if this animal is not evicted soon, at any moment the ceiling will collapse.
Solution
I continued my inspection on the exterior roof and discovered the access point, which was along the soffit area. I temporarily sealed off the access point with hardware cloth and installed a one-way device in front of it. A one-way device allows the raccoon to safely leave the attic but is designed to prevent it from getting back in. The fact that the main access point is sealed off will force the raccoon to exit through the one-way.
I also set-up a few baited traps near the one-way to entice the raccoon to enter. After a short amount of time, the raccoon was safely caught in the trap. I will relocate the raccoon to a new, humane location after completely sanitizing the attic and properly sealing up the access point with metal flashing. The homeowner told me he will replace the urine-soaked sheetrock in the bathroom ASAP.
