If the fluid worked, they left and you capped it, aren't you still solving the problem of raccoon in chimney?

I suppose HD but that sure wouldn't be a first choice at the end of September. Reguardless seems like the lazy way to me. When a true solution is staring you in the face why use a questionable attempt. We could go on for days with what ifs and variables.

Trav I agree BUT at times conditions aren't right for a trap.

Here is my take, for what it's worth. A customer has put up with chittering from his fireplace every morning at 2 AM. Now his wife

has mounted a frontal assault and he has agreed to pay hundreds of dollars to not only take care of this situation, but also make

sure it never happens again. He has two choices: You or your closest competitor. Your competitor puts eviction fluid in the bottom

of the fireplace and within 3 nights, viola, the problem is gone! He puts a quality chimney cap on the fireplace and the customer is

happy. Now, the other side of the coin. He hires you at the same price. You come out and anesthetize the female and put her in your

vehicle. Then you carefully remove the babies and after promising that each of your customer's children will faithfully wash their

hands later, you allow them to hold the baby raccoons, while their dad is recording the whole thing. You install the same chimney

cap at the same price. So which one of us is going to get recommended more? We both did the same job at basically the same price.

If you think that I am making this whole scenario up, you are wrong by a few times. Now you tell me, who wins?

Darn Paul you're good, do offer the wife a glass of red wine too? lol
I agree PR is huge in our biz...I have too many long time, repeat, referred customers to think other wise.

Travis,

I understand trapping or catch pole removal is of course a given deal, wasn't endorsing the fluid for fall or this case
but the stuff works and to me solving th problem of raccoon in chimney isn't about anything other than the raccoon leaving or being
gone by any means and ending up with a happy client.

Just seems like you are saying its lazy if you exclude the raccoon without using trapping and removal, if I take your meaning.

Exclusion devices or eviction fluid can solve the same problem in many cases and many on here report success with fluid in the right scenario.

I don't need to leave with the animal in every case to know the case is resolved for that client.

Does that make sense from this angle?

Again not saying this threads poster should use fluid.

Justin

Justin, sure does. I'm the guy that figures the less animals I have to trap the more money I can make. I guess I have a bad taste in my mouth about eviction fluids/pastes. Seems lots of WCO's in my area have abused it so badly my clients want nothing to do with it. Either from a previous experiance or someone they know. So I'm forced or at least I feel like I am forced to trap. Now don't confuse me with a guy who sets a baited cage by the entry point or on the ground by the downspout or whatever they may be climbing for roof access. I nose cone a double door Comstock at the hole and get it done first time. I have used Vanish numerous times to solve a problem as I have said previosly in this thread. So in a nut shell what I'm saying to you, in your particular situation (I have seen numerous intellegent, experianced questions/answers either posed or posted by you to know you know what your doing) is if it takes an hour on your initial to set up the chimney job and another hour to finish it up on your second visit is it really more or less proffitable than eviction fluid/paste or is it most likely the same ammount of time/effort? Is your client more happy with watching the perpetrator leaving in a cage or ok with knowing its still out there? I find mine are the first. So that's why I do things the way I do. I'm sure you have just as legit reasons for your way.

...but I didn't say it that well!
A coon in a chimney is like shooting fish in a barrel, if you have the right tools and knowledge! One way in, one way out (except in very rare instances).

Justin, it boils down to this: you can a) leave with the culprit in custody, never to return, or b) make it leave--for now (and don't even talk about how you think a cap installed will keep a resident coon out).
As professionals who seek comprehensive, permanent solutions, I'd say the "a" solution is preferable.
I've used E-fluid about three times in my career (well, actually, when I started I don't think it existed).
Using it right out of the gate is not a best management practice.

Travis, thanks for your time and answer, do follow where you are coming from and like you say each persons experience is ultimately what
shapes how and what they use and when. Good reply!

Dave, I do understand and agree that the permanent solution is the one I want and the one I want to sell for anything in or under a home.

In my area up until last year raccoon had to be relocated, no euthanasia, we don't relocate as a company so we only work with exclusion techniques
and tactics or we pass on the job. Not something I realize most would consider good business practice in terms of turning down money, but what I find I want to do and what makes me happy, which as a small business owner is right there next to being financially secure for me.

My main focus of my question to Travis was just that if you are in the right time of year and have a female raccoon with a litter, too many folks have shown where this fluid system works or at least does enough of a percentage to move that animal so you can exclude whether an attic or a chimney.

Didn't mean to open a can of worms on chimney caps, but I guess I should ask now to the audience, can you not install a chimney cap from any supplier that will keep out a raccoon that was evicted but comes back? Will they tear it open or off every time?

I realize of course that animal motivation or affinity is a 100% troubling thing to any exclusion where animal is still on site if certain species, but never heard anyone mention that caps were worthless if animal is still around?

Glad to learn that please share more (honestly in all sincerity).

Justin

a dead critter only pays once.........

Kind of makes you wonder how many lives could have been spared if every husband would have been wearing "A dead critter only pays

once", when their old lady clobbered them?

Justin, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that we bodily remove every animal that we can. Seeing our top-of-the-line, stainless steel

chimney cap, lying twisted on the ground with raccoon blood all over it, only has to happen once for us to realize that neither the

customer nor our company is happy with the outcome. ( And it has happened more than once, but not in the last several years )

Paul, appreciate your response, brings up another question related to this first one.

Is this statement fair?

1) Chimney caps will not keep an adult raccoon out

or is everyone stating

2) If the raccoon was only excluded it will remove or damage the chimney cap to re-enter thus only in a residential
raccoon eviction without removal would the chimney cap fail?

****

I ask this because if the raccoon with affinity for the site can remove the cap, then surely any raccoon could do so
logic would dictate correct? So I would assume one would never sell a chimney cap for a raccoon, would that be
correct?

I hope everyone sees my point, I understand the various posts and logic behind them, just asking how can one
say the device is worth putting on, without a disclaimer stating "if a raccoon comes along who really wants in, this cap
won't stop them."?

So many folks buy and install caps and there are plenty of raccoons even where the one living there might be removed
lethally or otherwise from the property, is a chimney cap then not suitable for stating raccoons won't be able to enter in the
future?

Just curious, this isn't my thing so I'm posing the question to the audience who practice and preach raccoon removal and
the various exclusion materials or devices (caps) used after removal.

All thoughts welcome, think that anytime we qualify our answers with "if" or "then" or "maybe" we certainly open a can of
worms to what we sell and what we back up as well.

Actually this is a fairly rare event. Most stainless steel caps are too sharp for even the most adamant raccoon. The problem with

raccoons is they can't count. They always come back to make sure that all the babies are out, even if you gave them a couple of extra

ones. And truth be told, some caps just fit a whole lot better than others. I don't believe we've had to replace any of our many

chimney caps in the last several years.

Justin, I think it's fair to say that a) no commercially-made, typically-installed (with set screws on the flue tile) will exclude a coon with strong site affinity. This goes double for mama raccoons, of course. b) the above-mentioned cap will be very successful in keeping out non-resident coons.
I'm amazed to hear that euthanizing raccoons is illegal there.
Good to know that I'm not the only one who has been successful at running a WC business the way he wants to, not trying to run all over Creation and pick up all the apples.

Okay, now I want to know the secret to running a WC business the way I want to. I tried that several times and every time my plan got

ruined by a controlling and insensitive little creature called a "customer."

Well, yeah there are those...you just kinda work around them.

That post had a ton of good stuff in it. They do always come back and they sure as heck don't count very well.

I have had to restrain myself and my wife on more than one occasion, when seeing some of the ignorant, money saving, inhumane attempts of some homeowner or helpful friend or neighbor of theirs that has really fudged up a relatively simple raccoon removal. I also will get a little short with a person who calls about a skunk they have left in a trap for 3 days in the middle of August and they tell you they will just leave it in the trap, instead of paying for removal.

I am now bottling my own urine,,,and it is available for 35 dollaes

Recommended uses are.....

Moles
Raccoons
Passing drug test