Wildlife Removal - The Surprise Turned Out to be Raccoons in Carteret, NJ

This particular job was a classic example of what a homeowner believes to be the problem and the actual problem are not necessarily the same.  This homeowner contacted Cowleys, believing that mice had infested her attic. She had not actually seen any rodents or other wildlife, but she was hearing “loud scratching sounds” in the ceiling directly below the attic space. With mice in the attic, you’ll commonly hear light scampering and running across the ceiling or up and down walls. Since they are nocturnal, you’ll almost always hear noises at night, often right after dark when they leave the attic to forage for food and water. Every so often, you’ll hear scratching noises from making nests, but since mice are so small, these noises are usually muted. Since this homeowner reported loud noises, I questioned whether I was dealing with mice, but, believe it or not, in some homes, because of the house architecture and acoustics, mice noises can be surprisingly loud. So, I wasn’t about to rule anything out until my inspection.

This beautiful home in Carteret, NJ was my last appointment of the day, and the homeowner warmly greeted me, visibly relieved that I had arrived. I understood her concern. It is quite unnerving to know that animals have infested your home. It’s hard to sleep knowing that you are unwillingly sharing your home with animals. They bite and claw, destroy property (especially attic insulation), and leave toxic droppings containing all sorts of dangerous pathogens. 

I asked her to lead the way to the attic entrance so I could venture inside for an inspection and determine the type of animal infesting the home, the size of the infestation, and whatever property damage has been done. I had asked her where in the attic the noises were loudest and cautiously went to that area. As I crawled my way over  I found a pile of droppings. And these weren’t little mouse pellet droppings. These droppings were large and tubular, a good three-quarter inch in diameter, and shaped very much like dog droppings (from a medium-sized dog, not a Chihuahua!). I immediately knew that whatever animal was up here was no mouse, There are no droppings that are larger than the animal producing them — and these droppings were far larger and weighed more than any mouse. I suspected that this homeowner was dealing with one or more raccoons. Given how nervous she was with mice, I’m glad this homeowner did not know that critters much larger and more aggressive had taken over her attic.

Cowleys has a specialized wildlife division that handles animals requiring trapping and relocation. Pest control technicians like myself commonly handle small rodents like mice and rats. At Cowleys, anything bigger where you need to set-up an animal cage trap and deal with relocation is handled by one of our experienced wildlife technicians. These wildlife specialists understand animal behavior and know how to humanely catch them, and they know how to do it right without injuring the animals. The idea behind nuisance wildlife is to bring wildlife that has invaded human habitats back into the wild, limiting the stress of removal on the homeowner and the animals.

One of our wildlife technicians happened to be in the area. Since it was toward the end of the day, the timing was right and he immediately came over. I accompanied him to the attic and showed him the evidence and my suspicion that we were dealing with raccoons.  He quickly confirmed that this was, in fact, a raccoon infestation. The wildlife technician commented that this was the breeding season for raccoons that they were getting calls all over. 

Since this was my last call for the day, I had an opportunity to stay and help him out. These technicians have specialized inspection tools to properly do their job.  He took out an infrared camera that enabled him to “see” where the raccoon (and likely raccoon babies) were hiding in the wall voids by sensing their body heat. Once the thermal spots are located, they know the exact location of the animals. It’s like having Superman x-ray vision! 

The next part of the wildlife capturing process was securing animal cage traps to the roof where the raccoons were entering and exiting the home.  In order to properly rid your home of wildlife, it is necessary to set traps by their entry point. Setting traps on roofs takes a lot of practice because they must be properly secured so they won’t tip over or slide once an animal is trapped inside. 

Once the mother raccoon is trapped, the technicians will go into the attic to retrieve the babies. It becomes much more challenging once the babies are mobile. If the babies are in an inaccessible area like a wall void, the wall will need to be cut open to remove the babies. 

The customer was quite surprised to learn that raccoons, and not mice, had invaded her attic. Nevertheless, despite the somewhat upsetting news, she was happy that the job was being handled properly, and that these critters these would be relocated far away from her home.