They may look adorable if you happen to be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them frocking in your backyard late at night.  Their masked faces and the furry ringed tails make them look like a delightful family pet.  Outdoors, raccoons are just fine.  The trouble begins when raccoons decide that your home should be their home.

It’s now mating season for raccoons, so they are quite active looking for a good spot to raise their kits.  Raccoons desire the same things that humans do…food, water, and shelter from the elements, so our human habitats provide the perfect nesting spot for a growing raccoon family.

Raccoons are extremely intelligent creatures.  Because of their strength, agility, and cleverness, it is very difficult to keep a raccoon out of your home once they have decided that it is a suitable place to live.  Raccoons can enter your home through tiny openings.  They have extremely strong almost human-like claws that enable them to grab onto material and tear their way through many types of material.  Raccoons are not afraid of other types of wildlife that they may encounter such as birds, squirrels, or opossums.

You don’t have to be living in out in the country or in the woods to have raccoon encounters.  They are typically nocturnal, and do indeed thrive in small and large cities just as well as they do in dense wilderness area.  There has been an ongoing raccoon problem in the New York City and surrounding areas for many years.

Raccoons living in your attic, walls, or crawl space should be considered a serious problem that warrants a call to a licensed NYC or NJ pest control professional.  Stern Environmental Group offers humane raccoon removal services, and nest and feces removal services in New York and New Jersey.