Like most wildlife, raccoons are driven by their desire for food, water and shelter. They are smart and have strong, agile hands. They are known for their ability to pry open trash cans, coolers and chimney caps.
As shown in the photo below, taken by the Wildlife Whisperer, their hands are similar in shape to that of a human's, lacking only a thumb.
Potential damage they can do includes, but is not limited to, destruction of family furniture, heirlooms and Christmas decorations, and electrical, alarm, doorbell, cable, telephone and speaker wire damage. We have seen all these things occur at the hands of raccoons. Raccoons will even tear the entire ridgeline off of a cedar roof just in order to enter an attic.
Below is a photo of raccoon damage to a roof. This damage was all done within 15 minutes. Raccoons will sit, facing the gutters and use their human-like hands to destroy the roof shingles in order to gain attic entry.
Note the gap where the yellow-edged board does not meet the fascia board. This is very, very common. Roofers often simply roof over it, thinking nobody will ever know... raccoons, squirrels, insects, spiders and bats - they know! They can feel the airflow and it indicates to them that they can easily gain entry into that area. These particular raccoons never got in. After listening to the raccoon's work in progress, the homeowner decided to go see what was behind it, at which point she discovered the raccoon and shooed it away. To make it's exit, the raccoon scampered down the same gutter downspout it had climbed onto the roof to start with; yes, raccoons and opossum can climb downspouts.
We responded quickly to the potential problem, we repaired the roof and installed professional under-the-roof-shingle gutter covers to help prevent raccoons from doing this sort of damage again. We also cleaned the gutters of all decaying leaf matter which was also causing an ant problem.
We often tell homeowners, "you don't have a wildlife problem, you have a building problem". The scenarios and photos on this page are all a good example of this. Often wildlife control is simply a matter of a few affordable modifications to your home.
Raccoons can cause problems anywhere in or around your home, but they particularly love attics. Raccoons can tear right through a home's vent and do all kind of damage when trying to access an attic.
