Category Archives: Raccoons

Anything to do with raccoons

Raccoons

105 Pound Raccoon Removal Queen

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Chris and I did our weekly wildlife jobs together and had to go down to Provo to remove a dead raccoon out of a chimney. This is why you buy chimney caps to avoid this type of problem.

At the time, I had never been to a job where you had to remove a dead animal. I was curious how this job would turn out (I am currently studying to be a police officer and a Crime Scene Investigator).

We arrived at the house, and the owners lead us to the basement where we immediately were invited by a dead, decaying smell up our noses. We got all of our equipment and started the project. Of course, I had to do it because Chris is this big, tall man that wouldn’t have been able to reach up into the chimney to get the raccoon out.

I am a 19 year old girl that is 105 pounds so it was quite obvious who would be the lucky winner. I had to wear a full body jumpsuit with gloves, goggles, and a facemask to ensure I was fully protected from any diseases.

Then, the fun part started. I crawled into the chimney, reached up, and grabbed a nice chunk of a slimy, maggot filled raccoon leg. I looked at it like it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Chris was about to throw up and insisted I throw it in the garbage immediately and to stop playing with it.

I had absolutely no problem removing the fleshy body. I guess I have a sick, unique gift for that. I continued removing the body and we ended with a nice chimney sweep to ensure all hair, maggots, and feces were gone.

When we finished, we got up onto the roof to measure for chimney caps. When we got to the entrance of the chimney, there was a bodiless raccoon head staring at us. You could see its spine and brain from where it got decapitated.

More than likely it had gotten attacked by a male raccoon, leaving the owners with a nice welcoming stench. We took some pictures and then threw it to the ground to put in the garbage. When it hit the ground it made a splat noise. It was still a little fresh. I was very proud of myself after that job.

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

Trappers Love Wild Animals

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As a wildlife control company, sometimes people assume we don’t like wild animals.  We’re a network of trappers, aimed at removing wild animals from properties and away from people.  Truth is, we know a great deal about all types of wild animals that come into contact with humans on a regular basis.  From rats to raccoons, opossums to armadillos, groundhogs to ground squirrels, coyotes, bobcats or feral hogs.  It’s our job to know these animals, what causes their run-ins with humans, what attracts them to our properties, what their life cycles are like, how they raise their young, and what kind of damage they can do.  The more we know about these animals, the better we are at removing them.  The more we know, the more we love these animals, too.  But, our main goal is protecting people, their pets, their businesses, and their properties.  So, we handle wild animals problems with an eye toward protecting your health, safety and property while still taking care of the wild animals as humanely as possible, according to all local and federal laws.  Sometimes, the animals, such as rats or mice, must be killed.  Releasing them into the wild only displaces the problem elsewhere, for other people to have to deal with.  Sometimes, we are able to release a wild animal, such as a family of raccoons, back into nature, far away from human habitation.  We know the kind of diseases these wild animals can transmit to humans.  We know the harm they cause when they attack people, pets or domestic animals.  And, it’s our job to remove wild animals and keep them from harming you, your family, your pets and your property.

Raccoons

Let’s Talk Rabies

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Yawning-Raccoon

Of all the wild animal diseases, rabies is probably the best known, but it is usually a misunderstood disease.  Rabies is transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal, usually through a bite.  It can affect all mammals, not just raccoons, skunks, dogs and cats.  Recently, a rancher had to put down his cow that had been bitten by a rabid wild animal, and the cow tested positive for rabies.  Domestic animals and people with high-risk jobs (like trappers who remove wild animals from homes and other buildings) can receive vaccinations.  Domestic animals who are known to have been exposed to a rabid animal are required to either be placed in 6 month quarantine, at the owner’s expense, or must be euthanized.  People who have been exposed to a rabid animal must receive a series of rabies shots, which are quite costly, around $5,000 to $7,000.  There is no cure for rabies.  It’s a viral disease that attacks the nervous system, and is always fatal unless treated in a timely manner.  Symptoms can take as much as a year to present, which means a person who was bitten or scratched by a rabid animal must be treated immediately, even if they aren’t suffering any symptoms, yet.  As many as 50,000 people die every year from rabies.  7,000 to 8,000 rabid animals are found to have rabies each year in the United States, with more than 90% occurring in wild animals.  The actual numbers may be much higher than that, however, since the only way to confirm rabies is by killing the animal and testing the carcass.  Human deaths from rabies are rare in the United States, but they do happen when someone either doesn’t know they have been bitten by a rabid animal, or they fail to seek proper medical care.  Bats in the United States have very small teeth, and can bite a sleeping person without the person knowing.  This is why health officials recommend seeking medical attention if a person wakes up with a bat in the room.  They may have been bitten as they were sleeping.

Rabies is, of course, not the only disease that can be transmitted to humans, pets or other domestic animals from wild animals.  Diseases can be transmitted through the urine or feces of animals and birds, and animals can carry parasites and other bugs that can infest an area where they are living, which in turn cause harm or illness to people.  This is why it is so important to have a professional wildlife animal control company send a crew to remove the wild animals from your home, outbuildings, industrial buildings, offices, or anywhere else in or on your property.  It is healthier and safer for you and the wild animals to have them out of your property and back in their own habitat.

Raccoons, Skunks

Mild Winter and Nuisance Animals

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Skunk (2)            I recently had an enlightening conversation with the pest control technician who was sent out to my home to help me battle the explosion of insects that are attacking my neighborhood this summer.  He said their company is extremely busy this season, due to the fact that Utah experienced a relatively mild winter during the 2013 to 2014 season.  While skiers and snowboarders lamented, and all of us worried about future water levels, we admittedly enjoyed the fact that we experienced fairly beautiful weather.  But, that has meant an increase in critters like Miller moths, earwigs, carpenter ants, slugs, snails, crickets and grasshoppers.  Frustrated homeowners are keeping these pest control companies busy this year!

A relatively mild winter gave rise to an increase in the insect population.  And, now we are seeing an increase in the bird population.  Utah just approved its first crow hunt because the crow population has tripled over the last twelve years.  New rules now allow Utah homeowners to kill nuisance birds if other efforts of getting rid of them are unsuccessful.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports an 8% increase in the duck population in 2014.   My neighbors have remarked how surprised they are to see more robins and pigeons than we’ve ever seen in this area before.

So, let’s follow the logic.  More prey means more predators.  With a growing bird population, we’re likely to see a growing population of raccoons, snakes, skunks and other animals that feast on both insects and birds.  A growing population of nuisance animals means they will expand their territories.  With such a feast of prey, nuisance animals may not need to root around in garbage cans or steal food from domestic animals, but we are likely to see an increase in animal dens under homes, raccoons nesting in attics or chimneys, and skunk dens under porches or stairs.

The damage these animals can do to property ranges from offensive smells to house fires and everything in between.  Raccoons easily tear through roofing or siding materials.  The smell of skunk spray is notoriously hard to get rid of, and can cost homeowners thousands of dollars to replace items that have been sprayed.  Animals in and around your home, such as raccoons and skunks, are a noise nuisance, cause offensive odors, threaten domestic animals, cause costly property damage, and can harm you and yours.

Let’s follow the logic just a little bit further.  Mild winter equals bigger insect population, which feeds a larger nuisance animal (predator) population.  And, those nuisance animals are in turn preyed upon by a larger tick and mite population.  When raccoons nest in your home or skunks move onto your property, they bring with them the insects and diseases hiding in their fur, on their skin and in their feces, which in turn infest your home or property.

I know, this all seems a little doom and gloom.  It’s just nature.  But, there is help.  Allstate Animal Control is a national network of nuisance animal control technicians.  These people know what they’re doing, they know these animals and the particular places they like to hide.  They are experienced at humanely removing nuisance animals out of your home or other buildings, off your property, and can clean the area and repair the damages the animals caused.

Get proactive and protect your home and property against these nuisance animals before they cause property damage and health issues.

Raccoons

Raccoon Family in the Cabin

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Raccoon (2)When we went cheap on our vacation, we did not plan on having to share a summer with a family of raccoons.

The economy might be improving, as reported on the news, but it has yet to get better for most of my friends and me.  So, summer months are filled with inexpensive “stay-cations.”  We avoid the theme parks, the costly water parks, and even long, gas-guzzling drives.  Instead, we do splash pads, camping at free sites, fishing at the local pond, and plenty of hikes in the mountains.  We skip the high priced tickets of the zoo and museums and opt for a day at a friend’s farm or science projects around the house.

So, when an elderly neighbor couple told us we could use their mountain cabin for several weeks, we were elated!  In return, we were going to do some repairs around the place and spruce it up for their trip up there later that summer.  It was a win-win deal for all of us.  We packed up the truck, threw in the kids’ toys and sleeping bags, and off we went!  The four of us chatted and sang and watched the beautiful mountain scenery go by as we drove deeper and deeper up the canyon and into a side canyon where the cabin sat.  This was better than a theme park, because we’d be able to enjoy it for weeks, spend lots of time with each other and fish and hike and swim to our heart’s content.  This was going to be the best family vacation ever.

Following the directions, we finally headed down the dirt and gravel road that led to the cabin.  It wasn’t a mountain resort, by any means, but it was going to be all ours for the next several weeks.  We stopped in front, the kids spilled out of the truck’s cab, and my husband couldn’t stop grinning.  I was ready already planning where we were going to set up the hammock as soon as lunch was ready.

My husband unlocked the front door and we all brought our heavy loads in, arms full of bags of food, coolers, camp chairs and other mountain living necessities.  The cabin had obviously not been occupied in a while, at least not by humans.  The bright windows illuminated the clouds of dust we stirred up, and the place smelled dank and foul.  “Ewwww!” my six year old said, plugging her nose.  I exchanged an uh-oh look with my husband.

My son, oblivious to the possible gross-ness of his surroundings, kicked open a bedroom door and stomped on in, plopping his load down on the nearest cot.  I carefully placed my load on the small table in the tiny kitchen and followed my son, a vague warning dying on my lips.  He was silent and still, staring at a large raccoon baring its teeth at him and standing in between my son and three raccoon babies.  I could tell by the look on my son’s face he thought this was the coolest moment of his nine years on earth.

The frozen moment passed and I blew into action, grabbing my son and backing quickly out of the room, slamming the door as I passed the threshold.  I then picked up my bewildered daughter and charged out the front door of the cabin back into the relative safety of the outdoors.  At least there, we were not confronted with raccoons who might feel cornered or bite or scratch us, necessitating a trip back down the mountain to the nearest hospital.

My husband figured it out quickly enough when he bravely opened up the bedroom door to see what had caused all the fuss.  We shared the cabin with a family of raccoons.  We had to re-think this whole mountain resort situation if we were to deal with raccoons in the cabin.

We discussed all the possible ways of dealing with the situation while our children threw rocks into the nearby creek.  It was imperative to get the family of raccoons out of the cabin before we could even begin to clean up the mess and start on repairs.  We certainly weren’t going to enjoy our mountain retreat until we got those raccoons out of the cabin.

Finally, we realized we should just handle the situation the same way we would handle it at home.  We wouldn’t try to remove the family of raccoons by ourselves like some bad 80’s cartoon.  I would drive back down the mountain to the nearest town with cell reception and contact our neighbors, the cabin’s owners.  I would suggest to them that they call Allstate Animal Control.  Allstate Animal Control could easily remove the family of raccoons out of the cabin, and I knew they’d also take care of some of the cleanup and repair.  Then, my family would finally be able to move into the cabin from the tent we staked, and we could get back to the business of fixing up the cabin and enjoying the heck out of our mountain vacation.  Lucky for us, our neighbors agreed and we were quickly back on track with one of the best family vacations we have ever enjoyed!

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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.

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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

Coyote Problem

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A coyote
A coyote causing problems in a neighborhood.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

I thought coyote problems only happened in really remote areas of the country, in places where people ranched or farmed and had to get in their truck to drive to visit their closest neighbors.  My uncle has a pig ranch in Idaho, and he talks about how he lost a favorite dog to a coyote one night when the dog ran off instead of coming inside, or how mad he was when a coyote destroyed all of his chickens.  When we’d visit my uncle, my sisters and I always had a great time, with the exception of the pig smell and the sound of the coyotes at night.

So, you can imagine how I felt the other night when I went out of my cute cookie-cutter house in my little cookie-cutter neighborhood to take the garbage cans down to the street for pickup the next morning, and heard a pack of coyotes yipping and barking to each other somewhere close to the neighborhood.

I couldn’t believe it, and my uncle’s stories came flooding back to me.  I don’t live in the boonies.  I live in a very populated suburban area.  True, the subdivisions went up only about six years ago, but the area was built up very quickly and is more densely populated.  Surely we couldn’t have coyote problems here.  Surely, I couldn’t be more wrong.

My husband didn’t believe me until he left for work early the next morning, and heard the coyotes’ wild sounds floating across the still subdivision.  In talking with other neighbors, we discovered a few households had lost a cat, and just figured the cat had wandered off.  Now, we suspect a far worse fate for beloved pets.  As we became more aware of the coyote problem, people stopped going jogging by themselves in the evening or early morning hours.  Parents started making children stay inside instead of walking by themselves to a friend’s house.  While the coyotes had not yet posed a real threat to a human, the potential was there, and we changed our lifestyles slightly to be more careful.

I soon grew tired of it, and so did my children, who wanted to get back outside with their friends to ride bikes or play soccer.  I wanted to stop worrying about the dog, who wasn’t raised to be an indoor pet.

While there is a bounty on coyotes in our state, we still live in a populated area, and can’t just go out coyote hunting without putting a lot of people at risk.  So, we needed a professional service to get rid of the coyote problem for us.  Fortunately, most of the neighborhood was willing to chip in, and we got a really good expert through Allstate Animal Control.  We’re all still pretty wary, realizing that, even though we’re not in a remote area of the country, we can still have clashes with wild animals.

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Raccoon in the Kitchen

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raccoon_venttrap

I was a typical little girl, playing Mommy to my little doll, pretending to feed it, quiet it, and change its little diaper.  As an adult, I was so happy when child number one and number two came along, and even though I was naturally exhausted, I enjoyed my life.  So, we decided to have a third child.  But, I was shocked when the obstetrician informed us I was carrying twins.  I complained to my mother, “If I’d known that was a possibility, I never would have gotten pregnant.”  My mother, a pragmatist, said, “Hon, you always knew that was a possibility.  It is for anyone who gets pregnant.  Be happy they’re not triplets.”  Of course, she wasn’t going to be the one who would be raising them.  So, it was easy for her to take a more blasé approach to my new situation.  Rambunctious doesn’t even begin to describe my boys.  They are now two, going on eighteen year-olds at a frat house.  I can barely keep up with them, much less my older children.  The twins got into the pantry and spilled the flour on the floor so many times, despite all my efforts at discipline, that I now keep our food under lock and key.  They hardly sleep.  They don’t take naps, and I often have to put them to bed three or four times before they’ll finally stay in their room, although they’ll stay awake for hours, romping around, making messes and lots of noise.  You’d think I’d get a break, since they sleep in until 10:30 in the morning, but you forget I have two older children, both of whom get up at 6.  One night, as I blearily stumbled down the hall to the twins’ room once again, I stopped, listening.  I could hear the boys playing in their room, but I also heard some odd bumping around downstairs.  Had one of my older children developed the bad habit of late-night excursions?  I used my Mom-Ninja skills to creep down the stairs as quietly as possible, to discover exactly who was doing what before they realized I was awake and they stopped doing whatever they were doing.  Instead, I was greeted by two bright eyes peering out at me from the kitchen.  They continued to stare at me as I stifled a scream, flipped on a light, grabbed the nearest weapon (my oldest son’s nerf sword), and strode resolutely toward the raccoon in my kitchen.  It didn’t flinch.  Not when I waved the sword under its nose, not when I hush-yelled, “Get outta here!”, and not when I threw an orange at it.  Finally, as if to say, “I’m not scared of you, but I choose to leave,” it grabbed one more leftover hot dog that my daughter had left out on her plate on the counter, hopped down, and sauntered out the doggie door.  On top of all my other daily worries and duties, I now had to raccoon-proof my house.  I had no way of knowing how to do it, and even if I was successful at putting out some trap, who was to say that my dog or, worse yet, the twins, wouldn’t get caught in the raccoon trap?  No, I determined there was no way I was going to add this responsibility to my list of daily chores.  The only thing on my to-do list for the morning, before the twins woke up, was to call United Animal Control to get rid of the raccoon.  The late-night drama is bad enough with the twins, no need to add wild animals into the mix.