Opening a Wall to Get a Raccoon Out

Sometimes raccoons get into places in homes that are just not easily accessible. When they do, it is often advisable to wait them out and let them come out on their own.

But, there are those times when the raccoons are just uncooperative with this plan. In these cases, a more hands-on approach is required.

Continue reading this post, which describes a raccoon removal using a different tactic: wall removal.

Raccoon Removal Plan B

Back in early May we made another post on getting baby raccoons out of a hard to reach space. It was called “Employing a Mother Raccoon” because that’s exactly what we did; we put the odds in our favor that the mother raccoon would get the babies out after we trapped her and used some eviction paste. In some cases it works very well.

But, it doesn’t always work.

Sometimes, you just have to go in and get them.

In this case, a mother raccoon was entering a house where one roof overhung another. She had removed the soffit and then climbed down an exterior wall to a spot behind a fireplace. She gave birth in this spot.

Not being able to easily grab the babies after trapping her, we decided to see if she’d get the baby raccoons out for us.

So, as we described in the earlier blog, we trapped her at the entrance/exit and held her for a day.

We applied a paste made of boar raccoon secretions around the opening to encourage her to move them.

Next, we let her go and waited.

We monitored her movements with a game camera at the place where we first captured her. Her is a sample video of her going back into the den.

We waited and waited with our patient client , but she didn’t move them.

So, we had to move on to Plan B – going in through the wall.

Through the Wall Raccoon Removal

This picture shows the hard to get to area. This is a bump out for a gas fireplace. The fireplace was inserted from the living space and the area left is a void.

The first step was to remove the siding, any wrap, and sheeting of the exterior wall.

Here is a better picture of everything removed. This area behind the fireplace was accessible to the mother raccoon after she came in the roof at the spot in the video above.

The homeowners never had to worry about raccoons getting into their living space; as you can see, the fireplace is built in. The other option here would be dismantling the fireplace and coming in from the house…Not our favorite option.

Peeking in, we find one of the baby raccoons hunkered down.