Million Dollar Raccoon Den

My boss and I went up to Heber City, Utah to do a raccoon job. This raccoon was getting in the attic and had babies as well with it. As we drove up to the site, we saw a big raccoon mother running across the yard and shimmy its way up a wooden post of the house and into an opening of the roof. It was my first time ever seeing a raccoon actually go into a house. We then knew immediately where the problem area was and where to treat.

As we got out of the truck and walked over to the hole in the roof, we shined our flashlight into the hole and back at us were two, big, glowing eyeballs of the raccoon. If she wanted to, she easily could have attacked us, but being the protective raccoon she was, she backed into her den to guard her young babies.

Not only had she ripped out an area on the east side of the home, but also on the west side on the metal siding overhang. Note: sometimes, raccoons have more than one entrance or a secondary entrance. We could hear trumping on the metal porch soffit above our heads, so we knew exactly where she was nesting at with her young. It was a cool experience. After one week of trapping, we were able to remove the mother and young successfully.

Bats Love Tight Quarters

Charte Oak, Iowa

“I have had four bats in the house and can hear another one in the ceiling, i’m not sure where they are getting in at and would like them gone. Our house is a two-story house downstairs there is a porch, pantry/store room, bedroom, bathroom, dining/toy room (for grandkids), kitchen & living room. Upstairs (which is closed off from the main floor) is a bedroom, closet & store room. We have had bats before but only 1 or 2 at a time.”

If you ever have bats that get into your house, try to stay out of the house and stay at a friend or relatives house until the problem is taken care of because bats can carry rabies, and if you get bit, you will need to be on rabies shots. It would be wise to get rabies shots because you may never know if you have been bitten or not. If a bat ever does get into your house, it would be good to wear leather gloves, carefully try to catch the bat, and put it in a glass container. Then you want to freeze it and take it to the health department to get it tested for rabies.

Bats can get into small cracks and crevices. If you are noticing bats getting inside of a structure, it is important to get the problem fixed immediately before more and more bats start using your house as a hotel. There may be cases where bats are just roosting or hanging around or above your porch or deck to digest their food. Know that bat urine and bat guano is not good to be tracking into your house, let alone having it get on you or breathing it in. It would be wise to get your house inspected to see if bats could be living inside the structures of your home.

Snake Removal From the Wall

Chris and I went to a customer’s house above the Capital Building in Salt Lake City, Utah that we have been going to for years to help reduce their snake and vole problems.

We had been setting out new, fresh snake traps at least 2 or 3 times a week and all we would ever catch were voles. It was cool at first for me, but then I started to get bored with the voles and wanted to see some real action, but with snakes.

Chris usually checks the kill boxes for the voles and I usually check the snake traps to help time go by a little faster. As I was going around, I picked up one of the snake traps towards me by the garage to check it and immediately it flew out of my hands back into the same spot it was first left at.

I was so confused. Then I looked into the trap from a distance and noticed a snake half trapped in the trap, and half coming out of the garage wall. I wondered how I was going to remove the snake from the wall. I tried pulling it a little but the snake wouldn’t come loose from the wall. I also had to be careful because I couldn’t tell whether the head was stuck in the trap or if it was inside of the wall.

I called Chris over to help me. He got some long tongs, put his foot on the snake and grabbed the part of the snake that was in the wall with the tongs, and slowly but strongly tried pulling it out. This snake was very strong. We still could not get the snake removed from the wall.

Finally after 4 minutes, I think the snake was tired of being stretched out, so the rest of his body came out from the wall. Luckily, it was just its tail, and not the head. The snake removal from the wall was complete!