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Originally Posted by chattiesmom  One of the biggest problems in deterring raccoons is that they are so very intelligent. Lights, sounds, etc. may scare them off (well scatter them) for a while, but won't phase them once these things become a "normal" part of their environment. From sharing our home with Annie for almost 10 months what I have learned is that CHANGE unsettles them. In the home environment, moved furniture, new visitors, or a change in routine was distressful to Annie. Also, if you "piss one off" they get really mean and aggressive and won't hesitate to attack.
Although any mammal can be a carrier of rabies, skunks, possums, and raccoons seem to get the worst end of that deal. I would be much more afraid of the disease and infection from a simple bite.
To deter them, try doing different things or "attacking" them from different directions -- switch it up - try the water hose one day, a can of rocks lobbed in their direction another. Keep them unsettled and wondering what will happen next. Have some fun with it 
I don't want to give the opinion that I consider myself a Raccoon expert or a know-it-all. My comments are based on first hand experience from having closely observed raccoons both in the wild and from having raised a little orphan, Annie, who shared our home for almost a year. |
I don't know that much about raccoons' behavior, but I have a little experience with a family of them living in my fireplace for at least a couple of months that I know of. A mother must have had her babies in my fireplace, and on one spring day when it was pouring out, I saw the mother and three babies looking out of my glass fireplace doors. They were probably getting wet on the ledge where they normally were. I never knew they were there before this day, and my girls had shown no indication that they knew about them, either. It terrified me to have them there, but I put a lock on the doors to make sure they couldn't get into my home. There were also metal screen doors on the fireplace. I have a photo of the four of them that I took the first day that I saw them. It's strange that my dogs didn't react to them, even as they got older and they ran around playing in the fireplace. I looked into trying to get them to leave, but everything involved humanely trapping the mother first. I was too afraid that something would happen to the babies without the mother, and couldn't do it. Obviously, I did everything to barricade them in with a lock and other barriers to make sure they couldn't get into our home or close to our babies, and I kept them away from that room. Still, it was scary and upsetting, although I also became a bit attached to the family. Mostly they came out at night and stayed on the ledge during the day. They ran whenever I came downstairs, but once they realized that nothing was going to happen to them, the babies played and ran around a lot inside the fireplace. I thought there was a way for them to get out, and I was leaving peanut butter on the outside of the fireplace for them, but it seemed untouched. I went to a garden center, and I bought male urine since they said a female wouldn't want to get pregnant again and it would make her leave. We discovered once they were gone that we had the area blocked where you sweep the ashes, and that's how we were expecting them to get out. The day before they left, I went outside to get the paper and saw one of the babies on the top of the chimney. Apparently, they were now big enough to now climb. The mom got her baby down, and I still had all four with me. The next day, my best friend came over, and she absolutely loved raccoons. She kept calling for them to come down from the ledge and kept looking at them on the ledge. As warm and loving as her voice sounded, I am sure they were afraid of her. I think she was the only person who had come into the house to go that close to them. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was only the next night after coming home from graduation of my high school students that I realized I didn't hear the raccoons. I'm sure they no longer felt secure in their home, and they must have all climbed out of the chimney. I didn't see them anywhere on our property, but there is enough wooded area that they could have stayed in. There were no tracks of them anywhere. I think chattiesmom is right about changing things for the raccoons, for I am sure that's what caused my family of raccoons to leave my home. I now have a cap on my chimney to prevent this from happening again.