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Why You Need To Watch For Raccoons In Your Home
Renton, WA - Raccoon season is officially underway in Western Washington.
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| Mike Mead - Critter Control of Seattle |
That doesn't mean you will see more of the little critters roaming the street, it means you could find raccoons in your own home.
Emmanuel Fonte knew he had a problem when he started hearing noises coming from the attic.
Fonte says, "We heard some scratching and some very funny noises in the wall near the chimney."
Through a hole near the chimney a mother raccoon moved into Fonte's home and started nesting with her two kits barely 3-weeks old.
Fonte says, "We thought they were squirrels in the beginning but turns out they were rodents -- large rodents."
Mike Mead runs Critter Control.
He tells us April and May are the peak months for raccoon breeding and few spaces are better for nesting than attics and crawls spaces in our homes.
Once inside, Mead says Raccoons defend that area as if it's their own.
"They're a wild animal. They're unpredictable. You never really know what's going to happen. A lot of times with raccoons they're pretty visible. They just don't go hide back in the corner, you pop your head up in an attic hatch and usually she knows you're there before you even open the hatch.", Mead says.
Raccoons can grow to be 60 pounds and aside from the danger of a confrontation, they can really wreck your home.
Mead says, "Raccoons urinate, defecate inside an attic which compromises the insulation. Lot of these animals carry fleas, parasites, ticks, all that gets in the insulation."
Critter Control of Seattle does 20 to 25 raccoon jobs a week.
If they trap and remove the animals, the state requires they be euthanized, but there is an option.
Mead says, "If they are completely opposed to that, which I totally respect and understand then we go to the exclusion method. In that way we exclude the raccoons out and seal the house up. The momma is forced to go and nest someplace else."
Mike says to trap and remove these three raccoon costs about 350 dollars. That might sound like a lot and you could try to do it yourself but mike recommends you call him instead.
So how do you keep those raccoons out of your house? Experts say:
- Never feed raccoons
- Make sure garbage is sealed tight outside
- If you have a pet door - lock it.
- Don't rely on motion detector lights - those won't work over the long term
- Make sure you use wire mesh around the entries to your chimney or attic
- Trim tree limbs away from your house.
Video - http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-05112010-raccoons,0,2733816.story
Credits: Q13FoxOnline.com
