Raccoons in crawl space
I had a smart meter installed at the front of my crawl space and thought that the flap door needed to be accessed by PGE,an incorrect assumption on my part. I noticed every morning that the flap door was open, despite my effort to place bricks in front of the door. Last night , at 9:15 pm I heard noises and looked out to see a very large raccoon outside. I made a lot of noise and it stood up on its hind legs and hissed at me. It was definitely not fearful of my presence. It returned about 60 mins later and then fled. I soaked a cloth with apple cider vinegar ( info I gleaned from my google search) and dropped it in front of the flap door.This morning the flap was open.
I read all the posts and called recommended pest control, but found most dont deal with raccoons.City of Berkeley Animal Control also doesnt deal with raccoons .
Question: Since PGE doesnt need access I can nail shut the door, but I dont know when the raccoon leaves my crawl space or if their are babies inside. It would be a nightmare to nail it shut and have raccoons locked inside. Help
Parent Replies
Get a one-way trap and place at the entrance to the crawl space. The door only goes one way: meaning raccoon can exit crawl space but can not enter. I used one for a possum under the house and it worked great. If there is any chance there are babies though, you should wait until they are grown and gone. It would be terrible for mom to exit and babies to remain stuck inside without her.
As you have sadly learned there is little help from the authorities with protected furbearing animals.
Last year I paid $1000 to remove a mom and pup racoon from my attic crawl space. About ten years I paid $500 to remove a squirrel from the same space. About seven years ago there was a mom and 2 pup racoons living under my backyard cottage. (Do it yourself worked.)
1, Animal Damage Control in Antioch handled the squirrell.
2. Another outfit with trained & licensed animal specialists handled the attic family last year,.
Maybe the do-it-yourself option would work for you. You need to wait until the pup has fledged and left the nest (with the mom), and seal the opening. Good luck.
We had this happen underneath our deck! We first became aware of something being off when our dog would FREAK out and bark furiously sometimes when in the backyard and run back and forth across the deck-- and one day we saw the racoon sneak out, leave the backyard, and go down the sewar grates in the street (shudder). Our dog didn't seem to care once they were out of the backyard and on the street.
Not sure if you have access to a large dog? But if yes, they'll know without having to come face-to-face with the racoons. Our dog was always calm in the backyard when they weren't there, and that should confirm their absence and give you piece of mind to lock up the space.
We closed up the bottom of our deck and haven't had any issues since.
Alameda County Vector Control is great! I have used them several times over many years. They are responsive, friendly, know what they are doing, and effective. And free!
Basically, you want to make the crawlspace an unfriendly place for raccoons - turn on a light, play a loud radio - and then give the mother a few days to move her babies, if that's what you're dealing with. The Humane Society has some good tips for how to do this and then temporarily close it off to see if anything is still going in and out, before you seal it permanently (https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/what-do-about-raccoons#attic) and there's also some good info from EBRPD at https://www.ebparks.org/sites/default/files/living-with-racoons-brochure.pdf [sic].
Wildcare, a nonprofit based in Marin County, helps home owners re-home invasive wildlife such as the racoon who is occupuing your crawl space. If they can't send a skilled person, they can provide advice.
https://discoverwildcare.org/
I had a similar problem with my attic and a raccoon last week. Buy a trail camera (as used by hunters, motion detecting) from Amazon for about $40 then review the footage in the morning (or a couple of mornings if you really want to be sure). You’re looking to confirm primarily that there’s just one raccoon, and secondarily that it’s last activity was to leave. If that seems to be the case, nail it shut with one or two long nails not completely pounded in (so you can easily remove the nails if you hear motion below). To be ultra sure, wait two days, then carefully place the trail camera inside and renail, then check to confirm there wasn’t any raccoon activity, then permanently seal it. (You’re lucky, mine made at least 4 holes in my house at the plastic soffit, each at the top of a rainwater drain pipe.)
We had a raccoon with her babies in our crawl space last year and we tried two pest control companies and City of Berkeley and none of them could help, and then we found Mr. Raccoon and he had them out (humanely) in 30 minutes. https://www.mrraccoon.com Definitely don't attempt to lock them in or out; they'll likely cause significant damage to your home.