So, we’ve had a raccoon family visiting our garage every spring for some years, and we were mostly just living with it — we’d see them in the rafters on occasion, then mama and the babies would disappear again.
But now they’re just wandering happily around our back garden, and they’re pretty big, and we want our garden to be wildlife friendly, but not quite THIS wildlife friendly, especially since when we redid our roof last year, we found a huge hole up there that was probably torn out by these selfsame raccoons.
Huge holes in your roof lead to big leaks and expensive repair costs, so I think we really do need to encourage this raccoon family to find a new home.
Suggestions on how best to go about this? We tried having someone random that Kevin found online come out and take care of it last year, but the traps (for catch-and-release) that he set up on our porch ceiling didn’t actually catch any raccoons, so I’m a little dubious about that approach. But maybe there’s a better local person or service to recommend for this?