A friend asked me to look at his roof, as he had some strange droppings in one of the valleys. After climbing up on the roof and investigating, I told him that he had a nice plot of land full of God’s beautiful creatures. Unfortunately, they are dumping on his roof and climbing down his chimney. As you can see from the photos, the raccoon(s) was climbing a flower trellis, making himself comfortable in one of the roof valleys, climbing up the chimney and then down the open chimney liner (if you look closely you can see the paw prints on the inside of the ceramic/clay liner.)
Obviously I told him to remove the trellis and install screened weathercaps on the chimney liners, but I couldn’t really tell him anything else about the habits of raccoons - Why were they up there? Do they have a good vertical leap? Might they be rabid? How much damage could they do to the roof surface?
I’d appreciate any input. (Can you believe the size of those piles?)
At least he’s house broke! ;-) he will need to fasten any screen, because they are very smart and will just remove it. They are subject to catch Rabies as are most wild animals. They can be very mean and aggressive. They will lure a dog into water and then drown it. Recommend him to hire a pro to remove the critter, it is most likely a female making a den to have babies very soon. HTH
I had a crab apple tree that used to lean over the edge of the roof…I noticed a great amount of similar raccoon droppings and could actually hear them on the roof…crab apple season they would simply climb the tree break off a branch and sit on the roof and eat and crap…i heavily pruned the tree and eliminated the problem…I would recommend you remove the trellis and see if it doesn’t solve the problem…sure looks like a raccoon to me
Ken I think is right, a female coon planning to nest in the chimney. Get screens up now, she’ll move on. They are very good climbers, but the adults are not likely to jump very far, at least not the ones that waddle past our place.
That is definitely something you dont see everyday. The chances of the racoons being rabid is slim. They are basically scavengers and are probably finding food or something nearby to keep them around. If nothing to eat they will move on.
My brother-in-law had two that got stuck in his chimney and died . . . seems like a few hundred dollars to remove . . . he’s now screened in . . . all done by a pro.
he will need to fasten any screen, because they are very smart and will just remove it. They are subject to catch Rabies as are most wild animals. They can be very mean and aggressive. They will lure a dog into water and then drown it. Recommend him to hire a pro to remove the critter, it is most likely a female making a den to have babies very soon. HTH