Tag Archives: raccoon

Raccoons

Football Player Kills Raccoon with Wrench

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Nebraska football player Jack Gangwish tried to take a selfie with a raccoon he spotted on the side of the road, so he pulled over and approached the raccoon, camera at the ready.  From the raccoon’s perspective, a giant defensive end just came at it, so it did what it thought it needed to do, and that was bite the football player in the calf.  Unfortunately, a raccoon bite means the raccoon must be tested for rabies, and the only way to do that is to kill the raccoon and send it to a lab for testing.  As Gangwish said, “It was death by crescent wrench.”  Talk about a selfie going horribly, horribly wrong!  PETA is now getting involved, saying Gangwish should be punished for animal cruelty.

 

Raccoons

Raccoon in Crawlspace

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raccoon_snare          There is a raccoon in the crawlspace under my living room floor.  It must have access to it by crawling down under my deck, but I definitely do not want to go under there and inspect it myself.  That’s just not something I would ever do, crawl around on my stomach in some dirty, dark, spider-infested area where I know there’s at least one raccoon, just so I can see if a raccoon has torn a hole into the crawl space under my living room.

I moved in about a month ago, and my neighbor says that raccoon, or a family of raccoons, has been there for as long as she can remember.  It’s probably not the same one, but a descendant of whichever was the first raccoon to get into the crawlspace.  Whatever.  I’m not interested so much in its genealogy.  I just want it gone.  I want the hole patched up.  And, I don’t want it coming back.

The problem is, I haven’t been able to get anyone to come out to my house to get rid of the raccoon in my crawlspace.  I called the police, and, while the female cop who answered the phone was polite enough, I got the feeling they got these kinds of calls all the time and were kind of annoyed.  There is nothing they can do about a raccoon in the crawlspace, and we don’t have any kind of wild animal service in the area.  I even called pest control, but they told me they only take care of bugs or rodents, nothing big like raccoons. So, they’ll come out and treat my house if the raccoon infests my house with mites or lice, or if mice or rats come in through the same hole the raccoon made, but they won’t get rid of the raccoon itself.

Obviously, the previous owner of the house gave up trying to get rid of the raccoon from the crawlspace.  I’ve set out traps, but I’ve only succeeded in trapping another neighbor’s cat.  That was an awkward conversation.

But, I refuse to give up.  Because I can’t stand the idea of a raccoon in the crawlspace, causing damage to my house and attracting more bugs or what not to the space under my living room.  No, I’m not going to become a trapper myself. Fortunately, I heard about this national service.  They have a network of trappers, and they can send someone out to my house to get rid of the raccoon from the crawlspace, clean the area up, and repair any damage the raccoon caused.  Thank goodness there are some people in the world who are willing to brave the dark, spider infested areas under the deck and get rid of raccoons, because I’m certainly not going to do it.  I just need that raccoon in the crawlspace gone.

Raccoons

Raccoons in the Eaves

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Raccoon (6)           It’s time to serve an eviction notice to the raccoons in the eaves.  They’re squatters.  They just moved in one day, without signing any contracts, no move-in deposit, no rent for the three months they’ve lived there.  Sure, we have a tree overhanging the roof, but that’s not to say we have an open-door policy.  I’m about ready to get all medieval on their furry, thieving little butts.

Those raccoons climb up the tree, drop down on the roof, and have now ripped all the material, covering the eaves and some of the rain gutters, making themselves at home on top of my home.  They just sit on the rain gutter or the roof, and then climb down into the eaves they’ve accessed by ripping my house apart.  I’ve looked around, and it doesn’t look like they even have the decency to use some sort of raccoon out-house, so where are they going to the bathroom?  Inside the walls of my house!  These are the worst tenants EVER!

So, I’m imagining that, if they’re peeing and crapping in the eaves, and probably also bringing in food, they’re also attracting all kinds of bugs and flies and microscopic yuckies that then make themselves free to live in my home, too.  It’s getting out of control.

Now, they’re violating noise ordinances, because they’ve started to fight.  Have you heard a raccoon fight?  It’s not like some kind of minor domestic dispute from upstairs neighbors.  No, this is a special, growling, screeching, banging noise.  These raccoons in the eaves are destroying my home, they’re probably going to make me sick, and now they’re keeping me up at night and waking me up early in the morning with their noise.  They have GOT to go.

I’ve tried to evict them myself.  I put out traps.  I just caught squirrels.  Squirrels never bothered me, so I feel bad about trapping them.  But, now I’m wondering, if I get rid of the raccoons in the eaves, will squirrels just move in?  Will rats or mice be attracted to whatever food the raccoons have cached away, if any?

So, not only do I need someone to trap them and remove the raccoons from the eaves, but I also want repairs to be done.  Ew, and some kind of clean-up, too.  I think I’d want everything cleaned out and sanitized before we closed it back up again, just so we don’t get a bug problem or mouse problem on top of raccoons in the eaves.  Then, we’d need to put the siding or soffit up again and repair the rain gutters.  And, we’d need to do this before the rainy season, too, because I don’t want major water damage to the house.

So much to worry about and take care of, now I’ve got to evict the raccoons in the eaves.  I definitely never signed up to be a property manager for animal tenants!

Raccoons

How To Get Rid of Raccoons

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Raccoon climbing chimney
Raccoon climbing a chimney to get inside a home.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

If you want to know how to get rid of raccoons, I suggest you do NOT do what we did!

Our backyard is absolutely lovely.  It’s spacious, half of it is wooded and, at the back, it abuts a small creek.  We have a shed with a woodpile next to it, a garden area, a lot of green lawn and even enough room to have a swing set with a slide for the kids to play on.  We have a dog, so we keep the dog food outside for him.  In short, it’s an idyllic backyard . . . for us and apparently for raccoons.

It didn’t occur to us we’d have to figure out how to get rid of raccoons when we moved in, but now it’s something I think about all the time.  I worry about our dog outside at night; I worry about my children when they’re outside playing.  What if there is a rabid raccoon?  I worry about my house.  What if they decide to claw a hole and get in?  What if they build a raccoon nest in my attic?

Raccoons are opportunistic and will eat almost anything.  So, our backyard provides a literal smorgasbord for the family of raccoons that live in the woods out behind our house, and I’m afraid they’ll start seeing my home as their home.  The woodpile apparently houses little rodents, which raccoons eat.  Our dog has a big bowl of dog food, which raccoons eat.  Our garden vegetables are just ripening, which raccoons eat.  The birds are nesting and laying their eggs, which raccoons eat.  The creek out back provides a perfect water source for them, and lets them wash their food, as they like to do.

We’ve seen them clawing and tearing at our storage shed, and it’s just a matter of time before they get in.  I dread the day they decide to tear into our home and have babies in our attic.  The holes they make are a pain to repair, but we have to get them repaired or they’ll just let other animals in, like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, rats or snakes.

So, if you want to know how to get rid of raccoons, call a professional to have them removed off of your property and out of your home, and then don’t provide them free board and lodging like we did.

Of course, there is a little bit of entertainment value.  I caught the family of raccoons out back one night, playing on the swing set.  They had climbed to the very top, were jumping up to move the swings, and one of them even slid down the slide.  They had a great time and the kids and I laughed watching them.  They’re really cute, from a distance, but a real nuisance to your home and property.