Racoons in the shop, or, This is the most disgusting thing I've ever done.

Several years ago, a raccoon family moved into the attic of my 28x48 shop/garage. They kept tearing down the soffets and eves to get in. I had tough time getting rid of them, involving trapping, shooting the varments as they climbed in and out, and finally got rid of 'em.

I knew they crapped up there, but since I was dreading the cleanup, I never climbed up and really checked. It did smell "barny" on a hot summer day.

Yesterday, while cleaning up the shop to get ready for my wood burner install, I happened to have to get up into the attic. With a trouble light, extension cord and clamp on light I went up. The mess was beyond belief.

I shoveld up a 35 gallon trash can FULL of petrifed crap, and two large garbage bags. That got the 4 piles they'd evidently used as toilets, and then I shop vac'd up all the dust. I wore a mask and gloves, long sleeved shirt. It was, without a doubt, the nastiest job I've ever had to do.

I bought 4 boxes of mothballs and threw them around, and the improvement in "aroma" is already noticable in the shop. Even with the dairy farmer next door spreading manure, it's better! I don't know if it'll keep critters from moving back in (I've had some red squirrel trouble, but just occasionally), but I figure it's a start.

 

WOW, thanks for sharing

 

I have a similar story with pigeons................. I HATE pigeons.

 

You could mask the smell with vintage steering wheels. I hate all critters.

 

I'm still so creeped out by having to do this, I shudder occasionally. Sorry sharing, but I can't be the only person who's had varmints ravage a building. Yuch.

 

If you haven't thought about it yet you should also cut away any and all tree branches that are even close to the shop roof. Hell I'd cut down any trees within a 50 foot radis of the shop if it was me......then plant more aways away.

 

I had squirrels trying to get into my garage one winter. I did cut down the tree next to it and put up all new fascia boards. Give the little fuckers a toe hold, and they're IN.

Bob

 

Hope you had a good face mask on!

 

my brothers house was unoccupied for 25 years before he moved in. had about a foot deep of bat crap in the attic. nice.

as stated wear a mask if you need to clean this stuff up. that dust can't be good for you

 

Hey at least ya did something.

Few years back I watched a coon scale my neighbor's patio walls and go into the soffit, couple times over a couple months. Finally went over, knocked on his door and asked if he knew there were coons living in the attic. His answer......

Yeah, do you suppose I should do something about them?

I bet that house smells awesome.

 

I had some coons getting into my shop for awhile. They didn't shit or tear up anything. But they were very possesive about 'their' new space. They tried to attack me. So I beat their f'n brains in with a shovel, shot a few, hit a few with a 2x4..... but now they're all gone. Must have gotten out that it wasn't a good place to hang. But, on another note, I have about 20 sets of headers hanging up on the wall, and a family of mice have moved into the tubes of them. My dog does no good with them, so my neighbor is gonna loan me his cat to lock up in there.

Mott

 

My son-in-law bought a house with 5-acres and a small horse barn (couple of horse stalls and a tack room), near Bowling Green, KY. He had assumed the barn would be cleaned out before the previous owner left, but there were several inches of horse balls on the barn floor, wall-to-wall. He dreaded having to clean it, so he put an ad on Craig's List for "free fertilizer". Quite a few people came, some from up to 20 miles away, and took the vast majority of the crap away in buckets or the back of their pick-ups.
My S-I-L got a kick outta the ones that put open buckets in the back of their SUV's - he said he hoped they didn't have to slam the brakes on, on the way home !

 

ive had seven kids,eventially they moved out on their own but not without some prodding

 

Surprising...i thought they would have the decency to go outside to doo-doo.

 

I was just thinking....a poop thread without NoWindowLarry around....how strange, I hope he's OK.

 

One of the girls I met in college lived with her grandparents until they finally moved south, in this great big circa-1800 fancy house, so big it even had a servant's quarters on the back. It was so old and original it even had the original bare copper on posts wiring in places.

As they got old, they kind of stopped maintaining things, and the bats got into the attic. They actually sealed off the door to the third floor and gave up on it, and bats would still find their way into the first floor once in a while. Supposedly there was a pile of batshit 6 feet high on the third floor. So bad you needed a hazmat team to clean it up.

I drive by once in a while and someone's living there now, but I have no idea if that third floor ever got taken care of. I'm sure the cleanup estimate was five figures.


When the kids got cleaning, there was a VW dune buggy in the barn, buried, no one remembered was even there until it got dug out. And I thought I was a pack rat.... sheesh...

 

...I AM loved...

 

I live in Santa Cruz, CA I haven't had any problems with squirrels but I have had the occasional hippie try and take up bunk in my backyard or shed if they can get in. They're worse then rodents you can shoot em', and they smell way more!

 

I'd paint the floor up there to bury the remaing dust and crud and kill off smell. If I were doing it, I think I'd put an the mask, and just dump out a bunch of oil base paint and push it around with a broom to get it on thick and avoid excess personal involvement with the crud.
I once hurled a bunch of mothballs up into a porch ceiling area that had become a racoon home...the next day, the porch floor and the surrounding ground were covered in mothballs. Fortunately, a bit of carpentry got them out and they did not try to rip new entrances into the structure.

 

Spray the inside of the soffits / eaves with a mix of water and ammonia. You'll smell it for a bit, but they'll smell it longer. Works like a charm. Also kills the residual shitstink smell.

I was living in a dinky shack years ago, surrounded by trees, etc. One evening there was a bunch of scratching up front and the biggest f-in raccoon I'd ever seen had chewed a hole above the door and set up camp in the eaves. Sprayed the underside extensively with ammonia, and after a bit the bastard came out. Sat on the roof, hunched down just carrying on. I was truly afraid. So I pulled out the .44 and helped him fly over the house. Problem solved.

 

Get up in the attic of the shop with a fertilizer spayer (hand pump style) Wear a good respirator and spray it down with bleach.... After that, hang mothballs around in mesh bags, it will keep everything out.
Ohhhh......... Gray squirrels seem okay, but the little red bastards like chewing wires..

 

Coon poop is dangerous-all kinds of bad things can happen from being around it, breathing, touching, etc. No joke-it is bad stuff.

 

I have a good friend who's husband died several years ago, he was into car's pretty heavy, and had been for year's. He used a garage at a rental property they had. She called me and said she was going to sell the house, and wanted to see if I could use anything. I went over and the garage hadn't been used for 12 years or so at least by humans. There is no electric so the only light was from a man door that was shadowed by the house. Needless to say it was dark, I worked my way over to the sliding garage door got it to open a few feet, then gazed into the now lit garage to see the treasure only to find that I just walked across about 10 inches of old dried up coon crap.

It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, basically a 2 car garage totally covered in a deep layer of crap. You could tell the areas they had used as main bathroom because the crap went to 4 ft. deep. Being a true rodder I persevered, and pulled a few thing's of value out best being a 64 pontiac 3-2 intake with 2 carbs. But in the end I know I left much to the company she hired to clean the place out, just because I wasn't going swimming in racoon shit. Oh yea even the 2 snakes I ran into didn't even faze me in that mess.

 

Make sure you let him out to pee. Nothing smells worse than cat piss!

 

Man that is the shits.....yuk!!

 

the grey squirels around my house ,once they get in, wiring goes to hell. 2 houses down a widow, had them in her attic and caused 5k damage to wiring. I have had 95 % of my pine trees cut, but the oaks supply plenty of food for the little beast. every day finds me and my .410 hunting and finding.

 

Those red squirrels taste pretty good with a little BBQ sauce, we don't have the grey ones up here.

 

During the infestation time, I sat out by the shop in the evening with a single shot 410 (one of my two guns, the other being an ancient single shot 22, both good boys guns) and waited for the buggers to go either in or out.

I hadn't set out too long when the momma raccoon appeared, and scaled the corner of the building, grabbed the aluminum facia and began pulling it down. I blasted her, and over the next couple of days got several kits, and trapped a couple more. Those I shot in the trap.

They don't NEED a tree, just climbed up the corners, pulled down the facia, ripped the soffets down wherever they wanted in, and in they went. They're agile, smart, determined, and as someone pointed out, VERY aggressive. Plus, they poop alot.

 

we had a few racoons when we first moved in, buildings are tight, trash cans are too, so no big deal.
then we got new neighbors on two sides with dogs that bark all night, makes me miss the racoons.