Old Toronto, Ontario – 2024
This article will analyze and recount a case of a raccoon removal in a townhouse complex with shared attic spaces. Situations like this can be severe and involve the exclusion of multiple houses. Many of the occupants can hear the raccoon, but few know where the initial entryway was made. The customer initially thought it was a squirrel that had entered into their attic exclusively; however, what is found on site after the inspection can change the situation rapidly.
This visit is located between Leslieville
The technicians, before the work is done, must first inspect and confer with the customer or customers on the issue and then must inspect for the source of the activity. In this case, the inspection resulted in not just a raccoon but a squirrel, but that the entryway was not on the customers’ roof at all. The raccoon had entered through a neighbouring roof and had access to a row of attics, which is why the sounds of activity were so far spread.
Old Toronto, Ontario: Leslieville and Riverside
Lesliville and Riverside are part of East York, which is divided from Toronto by the Don River Valley. East York is made up of a number of burrows, including Riverside, Lesliville, and the Beaches, as well as the Danforth and Thorncliff and Leaside areas. East York is known for its incredible restaurants, its multicultural food, its small privately owned shops, and its Carrot Commons, where you can buy anything from books to organic juices, clothes, and groceries. East York ends at Victoria Park, which is where Scarborough begins.
Exterior Inspection
When the technician arrived on site, they performed an exterior inspection of the property and found entry ways on multiple roofs. The main entry ways were roof vents, but other areas were accessible as well, including soffits and other structural points on the roofs. The inspection could not be completed as the entire line of townhouses needed to be contacted so the interior inspection of the attics could be done to find the location of the raccoon babies before the adult raccoon could be removed from the attic.
Interior Inspection
While inspecting the interior of the attics, the technician found the immobile raccoon babies and removed them. Raccoon baby season lasts for months as the raccoon babies are born with no fur, blind, and entirely immobile. A raccoon mother who has babies stored in an attic will cause massive damage to the roof to get back in. Her babies are not removed preemptively before installing the one-way door. If this process is followed in its correct order, the result is a raccoon mother that will vacate the property with her babies in hand to find a new den.
Initial Measures
The first step was to seal off the main entry way with a one-way door. This initial entry way was not on the initial roof the technician was sent to inspect but the roof of another townhouse in the complex. Upon installation of the one-way door, further possible entryways were found that needed to be excluded for the job to be complete.
Proposed Exclusion
The technician sealed off a number of entry ways, including multiple roof vents and accessible soffit areas that would allow the raccoon to get back into the attic. These areas are sealed with galvanized steel soffit protectors, which are made from sturdy galvanized steel mesh, as well as black rubber-coated galvanized steel cages used to seal off roof vents. This work was done on three different roofs that were connected to each other in the townhouse complex.
Conclusion
The technician excluded the areas that needed to be sealed, removed the immobile babies from the attic, and attached the one-way door. The raccoon vacated and left the property with her babies in tow, and no new activity has been heard since. This is an instance where the technician’s inspection found a totally different situation from the one specified by the customer who called in, a situation that is more common than not.
Contact us at Raccoon Control
See more of our work at the following links:
Raccoon Removal from Roof with Raccoon Babies in Scarborough