Category Archives: Raccoons

Anything to do with raccoons

Animal in the Wall, Raccoons, Squirrels

One Bump, Two Bump, Three Bump More

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There’s some kind of animal in my chimney, I would assume a raccoon or a squirrel but I’m not at all sure.  This morning I woke up fairly early, around five o’clock.  I’m nine months pregnant so when the baby tells you to get out of bed and pee, you just get out of bed and don’t look at the clock.  Anyway, I went downstairs to make some tea and toast when all of a sudden I heard a loud thump in the chimney.  It startled me, but I thought it could have just been my mom brain making things up.  I listened carefully at the mouth of the fireplace for any other sounds, and for a minute there was nothing, until I head it stand up and shuffle around.  I quickly closed the damper but other than that I have no clue what to do!

My husband left two weeks ago for New York (he’s stationed there as a pilot), so I have no back up at home to deal with this.  I know when I was younger, my family had a bird fly into our chimney and my dad told me “Veronica, if there’s ever an animal in your fireplace you get it out as quick as you can so it has no chance to settle down.” Of course, it’s much easier to get a bird out of the chimney than a raccoon or squirrel; and that’s not even mentioning the watermelon on my stomach that would keep me from bending down to look up the fireplace (which I have no desire to do).

So no husband in town, no dad to call for help, I am stranded on this with no clue what to do.  I’m trying not to stress out about this too much because there’s no way I’m going to let this animal in the fireplace send me into labor early.  Now maybe it’s a myth or maybe it isn’t, but I won’t be having this baby until my husband gets home next week so I won’t be living with this animal.  I need someone to come out and take care of this, preferably long before I bring my new daughter home.  Help is much more appreciated than advice since I can’t do a lot of stretching, reaching, or moving really.  Please!

Animal in the Wall, Raccoons

Straight out of a Horror Movie

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It happens every morning without fail, when you get out of bed to get ready for the day you can hear it and every scratch and scrape on the drywall can be felt in your own flesh.  Maybe I’m being overdramatic, or maybe the raccoons in my ceiling are actually tormenting us with their constant, looming presence.  I’m telling you, it’s terrifying.  Imagine you’re brushing your teeth, and all of a sudden you hear a loud thump above your head that slowly drags itself away, and then thumps across to another part of the house.  If I didn’t have tension in my shoulders before, the constant anxiety of wondering where the next sound will come from has made some pretty good knots in my neck.

What’s so crazy about this to me, is we’ve lived here for 8 years and there has never been any problems with wildlife, not even mice.  You would think, or at least I think, that if there was some way for animals to get into the house they would have done it by now.  Especially because the landlord does regular maintenance on the house for just that reason.  If a single shingle were to blow off the roof, he would have it fixed within hours so that there was no chance for leaks or something like raccoons in the ceiling.  I’m just very interested to find out how they got into the house, and I’m very anxious to get them right back out.

As you may (or may not) have guessed, I never watch scary movies so living in a house that likes to play haunted is NOT my cup of tea.  If I wanted another roommate, I would have them turn in applications, do interviews, and select the one I like best (and I am very particular).  Having this family of lunatic raccoons in the ceiling is not my idea of a proper roommate agreement and I can’t keep living every day wondering where they’ll show up next.  Honestly, sometimes it sounds like they’re about to fall right out of the ceiling.  I need help; we need help.  Please get these things out of my house before they scare me to death.

Raccoons

You Shall Not Pass

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We have a psycho raccoon on our deck, and I mean absolutely bonkers.  I guess technically it’s not my house, it’s my 90 year old aunts; but I am there at least 3 days a week while her caretaker is at home.  The fact that the home belongs to my sweet, elderly aunt is the reason that I’m so concerned about this raccoon, how do I know it won’t hurt her while I or her caretaker isn’t watching?  This thing is territorial and protective, and I don’t even know what of! All I know, is that if my auntie opens the back door without checking the porch first, it could be a disaster.

So the story of this wild raccoon on the deck goes like this: about 2 weeks ago we started to notice a raccoon lingering around in the backyard.  We really didn’t think much of it at first, living in a slightly more rural area it’s not uncommon for us to see wildlife around when the sun starts to set.  What clued us in to the problem, was when it started to get closer and closer at night, until eventually it was practically at our feet with no fear.  After that it started to live under the deck and would spend the nights lounging outside the door like a cat.  We became alarmed, when we tried to go inside the house one night after a bonfire, and the raccoon hissed and growled and wouldn’t let us in the back door, and when we finally got back inside we couldn’t go out the back door again!

My concern is that my Aunt will open the back door to let some fresh air in when we have our backs turned and will let this crazy thing into the house.  Having a raccoon on the deck is bad enough, I don’t even want to get a taste of having a raccoon in the house.  I don’t know what we could do to make it leave? We walk across the deck, we’re loud, we have music playing – it just stays put!  I’m a little worried because what if it has babies under the deck and that’s why it’s so territorial? What do you do with raccoons, PLURAL? We need some help, and we need it before my aunt makes things worse.

Raccoons

Invaders!

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There are raccoons invading my house! I don’t know what to even do; I’m retired and live on my own so I don’t deal with these difficult problems myself, I usually call my brother or a neighbor to help.  I don’t even clean my own windows, I pay a sweet boy from my neighborhood to deal with that and my rain gutters.  I maintain my house well, but I don’t do it on my own.  So let me ask you this, if you were a 72 year old woman who can barely control her 6 pound Yorkie, what would you do when 5 raccoons invaded your kitchen and wouldn’t leave?

Two nights ago, I made a fairly large dinner for my book club gals to celebrate our finishing of the classic “The Art of War”, by Sun Tzu.  Not an easy read, but worth the time.  We spent hours talking about the book and our families, and before I knew it, it was 10:30.  We wrapped up and I started to clean up, but I was just so knackered I left anything that didn’t need to be refrigerated on the counter and went up to bed.  The problem was, I forgot to put the doggy door cover on that keeps my little Tiny inside and other critters out.  Which means at 12 am bright and early when I got up to visit the loo, there was quite a racket coming from downstairs.

I was shaking in my slippers as I made my way down to the kitchen to see what kind of intruder I had, and I was absolutely mortified when I was met by five raccoons tearing through my leftovers.  Though I was scared, I remembered the words of the great General Tzu: “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”  I repeated those words to myself as I ran out the backdoor with Tiny in my arms, leaving the door open behind me.  My brother went back to the house yesterday morning to check it out, and there were no raccoons left, but there was quite a mess.  I’m glad that the problem is over, but boy did it give me a fright.

Birds, Raccoons

A’drawer’able

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I’m Snow White.  That’s the only reasonable explanation to the raccoons in my house, and the birds in my closet, and all the rest of my childhood wildlife encounters.  When I was little I was always the person that animals trusted, no matter what.  Dogs didn’t bark at me, cats wanted to lay on my lap, and deer would walk up to me for snacks.  Everywhere I went, some kind of animal seemed to follow.  Which is actually why I ended up studying Wildlife Ecology in college, but that’s a completely different story than the ones I want to tell.

Two years ago, when I was a junior in college, I woke up to a bird chirping and it was beautiful.  But when I went downstairs for breakfast, came back up, and could still here the chirping, I got a little worried.  I looked outside my window to see if there was an injured bird but there was nothing there.  Then the chirping started again, except now I knew it wasn’t from outside, but inside of my closet.  Inside of the air vent that connected to my room through the closet, was a small bird’s nest that contained two small birds.  Well we got that sorted out fairly quickly and sealed the hole from the outside that let the bird in from the first place and that was that.

Except apparently that wasn’t that, my at-home wildlife visits wouldn’t end there.  Now, I’m starting my Master’s program and moving into an off campus apartment by myself; I actually just started staying here myself two days ago.  This morning I woke up and went to the bathroom to start my morning routine a little earlier than usual.  While brushing my teeth I heard a muffled sound coming from the empty bottom drawer of the vanity; I pulled it open to find four baby raccoons huddled together, and mewing softly.  I absolutely couldn’t believe it!  In what world do you find baby raccoons in your bathroom vanity!  In my world, I guess.  But they can’t stay – I’m already looking for someone to come and safely remove them, but man what a story I have to tell my professors.

Raccoons, Wild Animal

So You Think You Can Trap?

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People are always wanting to do their own wildlife removal; they don’t see why they should pay someone else for it and they don’t understand all the work that actually goes into it.  We constantly get calls with people prying for information on how to really do it themselves, which is great.  We aren’t anti-DIY, but we are pro-safety and a lot of times the safest and most reasonable thing, is to let us handle whatever wildlife problem they’ve got.  We aren’t money hungry people – I mean obviously we want to be paid for our work, but if something genuinely isn’t a bid deal we will help you deal with it yourself, but if it is then you can expect us to try and do the work ourselves.

For example, last fall we had a man call us with a raccoon problem, and I have to let you know that raccoons are some of the animals that people most often want to deal with themselves, but are the ones we recommend you just pay a professional to take care of for you.  Mother raccoons can be one of the most aggressive and dangerous animals that we handle regularly because they are most often the ones that move into people’s chimneys and attics, they want someplace safe to have their babies.  When people who don’t know what they’re doing mess with that, they can cause serious injury to both the animals and sometimes themselves.  If you were to throw a mother raccoon out without knowing how to remove the babies (or that there were babies at all), the mother could come back and rip into the house another way, or the babies could starve to death in the home.  Not to mention when trying to remove a mother raccoon without the proper tools, she could do some serious damage to a person.

Even our trained professionals, people that have been working with wildlife for years, have difficulties at times.  Not last week we had a technician doing raccoon removal from a chimney, and when he put the repellent down the chimney the raccoon went nuclear and shot up the flume to attack him.  Luckily, he was experienced and knew how to properly handle the situation to avoid any harm to himself and the mother raccoon, but it’s not likely that any regular homeowner could do the same thing.  Let me put it this way, you wouldn’t see LeBron having a hard time during a game and sub yourself in, you would let the professional handle the situation and trust he and his team know what is best.

Animal in the Wall, Raccoons

Ghost Busted

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There’s an animal in our attic, I’m not sure what it is but I know that it’s big and it has babies up there with it.  It must have only gotten up there in the last two weeks because that’s when my husband and I left for vacation – aka that’s when Tyler put his golf clubs through the floor and probably opened up space for an animal to get inside.  He was trying to get a suitcase (playing with his driver)  when he caught one of the beams with a golf club, staggered backwards, and put the butt of his club through the thin wall separating the outside world from our unfinished attic.  I assume that’s where the animal tore an even larger hole through the wall and got in.

The problem is (besides the fact that there’s an animal in the attic) that we were leaving for a 10 day trip to Mexico to celebrate our anniversary and left our house in the hands of the neighbors 16 year-old son.  He’s the one that called us about 2 days after we left, terrified by the ghost haunting our attic.  I brushed him off and told him the house wasn’t haunted it’s just old so it creaks and that he shouldn’t worry.  But 3 days after that he called again, in hysterics that there was, in fact, someone in the attic.  He went up there to investigate the sounds and was met by horrible screeching and howling, which is when he sprinted from the house and nearly called the cops.  Basically, I had to find someone else to water my plants and I spent the rest of my vacation restless to get home and solve the problem.

Now that I think about it, it’s very likely that the animal in the attic is a raccoon.  If she just had babies she would have been very defensive when Xander climbed into the attic hollering at the disturbed spirit that “needed to go into the light”.  But, that leaves me with another problem.  I have no idea how to handle a raccoon problem, especially if babies are involved.  I need someone with a little more experience, preferably a trapper and NOT an exorcist.

Raccoons

A Thief in the Night

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You would not believe the day I had yesterday, first I had to fire my best Sales Lead because he was skimming on the sales profits, and then I get home to find a raccoon had killed one of my chickens, kidnapped another, and scared the others eggless.  At first I didn’t even think that it was possible they could have been taken out of the cage, considering it is completely wired off – even on top.  Not to mention my yard its self is fenced off from the neighbors and the street to keep my dogs in and, I had hoped, other predators out.

With everything happening at work, I got home fairly late, around 10 o’clock.  All I wanted to do was eat ANYTHING that wasn’t fast food (it was a long day), take a hot shower, and get some sleep.  It was around 11 when I was just getting out of the shower and I heard squawking, barking, and a whole lot of movement.  I ran outside to see a raccoon climb out of the chicken pen with a squirming hen in hand and a dead one right behind.  I was a little stunned as I watched it run across the yard and climb into one of my trees where he proceeded to kill the other chicken.  Honestly, at that point I didn’t feel like I could do anything so I just watched as he ran down the tree, up the fence, and off into the night.

I’m (mostly) at peace with what happened last night, I don’t feel like there was anything I could have done to stop it; but I’m not okay with that raccoon thinking he can come into my yard at any time for some free dinner so I need to take some more preventative steps so my chickens and dogs are safe in the future.  I’m not sure if this is something I would set out traps for?  I’m going to call a local wildlife company and get their opinion on whether or not I should try and catch the specific raccoon or if I should just redo my chicken coop for added security and get bigger dogs.  I’m kidding about the dogs, but I really do need to do something and I need to do it before that raccoon comes back.

Raccoons

Chim-chiminey

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There are raccoons in my chimney – or, at least according to my chimney sweep there are.  I know it seems a little out of date – and very Marry Poppins – to have a chimney sweep, but it’s been very useful for me to have someone maintaining my chimney flus for me.  And not to mention that he’s the reason that I’ve discovered the raccoons in the first place.  It’s a yearly cleaning service, so I know for a fact they weren’t here last year!

We’ve been hearing soft scratching sounds on the side of our house for maybe a month or so, but since we have trees surrounding our house that’s what we credited for the noises.  When the chimney sweep came, he first noticed that there was some kind of animal scat littered across the roof, in quite alarming amounts.  That’s what first clued him in on the raccoons in the chimney, it was too much poop to be a one time thing so he shone a light down the flu before he got started.  I guess, two big shining eyes met him, and he went inside to the fireplace to see if he could get a peek through the damper at what was living inside.  When he cracked it open, he was greeted by soft mews from distressed babies, and the hisses and growls from the mother raccoon.

I’ve been on a work trip while all of this was happening, but he’s been doing our service for years now and I trust him greatly.  Not to mention that I’ve heard sounds on the side of the house and the roof as well before I left.  I’m sure that if I went home and checked everything he said would check out.  That being said, I need to get some help.  Not only do I need the raccoons out of my chimney, but I still need to finish having my chimney cleaned.  Anything would help!

Raccoons

Major Reaction

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There are raccoons in the cellar of our home, and they are going to kill me.  I know I sound dramatic, but I’m not!  I have never had pets so I’ve never experienced any animal related allergies until now and they are more awful than I ever could have pictured.  It’s a mother and I’m pretty sure she has babies down there, if I can get close enough to listen at the vent I can usually here soft animal sounds coming from inside.  I think she tore the vent cover off and that’s how she got in there because I have looked around for any other entrances to the cellar and they’re all only from the inside of the house; it was completely sealed off from the outside except for that one vent.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with the raccoons in the cellar, I never go down there; truthfully if I wasn’t having major allergies because of them, I’d just let them stay until they were grown and gone before I reinstalled the vent.  The problem is that our air conditioning system is down there along with our water heater and electrical boxes and such.  Basically, these raccoons aren’t just in the cellar, they’re being blown all through my house by way of the vents.  I can’t go anywhere without my eyes puffing up and my nose running uncontrollably!  Not to mention the hives on my skin, it looks like I’ve been stung by hundreds of bees!

I tried scaring them out myself just by making loud noises from upstairs and I turned off the air system so it’s not blowing through the house, but now I’m either sweating or freezing along with slowly dying from these allergies!  I need help getting these raccoons out of the cellar and I need it fast. I’ve practically drained my pharmacy of Benadryl and Claritin D but I just lay awake at night, miserable!  They have got to go, and they have to leave YESTERDAY!  I don’t know how much longer my body can take of this before either I move out or I suffocate! PLEASE HELP!