Furry scoundrels!
We got confirmation last night – it really is a raccoon in our
ceiling. But that's not all: there are likely THREE of them! A whole
raccoon family. We've been hearing them chirping to each other and
what sounds like fighting among them. Yesterday evening I climbed up
the ladder to the ceiling and peeked inside. All the way on the other
side of the ceiling, in a pool of light that must come up from our
light fixtures over our kitchen, I saw a large raccoon grooming
itself. I watched it for a few minutes and even though I had made lots
of noise getting up the ladder, it didn't even look in my direction. I
went to get a camera in the apartment and returned to my spot, and
spent a while trying to focus on the raccoon, which turned out not to
be possible. But at one point I saw something moving in the dark in my
peripheral vision and I realized it was another raccoon within just a
few feet of me and moving closer to investigate! I nearly fell down
the ladder, I was so startled. I hissed and jumped down to the floor.
Standing in the hallway outside our apartment, I noticed a movement up
near the ceiling by a skylight in our hallway – another raccoon was
peeking down at me through a space between the skylight and the
ceiling space it lives in! It was making curious and/or/ irritated
snorting sounds. I managed to get a picture of it, not a great one,
but good enough to prove to our superintendant that there are raccoons
up there, not squirrels, as he persists in thinking (for some reason
he seems to think saying they're squirrels gets him off the hook for
doing anything about it, but now that they're clearly raccoons, maybe
we can mobilize him).
I had bought some ammonia and sponges from the hardware store earlier
in the evening thinking I would soak the sponges in the ammonia and
then toss them frisbee-style into the recesses of the ceiling to drive
off the raccoons. Unlike mothballs, the other option, the ammonia
would eventuallly evaporate so we wouldn't be stuck with a smelly
thing we couldn't remove if we ended up being able to smell it inside
our apartment. But it turned out that the opening into the ceiling is
much to small and awkward for me to get my hand into, let alone
effectively toss anything into. The raccoons managed to get into the
hallway (when they ate our trash) through a larger opening, but it
faces a brick wall, so I couldn't use that. Instead, I got an
extension cord and strung up a radio alarm clock we don't use and put
it in the ceiling. I turned it to a mariachi station and turned the
volume low enough that we can't hear it in our bedroom when we're
sleeping (nor can our neighbors downstairs hear it, though we can hear
it faintly in our kitchen – not enough to be annoying though) but loud
enough that creatures with sensitive hearing (raccoons) can surely
hear it throughout the ceiling space. We played it all last night and
didn't hear nearly as much of the raccoons, though they may spend a
lot of their time outside at night anyway. Before I left this morning
I turned the radio way up to roust out any raccoons that decide to
while away the day sleeping in our ceiling, and I left notes outside
our door and our neighbors' door explaining why it's on and saying
they can unplug it from the wall if it drives them crazy.
While all this has been going on, we have also acquired a mouse
problem in our apartment, which isn't too suprising since a) it's
freezing cold outside, b) we aren't as careful as we should be about
dropping crumbs on our floor and wiping down our counters, and c) this
is New York, after all – could be worse, eg rats and roaches! I placed
some snap-traps yesterday and caught one! But it appears we have
another b/c I found some more poop this morning. I moved the traps
around a bit and hopefully we'll get another, but I realized as I was
leaving that while the mice usually venture forth into trap-land
during the day when no one's home (apparently Elise isn't much of a
deterrent; thanks a lot, dog), with our radio blasting into our
ceiling and walls, the mice may stay hidden all day thinking someone's
home. We'll see tonight – it may be one or the other, mice or
raccoons, and we'll have to decide which is a better roommate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear friends,
It is with the deepest regret that I inform you of the demise of six
our happy bunch, each of whom has met his or her end in a deliciously
baited mousetrap. We can only hope that this deadly war of attrition
will conclude with the crippling depletion of the 7th Avenue grocery
and hardware stores' supplies of Victor and D-Con products.
We find it troubling that our "friends" the Procyonidae, who have
lived upstairs for several weeks now, do not share in our mourning by
maintaining a respectful silence. Quite to the contrary, for four days
and nights now they have blasted a horrendous racket out of some sort
of sound machine. We have paid numerous visits to their residence, but
on no occasion has anyone been home. Indeed, it would appear that they
have simply moved out and left this infernal sonic maelstrom behind as
a bitter reminder of their tenancy! Alas, we are unable to disable the
machine ourselves, owing both to the unapproachable screechings that
it emits and our unfortunate lack of opposable thumbs.
Sadly,
The Muridae.
P.S. Hey, it's 1:22:36 – time to go forage again! Anyone seen Blackie?
He was here this morning...
ceiling. But that's not all: there are likely THREE of them! A whole
raccoon family. We've been hearing them chirping to each other and
what sounds like fighting among them. Yesterday evening I climbed up
the ladder to the ceiling and peeked inside. All the way on the other
side of the ceiling, in a pool of light that must come up from our
light fixtures over our kitchen, I saw a large raccoon grooming
itself. I watched it for a few minutes and even though I had made lots
of noise getting up the ladder, it didn't even look in my direction. I
went to get a camera in the apartment and returned to my spot, and
spent a while trying to focus on the raccoon, which turned out not to
be possible. But at one point I saw something moving in the dark in my
peripheral vision and I realized it was another raccoon within just a
few feet of me and moving closer to investigate! I nearly fell down
the ladder, I was so startled. I hissed and jumped down to the floor.
Standing in the hallway outside our apartment, I noticed a movement up
near the ceiling by a skylight in our hallway – another raccoon was
peeking down at me through a space between the skylight and the
ceiling space it lives in! It was making curious and/or/ irritated
snorting sounds. I managed to get a picture of it, not a great one,
but good enough to prove to our superintendant that there are raccoons
up there, not squirrels, as he persists in thinking (for some reason
he seems to think saying they're squirrels gets him off the hook for
doing anything about it, but now that they're clearly raccoons, maybe
we can mobilize him).
I had bought some ammonia and sponges from the hardware store earlier
in the evening thinking I would soak the sponges in the ammonia and
then toss them frisbee-style into the recesses of the ceiling to drive
off the raccoons. Unlike mothballs, the other option, the ammonia
would eventuallly evaporate so we wouldn't be stuck with a smelly
thing we couldn't remove if we ended up being able to smell it inside
our apartment. But it turned out that the opening into the ceiling is
much to small and awkward for me to get my hand into, let alone
effectively toss anything into. The raccoons managed to get into the
hallway (when they ate our trash) through a larger opening, but it
faces a brick wall, so I couldn't use that. Instead, I got an
extension cord and strung up a radio alarm clock we don't use and put
it in the ceiling. I turned it to a mariachi station and turned the
volume low enough that we can't hear it in our bedroom when we're
sleeping (nor can our neighbors downstairs hear it, though we can hear
it faintly in our kitchen – not enough to be annoying though) but loud
enough that creatures with sensitive hearing (raccoons) can surely
hear it throughout the ceiling space. We played it all last night and
didn't hear nearly as much of the raccoons, though they may spend a
lot of their time outside at night anyway. Before I left this morning
I turned the radio way up to roust out any raccoons that decide to
while away the day sleeping in our ceiling, and I left notes outside
our door and our neighbors' door explaining why it's on and saying
they can unplug it from the wall if it drives them crazy.
While all this has been going on, we have also acquired a mouse
problem in our apartment, which isn't too suprising since a) it's
freezing cold outside, b) we aren't as careful as we should be about
dropping crumbs on our floor and wiping down our counters, and c) this
is New York, after all – could be worse, eg rats and roaches! I placed
some snap-traps yesterday and caught one! But it appears we have
another b/c I found some more poop this morning. I moved the traps
around a bit and hopefully we'll get another, but I realized as I was
leaving that while the mice usually venture forth into trap-land
during the day when no one's home (apparently Elise isn't much of a
deterrent; thanks a lot, dog), with our radio blasting into our
ceiling and walls, the mice may stay hidden all day thinking someone's
home. We'll see tonight – it may be one or the other, mice or
raccoons, and we'll have to decide which is a better roommate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dear friends,
It is with the deepest regret that I inform you of the demise of six
our happy bunch, each of whom has met his or her end in a deliciously
baited mousetrap. We can only hope that this deadly war of attrition
will conclude with the crippling depletion of the 7th Avenue grocery
and hardware stores' supplies of Victor and D-Con products.
We find it troubling that our "friends" the Procyonidae, who have
lived upstairs for several weeks now, do not share in our mourning by
maintaining a respectful silence. Quite to the contrary, for four days
and nights now they have blasted a horrendous racket out of some sort
of sound machine. We have paid numerous visits to their residence, but
on no occasion has anyone been home. Indeed, it would appear that they
have simply moved out and left this infernal sonic maelstrom behind as
a bitter reminder of their tenancy! Alas, we are unable to disable the
machine ourselves, owing both to the unapproachable screechings that
it emits and our unfortunate lack of opposable thumbs.
Sadly,
The Muridae.
P.S. Hey, it's 1:22:36 – time to go forage again! Anyone seen Blackie?
He was here this morning...
posted by Seph at 9:13 AM
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