Undisclosed Infestation

Personally, when I’m buying houses I prefer that they don’t come with raccoons in the attic, but maybe that’s just me.  We bought the house in December, and granted the raccoons didn’t move in until late January, but according to the neighbors this was not the first time raccoons had gotten into the house’s attic; and I am very frustrated that it was never mentioned once when we were looking into the house!  At one point the realtor even asked about a strange smell coming from the attic, and the owner acted oblivious to what it was!

When the smell started to get worse and small sounds started coming from the attic, I went to investigate, and I was shocked by what I saw.  The entire attic was in shambles!  There were raccoon feces everywhere, torn insulation, ripped up dry wall, and a hole directly through the roof to the outside.  I was in a disgusted trance, looking at the entire mess; truthfully I didn’t think it could get any worse; until I heard a throaty growl coming from the far corner.  My eyes met the large, furrowed face of a mother raccoon, right there in my attic.  It took me about 20 seconds to realize what I was seeing and to get the hell out of dodge.

For the last month-and-a-half, my wife and I have been watching the attic carefully.  We’ve seen the raccoon leave several times during the night, and once, when she was up early enough, my wife saw it going back in from the hole I saw.  It’s obvious that this problem isn’t just going to solve itself; I did a little research and apparently raccoons mate around January, meaning that this lone raccoon could be pregnant and just waiting to pop out 2-5 new raccoons into the attic!  I’m not even a father of a human child yet, I am NOT ready to deal with baby raccoons, especially not in my attic!

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