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Hello, this is Ben. And it’s time for another one of our Ben’s pest control podcasts. And today I want to talk to you about raccoons. Now, raccoons are interesting creatures, they’re mostly nocturnal, they come out at night, and they’re, they’re very active. But one of the things we’ve seen lately, and we see this every spring is we are going through the reproductive cycle of raccoons, they are having babies and they are moving around and very protective. And when it comes to our customers, one of the things we do is we try to say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So when you’re looking at a structure, and you’re concerned about raccoons, or you’re dealing with raccoons, one of the first things you want is you want to make sure that all the trees are not touching the the house, if there’s a tree that goes up, and all it’s touching the roof, that gives them a bridge and access to get on your roof. And if they get on your roof, they’re going to try to find a way in. So it’s very important that the trees don’t touch. In general, really nothing should touch the roof of your house for all pest control issues. But raccoons especially usually they can’t walk across the the slightest skinniest little branch to get onto your house. But if there’s something that touches the roof, one of the things that we see a lot of is if you have a patio that has a separate metal roof. Now this is kind of hard to explain via a podcast. But when they put up the metal roof, that roof in my opinion should never go underneath the eaves. So it’s hard to explain but you have even a soffit up there. And when they build a patio, if they can build the patio where it’s attached to your facia. To me, that’s the best way to do it. If they attach it to the facia, then the furthest sticking out point of the house is where the roof comes off of. And that doesn’t give the animal anything other than access to the top of the roof. But what we see a lot here on the Treasure Coast is we see patio builders who actually attach the metal roof up underneath the eave. And what you’ve got is you’ve got a small landing, that the roof sits on that if they can get underneath there, then they have a roof to stand on. And they have full access to the soffits. And if you know anything about soffits in Florida, the metal soffits with all of the little holes, which are really kind of like aluminum, they’re very lightweight, easy to bend metal, they can just push that right through. So if they have a surface to stand on, where they can push that out, they’re very happy because they can easily do that. And then they’re in your house. Once they get in your house, they can have babies and cause damage. It is not a good thing. So I personally don’t like the houses that have that really need someone to come in. And so when I say to people that I’m not a fan of that, what has happened in the past is we’ve had to take certain houses. And we’ve had to actually build a framework, usually out of metal and wood and make a solid wall around the sides of their patios and all along the back wall of their patios were the soffits and to the top of their metal roofs, just to try to make it so nothing can get underneath there and and get access to those soffits. Now, even if you have that, I mean obviously at this point, there’s probably nothing more you can do, you’re not going to have your patio ripped out and rebuilt. But for some people, it’s kind of irrelevant, because in today’s modern construction types, what you’re finding is the the builders are building what I like to refer to as very decorative roofs and they love to do the roof pitches, where they might have a roof that’s taller, they might have a roof section that’s shorter. And what happens is for them to build those roofs like that, they have the soffits and that come out on that taller section and they have like an elevated roof area. And so you’re always going to have with a lot of newer houses, you’re going to have these roof pitches where the raccoons if they get on your roof, they can stand on your roof, and they can get to the soffits of the house itself. And we see a lot of that also where if they’re given access to the roof, and they can get up to those soffits they can then stand on the roof itself and push the soffits up and get right into the attic and then they can have their babies up there. They can do damage. It’s it’s just a mess. So one of the things when I say to people all the time is that keeping the plants keeping those bridges off the roof are the most important things. So there’s a chance if you do that you don’t have to worry about this. You don’t have to deal with this situation after the fact
Now, one of the things that does seem to exist with raccoons is, a lot of times, Mama, raccoons will have multiple nesting sites, they will take a look at multiple areas to see which one they’re more comfortable with prior to giving birth to their babies. But the babies definitely, once they are born, it creates a little different level of difficulty, because now you can’t just get the mom out, you got to get the babies out, too. So it is it is tough. But if you keep the plants off your house, hopefully you can help yourself, prevent that. Now, one of the other things I tell people is, and this is not something that I would sit here and say with 100% certainty, but it’s very common in Florida that you hear if you see a raccoon during the day. And it’s out just kind of walking around, there’s a chance that that animal has rabies. And I just tell people, well, if if you know there’s a chance, then that there is an animal you really have to avoid. One of our friends had a raccoon just last week, and they kept seeing it walking across the top of their screen room right in the middle of the day trying to get onto their roof. And we were able to set up the trap, catch it and get rid of the raccoon for them. But if you do see raccoons during the middle day, please be careful. If you think you have a mama raccoon and she has babies, definitely keep your distance. This is not a creature that you want to take any chance to play with. Mama raccoons do not play, they will come at you they will be aggressive, and they will mess you up. One of the stories that I’ve heard a long time ago was I had a friend who was into trapping and he had set the trap up for a customer. And the trap was just inside the attic and the raccoon had come in. And it was the babies and not the mama and the babies came in set the trapdoor off, and they got stuck in the trap. And they were separated from the mama, the mama was very, very angry. And when the transfer came out, she still did not want to leave, she wanted her babies, and she wanted them. And the story goes, he had to take some pretty extreme measures to get the mama away, which included from what I understand setting off allowed firecracker to try to scare her away from the babies. And then he reset the trap. And the next night he was able to catch the mom and reunite her with where the babies were. But man, it’s just not something you want to mess with. The other thing that does exist is and this is very, very rare. But one of the things that people do have to be aware of is that there are insects that are associated with rat feces that that have some very disgusting side effects. They are little minor fantasies, they’re like little worm maggot things that can try to find their way into your eyes and into your brain. And they will cause some serious damage, make people sick and even cause death. So if you do have raccoon feces, do yourself a favor and protect yourself and make sure that you wear the appropriate safety gear gloves. I would say eye protection. Always protect yourself and protect your family. Now, if you want to prevent the raccoons and you’re looking for someone to come out and give you information on it, we’d be happy to do that we offer a free 50 Point space pest survey and analysis. And so if you’ll just give us a call at 772-878-1972 Thank you and have a great day.
