raccoon climbing

Raccoons are Great Climbers

Riverside park has been enduring some strange raccoon activity. They have had an attack of raccoons recently climbing all over a wall in the park. This is not too much of a surprise, except for the sheer number of raccoons, but raccoons are very good climbers. They are capable of scaling almost any non sheer material. They can even climb metal if it is painted by gripping the texture of the paint.

Raccoons love climbing things, trees, your house. They have even been known to scale great heights, being found on the tops of building and in strange places like electric towers. They seem to do it just for fun because many of the places they scale to don’t have food. Though they may be looking for birds nests.

If you have a raccoon scaling your house then you will need to deal with it. There are preventative measures you can take to keep raccoons off your property. They tend to come to your property for food and water. So if you cut off access to those things they are less likely to want to come to your property and will likely move on somewhere else. The key to getting rid of them is making sure your property is clean and clear. Get rid of garbage and detritus from your yard, anything a raccoon could hide in.

And maybe its time to tear down that hold shack in the back yard. You will also want to make sure to feed pets inside, pets drop food while they chew and that attracts raccoons. You can also make sure that whenever you or your children eat outside to always pick up food items dropped on the ground and to clean up the left overs right away. You should also store your garbage in a tightly sealed and locked container in the garage to prevent raccoons from accessing it.

How to Get the Raccoons Out From Under my Deck

Raccoons don’t like making their own dens. They prefer to find them. Dens that have been left by other animals like hollowed out trees or burrows. They will happily take on another animals space but their preference, especially in the city is to hang out on a home property. The property of a home is not like the property of other commercial locations. They lock their garbage and take care of their property. At home people tend to be more careless, I mean its your house right, have fun, do whatever you want. But you may find yourself face to face with a raccoon invasion if you are not careful. A lot of people love bbq and they tend to do it a lot and eat outside. Some people don’t even eat on a table and simply eat on paper plates that flop over.

People drop food all over the place and no one picks it up because it isn’t litter and it will be good for the lawn and all those things. But what it really does is attract raccoons to your property. So make sure to pick up all dropped food. Don’t feed your animals outside either because they make a serious mess and raccoons love pet food. You must, absolutely must, seal your garbage in a tight fitting container that locks and store it in your garage, this will prevent the animals from coming to your home.

Now if you have a raccoon living under your deck and you have already done all of the above and he wont leave then you will need to call a professional. At Raccoon Control our technicians can perform exclusion on your property and deck to seal the under area of your deck and then attach a one way door to allow the raccoon to leave but stops them from getting back in.

raccoon feeding winter

How Raccoons Survive The Winter

Raccoons are mammals and that means they are warm blooded and need warmth during the winter. Raccoons don’t always hibernate and when they do they do it in bursts. They prefer to stay active and the best way to stay active in the winter is to have a heated den, and it just so happens there’s an opening. In your attic.

Raccoons come to your attic because it has easy access to food on your property that allows it to find food easily without having to go to far from its new rental unit/den. They will often feed on pet food left out and garbage which they can knock over with relative ease and then tear apart and spread across your lawn in a way that could only be described as pretty amazing, for a small animal.

It really covers the lawn with the garbage, like a C.S.I. agent unloading the contents of a car on the side walk. They also love your leftovers and licking the meat off your bbq grill. All those dinners where children left their sandwich outside, or dropped food on the ground. That is how you get raccoons. They will swarm your property for a chance to taste the various delicacies.

And don’t forget about your coy pond, raccoons have been known to fish in them as coy is one of their favourite food. So yes, raccoons can stay active all winter, as long as they have your attic to live in. So make sure to clean up your yard and call in some professionals from Raccoon Control so we can come by and attach a one way door to safely and humanely remove the raccoon from your attic, no mus no fuss.

raccoons on roof

How Do Raccoons Get on Your Roof

How do raccoons get on your roof is not as important a question as why do raccoons want to get on your roof. Raccoons are aggressive territorial creatures that find a home and then refuse to give it up, so if they get into your attic the best way to get them out is to trick them with a one way door.

They get on your roof because they are very capable climbers. They can scale almost any material and can climb and jump trees to get to your roof or even just climb up the drain pipe. They can get onto your roof in dozens of way and their are few ways to stop them from climbing your building but you can stop them from getting up their easily. You can try making your drain pipe harder to climb with pigeon spikes that may deter the raccoon from trying to climb it.

You can also try putting aluminium collars around your trees bases to stop them from climbing and trimming back the branches to stop them from hopping one tree to another. This is not the only reason they are there though. They are also attracted to the garbage on the property which they are happy to tip over, rip open and spread across your property like a Jackson Pollock painting.

So seal all your garbage in a tight container and store it in your garage to keep it safe, you should also do the safe with your bbq if you tend to have dinner outside frequently. Food gets dropped all over the place and will attract raccoons. You should also not feed pets outside as they also spread food raccoons like to eat. If you follow these recommendations then you should have no raccoon issues on your property.

Toronto Raccoons

Are City Raccoons Better Survivors than Wild Raccoons

Wild raccoons and city raccoons are very different animals, comparing them is pointless but here we go anyway.

Wild raccoons are omnivores like their city based cousins. They will eat just about anything but have a very different diet from city raccoons. They tend to live on nuts and berries and the field mice they catch. They like fish and will sometimes try to catch one. They also eat leftovers from large carnivores and eat parts of the animal the carnivore was not interested in. Wild raccoons are also like their city counterparts in that they don’t make their own dens.

They find dens made and left by other animals. In the case of the wild, these are much harder to find and also more natural. The raccoon in the wild may live in an old burrow make by large rodents or a hollowed out tree. They are opportunity in that way. They will find whatever home they need and rarely build one themselves. As you can see wild raccoons live a different kind of life, they have the threat of predators which city raccoons do not have but in exchange they have much better food and water sources.

Raccoons in Toronto are far more opportunistic and will happily break into an attic or a basement to make its nest and it is happy to live mostly on garbage. There are a lot of differences as the city raccoon has no predators its not easily scared and unlike the wild raccoon it doesn’t run away from humans. They tend to approach humans for food and even try to steal food from humans and pets. They are wild animals in the wild but in the city they are far more like pests.