Animal Intruder in the Middle of the Night - How to Prevent it From Happening to You!
It was about 10pm last Tuesday, August the 24th, when Douglas, 62, a Darien IL resident called about an opossum in her home that had fallen through ceiling tiles and knocked over a grandfather clock.
I was a little skeptical as to what the culprit actually was.
Now as I always tell clients, "everything is possible with wildlife".
She insisted that she saw the opossum and it came in through the roof.
However instinct and 13 years of wildlife handling told me I wasn't about to wrangle a record sized opossum that tore its way through a roof and mowed down a grandfather clock, I would never argue of course.
2 minutes into my quest to find the "opossum" I looked under the couch to find two glowing eyes staring at me.
If this was any percent possum, momma possum must have had jungle fever for a raccoon, cause what I was staring at was a ringed tail bandit.
Camera rolling, I proceeded to noose the critter while trying to create an entertaining video of an "in home raccoon capture" with out anything breaking or being soiled by feces or urine.
This adolescent raccoon was a B- on noose avoiding skills which is pretty slick, that coupled with the fact that the catch poles noose lost its shape after its fourth or fifth raccoon capture and it was now on its second season.
The raccoon made several passes from one end to the other which could have been cut short with a cage trap if one was available, since this was an after hours call tools were limited and capture was a must.
After the raccoon had wedged him self behind a speaker, my chimney raccoon extraction skills unleashed themselves and it was on! As the raccoon begin to climb up to seek escape, he slipped through the noose that tightened on him just a split second before escaping.
The raccoon was caught, removed from the home and the woman could rest assured that she could have a safe nights sleep.
Lesson to be learned here, as with all wildlife encounters that reach the breaking line of security.
Make sure all points of entry have some security beyond just the factory screen meant to keep out bees and small birds.
Most animals come through vents or fans with the only barrier being window screening that tears by hand.
Animal proof all points of possible entry from the inside and be sure to use materials that will be stronger than the largest animal in your given area can get past.
You would be surprised what animals can tear off and chew through.
I was a little skeptical as to what the culprit actually was.
Now as I always tell clients, "everything is possible with wildlife".
She insisted that she saw the opossum and it came in through the roof.
However instinct and 13 years of wildlife handling told me I wasn't about to wrangle a record sized opossum that tore its way through a roof and mowed down a grandfather clock, I would never argue of course.
2 minutes into my quest to find the "opossum" I looked under the couch to find two glowing eyes staring at me.
If this was any percent possum, momma possum must have had jungle fever for a raccoon, cause what I was staring at was a ringed tail bandit.
Camera rolling, I proceeded to noose the critter while trying to create an entertaining video of an "in home raccoon capture" with out anything breaking or being soiled by feces or urine.
This adolescent raccoon was a B- on noose avoiding skills which is pretty slick, that coupled with the fact that the catch poles noose lost its shape after its fourth or fifth raccoon capture and it was now on its second season.
The raccoon made several passes from one end to the other which could have been cut short with a cage trap if one was available, since this was an after hours call tools were limited and capture was a must.
After the raccoon had wedged him self behind a speaker, my chimney raccoon extraction skills unleashed themselves and it was on! As the raccoon begin to climb up to seek escape, he slipped through the noose that tightened on him just a split second before escaping.
The raccoon was caught, removed from the home and the woman could rest assured that she could have a safe nights sleep.
Lesson to be learned here, as with all wildlife encounters that reach the breaking line of security.
Make sure all points of entry have some security beyond just the factory screen meant to keep out bees and small birds.
Most animals come through vents or fans with the only barrier being window screening that tears by hand.
Animal proof all points of possible entry from the inside and be sure to use materials that will be stronger than the largest animal in your given area can get past.
You would be surprised what animals can tear off and chew through.
