I just went through our own attack on the house. I kept thinking it was squirrels until I read that only flying squirrels are nocturnal. Well after closing the holes and putting glue, mouse and rat traps in the attic (I wasn't sure what I was fighting since I'd never seen it), sure enough... <img src="http://123pichosting.com/images/1037rockysquirrel.jpg" /> I "caught" two of them. You don't want to know how they died but lets just say I didn't provide the Saw. Sad, because they were kind of cute. Then when we got all the Christmas stuff out of the attic, we found acorns in the artifical Christmas tree, in various boxes including one containing the nut crackers.
Squirrels are terrible. They are like rats on steroids with fuzzy tails. I hate 'em. A squirrel in my attic was actually strong enough to get off of a large glue trap one time, though he left quite a bit of fur behind. They chomped a hole in my roof, which I covered with metal flashing. Instead of giving up and leaving, they then proceeded to leave a thousand teethmarks in the flashing. I put the glue traps outside and ended up catching birds. I used "Have a Heart" traps and caught one squirrel and one cat. I used a giant mousetrap and killed another squirrel (crushed his head completely). I rarely get firing mad but this was an exception. Since then, I cannot stand the sight of squirrels. Never had a problem with raccoons.
Looks like the raccoon I caught last night gave himself a heart attack and is dead in the cage. And...oh great...it just started raining. I called City of Houston animal control again and they confirmed they would be out today to pick it up. Then I can go a-huntin again tonight. I have the window open, and a huge hawk was on the fence checking out the racoon carcass. Yummy. I feel like I am in a freaking movie or something. Looks like the solution is to cover the soffet vents with stainless steel mesh or grate, either that or some covers. Something way stronger than the aluminum screen the homebuilder used back in 1954. It's going to be 50 to 60 straight feet on the north side of the house, and three pieces of 10 feet each on the west side. Tomorrow my friend (who is a maintenance manager for a apartment management company) comes over in the morning, and we go to Home Depot to buy what we need and get 'er done. He will go up into the attic to make sure nothing has nested, and we will both get on the roof to make sure the varmints haven't been chewing through anywhere. I also think I am going to pour some drops of the fox urine on the roof in 7 spots to keep critters off the roof.
This thread is useless without pics...oh wait... after you get all the critters out, can you fit in the attic to get the socks? wouldn't that stink up the place?
The socks are in the eaves, and I haven't noticed a stink as of yet. And, like I said, I didn't hear any gnawing or clawing last night so it might be keeping them out of the eaves. I also read that fox urine is really for repelling mice & rats...perhaps the raccoons are away because their prey isn't there? The web says coyote urine is what you should use to repel raccoons, possums & deer. Gonna have to get me some.
No way. I never do physical labor when I can pay someone to do it for me! Update....I did not catch a raccoon last night, although I did hear some minor noise coming from my eaves. Hopefully they are gone! My maintenance manager friend will be here at 10AM and he assures me we will (1) make sure there are no critters left in the attic and (2) seal all of the entry/exit holes they have made. Hopefully this will be the end of this homeownership conundrum, and I can move on the the next homeownership conundrum!
Whoever heard of a blues musician ever living long enough/making enough money to own a home: Only one I knew of was Becky Barksdale.
I guess I'm just lucky that way.... UPDATE....SUCCESS IS MINE!!!! Today, with the help of my friend, we fixed the problem and I saved myself a $600-$700 handyman bill. My friend the maintenance manager came over at 10 AM, inspected the situation, measured, and we headed off to Home Depot. We ripped out 75 feet of old original soffit vent, and replaced it with two layers of aluminum mesh. The old stuff was so rusted out you could poke your finger through it. It wouldn't have taken much for the raccoons to bust into it. They could have breathed on it and made a hole. While doing the north side of the house, he told me to look up in my neighbor's backyard pecan tree, and at the top were three raccoon/squirrel nests. I also cleared out a bunch of brush and deadwood on that side of the house. We inspected the attic and the roof and found no holes in the roof nor droppings in the attic, so they were coming in and going out through the soffit vent and staying there. It took the two of us 4 1/2 hours. Total cost was $50 in materials ($25 taken by an old Home Depot giftcard I had laying around), and a doobie for my buddy. I literally saved at least $600 by not hiring my regular handyman. I am so grateful for my buddy that he is coming over in a couple of days so I can take him out to dinner and throw a couple of margaritas down his throat! When we were done, I replaced three floodlights on that side of the house, and I bought a bottle of red fox urine and put 2-3 drops on the ground outside there, plus drops at the base of all of my trees, to keep the squirrel rodents the hell off of my property. I will setup the trap tonight and tomorrow, but I think the long ordeal might finally be over. It will take a bionic raccoon to bust through two layers of aluminum mesh screen. Thanks for putting up with my FREAKINESS since I started this thread. I am now finally starting to calm down, and I will be fully Lebowski-ized this evening, believe me!!
No noise and no signs of any raccoons last night last night, but the trap did go off. I caught a possum. Animal control is on the way.
First, old raccoon feeding story. Over 20 years ago, some friends told us they fed raccoons at a local park. We went with them with our 4 kids, they brought their 3. We ate just before sundown at the shelter. Then as the sun went down we got out one loaf of bread. It was not enough. It was like one of those horror flicks. About 100 raccoons quickly came out of the woods and took the scattered bread and went thru the trash cans like buzz saws. We beat a very hasty retreat to our cars before we became menu items. Our friends apologized. They had not done it in a while and had not had nearly as many raccoons the times before. Apparently the little buggers have sex and multiply and if people feed them they stay and then keep having more sex..... The other raccoon story involves my grandfather who was a very self reliant person, raised on the streets by hobos in Harrisburg PA after running away from a foster home at 12. He was 76, lived next to us in the country. He had cats and he put out a dish of food for them in his yard. A mother raccoon was stealing the food. He commented "If it is the last thing I do I am going to get that raccoon." He had no gun so I had no idea what he planned to do. Our driveway ran past his house and then back further in the woods to our house. I drove in one night with the family in the car and his screen door was ajar about a foot. I got out and looked and he was laying on the floor just inside the door, dead of a massive stroke. They later said he died instantly, which is the way he wanted to go. My wife drove the kids home. I called the police and ambulance, then my uncles. I turned the porch light on and walked outside toward my house and saw something on the ground. It was hand sicle covered in blood. I looked over to the cat food dish and there was a large dark lump that on closer examination turned out to be a mother raccoon with its throat slit. The amazing thing is my grandfather had no cuts on body anywhere so I imagine he caught it by the scruff of the neck and then slit. Still the exertion and the raccoon fighting for its life took its toll and he then had the stroke. But it was the very last thing he did. Quite a guy.
