Most people know raccoons are nocturnal animals who sleep in the day and manage their lives during the night. But what are they doing once the sun goes down?
Knowing how raccoons behave can help you understand how one or more of them might decide to start living in your attic.
The Night Begins With Food
The first thing a raccoon does is go hunting for the easiest food source it can find. And while raccoons will feed on frogs, small insects, and fish, they love human food most of all.
Why not? We pack our food with calories and we often make it easily accessible to them by failing to secure our trash cans. And often, those trash cans are set outside right next to the water spigot. If the spigot drips at all, or if the raccoon has worked out how to use it, then it’s smorgasbord time. Of course, raccoons aren’t picky: if there’s a bird bath or a source of standing water in your yard the coon will happily slurp up that water, too.
Once a raccoon decides your trash can is a fine source of food, that critter is already thinking about setting up shop as close to it as possible.
Look for Mates
Racoons mate from January till June. You might hear them outside, screaming at each other in the night, trying to make a connection. It’s worse than Tinder out there for them, but they usually come out ahead: by early summer there are usually some babies to be had.
Moms with babies are the biggest culprits when it comes to home attic invasions. A pregnant Mom wants a fortified den full of nesting material. She wants a lovely food source nearby.
As far as she’s concerned, our attics are perfect, and she can easily squeeze through relatively small holes to get inside.
Repurpose a Space
Raccoons would rather rehab a space to their liking than build a new one. Out in the wild this would often mean looking for hollowed-out trees or branches, or sliding into another raccoon’s abandoned burrow.
In urban spaces, they look to chimneys, attics, crawl spaces, storm sewers, brush piles, haystacks, and barn lofts.
Once they’re inside they’ll start arranging that space to their liking, which usually means damaging your property.
Stop the Raccoon Takeover!
If you think raccoons are taking over your home you can’t afford to “wait and see” if they’ll wander off. They never will. They’ll happily raise families up in your attic, generation after generation, until no attic is left.
If you’re seeing signs of raccoons, don’t wait. Call Elite Wildlife Services to schedule a free inspection today.
