My mom told me that it was just mice in the walls, that the scary scratching, running sounds were nothing more than that, but daddy told me a secret. He said that when little girls like me turn 6, the boogie monster will hide in the closet and under our bed to steal all my stuffed animals, and I just had my birthday! I want to believe mom that it’s just a little, fuzzy mouse, but sometimes at night, the walls and floors make creaky sounds like it’s coming for my favorite stuffed bear and I know something as cute as Mickey Mouse wouldn’t do that. When I told my brother Joey about it, he told me I was being a baby and put teeny, tiny traps in my closet, but monster’s aren’t that small, so I came to my own rescue.
My unicorn is stationed with Growly the bear inside the closet by the traps, just in case he gets past them, and for double back up, I put all my Barbie’s and my brother’s old army men around my bed just in case he came from under there. Then, all I had to do was watch and wait for it, but he must have put a spell on me because I fell asleep. When I woke up all the toys were gone, shoved into the toy dresser! He snuck right under my nose, and so that night I set up an even BIGGER army, this time I put thumbtacks I found on moms desk under the window and locked it shut and I dumped my brother’s Lego’s right in front of my door, I wasn’t going to let him get away this time! The last piece of the puzzle was bait, I set out my favorite animal, Mr. Fuzzy, right in the middle of the room. Then, since he made me go to sleep last night, I pretended this time so he would think his spell worked again.
It took a long time but eventually it got dark enough and late enough that the monster woke up, I heard him start scratching in the walls and my closet, then I heard a ‘SNAP’ sound, a few seconds later there were big footsteps in the hall. I couldn’t take it, I hid myself under my covers and hoped he wouldn’t see me, and then it opened the door. Luckily my trap worked and the monster stepped on the blocks and let out a howl, then it said my name! I peeked from under the blanket to see my dad on the floor holding his feet, he was coming to check the mouse traps because sure enough there was a big fuzzy something in the trap. I guess it was just mice in the walls after all.
Family of Skunks
A few years ago my family discovered a family of skunks living under our home! To clear a few things up, my house isn’t your everyday sort of home, it’s built from old, one-room log cabins that were used in the 1800’s and those didn’t exactly have a foundation so there are spaces you can crawl into underneath. And these skunks found one right smack underneath my home office.
This was a problem for two big reasons, the first is obvious; skunks stink. Period, the end, we all knew that, but the second problem was that I run my work from my house, and it’s a real business buster when all the clients can do at your house, is smell the surfeit of skunks nesting under their feet. I could not get rid of the pesky things! I set out the big, clunky traps, I laid bait, I did everything short of calling a professional (which I probably should have done, but as I said business wasn’t exactly booming for me) and I just gave up!
The worst part of this whole debacle wasn’t just the smell at my house, but the fact that when we (I have two daughters) would leave the house, IT WENT WITH US. I kid you not I went to church and someone complained that it smelled like skunk, I told her it was me but she brushed it off and closed the window, and it only got worse when it couldn’t air out! When she realized it was me she was so embarrassed she brought me a scented candle later, which was when I had had it. The great thing about having kids is that they never run out of energy. I picked out some classic rock and roll and we had ourselves a week long dance party, with the music blasted as high as it could go and the three of us jumping around, the intruders didn’t stand a chance. When I was sure they were gone I made a trip to Home Depot for some nice, thick cement and spent my day off sealing the hole.
My advice is this, although the dancing works, my ankles have never forgiven me and I HIGHLY suggest that, if you can, get a professional to take care of the issue before you have to explain to your friend that it is you that smells like an entire family of skunks.
Trapped Squirrel
Hello; I’m writing to you from the inside of my small, dark prison as a trapped squirrel. I don’t remember how I got here and I can’t tell you when, time is practically untraceable in the blackness that surrounds me, but the incident that led to my capture is clear as day, so here it goes. My brother and I found this house a couple weeks back, the neighbors were nice and it was clean so we decided to bunk here for a while, there was no sign of any other residents (or particularly dangerous predators nearby) so we didn’t think we’d be doing any harm. Occasionally, a strange beast would come in and stomp around but didn’t cause any trouble; until he saw us crawling around the attic, when that happened he let out a small roar and chased us all over, but there was no way a creature like him could catch two squirrels as quick as we; until he brought in a larger, much quicker animal that threw my brother out and proceeded to trap me INSIDE.
I wandered about for a good day or two, crawling through the stuffy walls and around the attic, searching for a way out, any way out, but the tall, naked creatures were everywhere! After my encounter with the first two I was careful of where I ventured, as to keep my whereabouts hidden to them. That was until I found myself inside the walls of the smallest human’s room, running for my life from who knows what. A booming voice had sounded from her side of the wall, one only capable by a giant surely, yelling (or singing possibly) something ‘from the other side’. I moved faster than I had ever moved before, and yet somehow it caught me and now here I am, sitting in a steel trap that has yet to prove escapable. I think the beasts are trying to torture me for I often find the walls around me heating up rapidly and making loud whirring sounds, many times these are followed by the smell of various foods. So here I sit, a lonely squirrel just waiting for whatever fate has in store for me, I’m going nuts. If you have received this message, tell my brother what happened to me and please send help.
Sincerely,
A trapped squirrel
Bats in the Roof
Recently, I discovered bats in my roof. Here in St. George, Tuscan Roof Tiles are common, and so are the infamous winged creatures. While re-tiling my roof a few months ago, I discovered what seemed to be an infestation of small, brown bats living underneath the tiles! It was unreal the number of animals that had been nesting unbeknownst to me right above my head for who knows how long! Now I’m no wimp, but when I pulled the first tile and those little things flew at me, I screamed like a was a two-year old that had just discovered my own shadow and jumped higher than a startled cat. Of course I can tell now how foolish my reaction was, but it didn’t change the fact that I was scared of the harmless bats.
After taking a couple minutes to regain my cool, I brought my son up to see if I could get the same reaction out of him. I swear he peed his pants when they burst out, I was in tears watching him jump and squirm (I know it wasn’t the nicest thing but how could I resist?). We both decided that it would be even funnier to see how my wife would react so she was the next victim, embarrassingly she wasn’t even afraid. She let out a small squeal of excitement and quickly unveiled more, my son and I were red from our head to our toes when she scolded us for our “childish behavior”.
When the fun and games came to an end, we all knew what had to be done, we had to get these bats out of our roof, but how? It’s illegal to kill bats in Utah so we had to be careful when dealing with the small bats. The best thing we knew to do was call in someone with a better handle on the situation. A professional. He, in fact, had been in plenty of circumstances like this, of course not usually with a colony of bats like I have, it’s more often only one or two. Anyway, we ended up taking ALL the tiles off the roof and putting asphalt shingles on so that there were fewer spaces they could crawl into. Let me warn you, it’s crazy to have bats in the roof.
Raccoon Break-In
A few years back I responded to a home invasion turned raccoon break-in. I’ve worked for the Salt Lake Police Department for 10 years now, and this was definitely one of the better cases I’ve worked. During the summer of 2006, we received several calls from a woman who was hearing sounds in her basement and feared it was an intruder. We checked it out the first time but to no avail, no one was breaking into her house, of course we hadn’t considered that it wasn’t a person. A few weeks after that first call she called again, this time in hysterics that there was definitely someone in her basement and she was no longer in her home. We responded quickly, searching the perimeter first and then entering the home. There was no evidence of forced entry on any doors or windows so we proceeded quietly inside, guns and lights drawn. As we stepped into the foyer the silence was broken by the creaks on the old wood floors, and the loud sounds from the kitchen.
We slowly made our way toward the noise, only to find that the intruder had a black mask, a striped tail, and big, eyes that were fixed on us. As we put our guns away and turned on the light, the culprit was revealed, a large, angry, mother raccoon who had been stripping the cupboards of their food. We laughed at the incident and moved to shoo her from the house, but our actions were hasty and she quickly stood on her back legs and let out a growl like none I’d heard before. If you took a cougar and mixed its roar with the scratchy sound of a record player, you’d have just about what we heard. As embarrassing as it is, my partner and I were out of there faster than lightning.
Later we checked in to find that she had called in professionals to take care of the problem, turns out she had a nest in the basement with 4 kits, no wonder she was so aggressive. Besides all the food the woman had to replace, she also spent $2,200 in reparations! Even if the bandit didn’t steal anything, that was one expensive raccoon break-in.
Dead Raccoon
Frequently while working with wild animals, we receive calls about dead animals. One lady called us from Salt Lake City, UT, particularly about a dead raccoon.
The raccoon was wandering around by the end of her driveway. The first time she walked by the raccoon, it was walking normally, but she walked by later on and found the raccoon lying on its side. It appeared that the raccoon was not breathing, but she was not sure if it was dead or not. She did not want to get too close and she definitely did not want to leave it there for the rats, owls, birds, flies, etc.
Taking care of dead animals is one of the aspects of our job, and we remove many dead wild animals. You can either remove the dead animal or you can let nature take its course and slowly have the animal disappear a little each day. If you leave a dead animal (in this case a raccoon) on your property there will be maggots, rats, and all sorts of unwanted insects/animals that will eventually remove the animal from your property. This process could take months depending on the size of the animal.
Animal removal for us is routine and we have completed this task many times. Some property owners choose to remove the animal themselves. Removing the dead animal is usually the best method, unless you have a large piece of property at let it rot, but if you do be prepared for a terrible stink.
The Urine Puddle Mystery
While I was in the office answering phone calls from all over the U.S., there was a lady that called in. She told me that in every room of her house, there is either a big puddle of urine or a big puddle of dried up urine. I was wondering if she was senile and forgot to wear her diaper at first. Then, I began asking her if she had any pets, or kids. She told me she lived alone. Then I asked her about any cat doors and windows being left open as to where an animal could possibly get in. She told me all windows have been closed and she does not have any cat doors.
She had been hearing noises, noises that sounded as big as a cat or maybe just a little smaller. Jobs like this can be difficult to do if you can’t find any entry ways where the animal could get inside. We have seen in the past where animals get into a crawl space and come up through the heating ventilation system. There could possibly be a leak in the ceiling that she doesn’t know about. Maybe there really is a snarly animal living in her house.
I advised her to try to set up some type of video recording device and place it in the most active areas of the house where the urine puddles seem to keep showing up at. That way she may get some evidence as to what it might be and maybe even find where it is coming and going from. Also, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to call a technician over just to inspect the house to see if there are any possible areas where an animal could get in. It’s better to be safe rather than sorry.
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!