Pest & Termite Control Blog

Raccoons are capable of causing a significant degree of property damage. Unfortunately, plenty of Americans can attest to this fact, as raccoons are one of the most common wildlife culprits behind a variety of different types of structural damage. In fact, raccoons often cause serious property damage by doing nothing more than crawling around, as raccoons are heavier than most people would assume. For example, raccoons often find their way into people’s attics where they can damage, destroy or reduce the efficacy of a home’s insulation simply by walking over the material. Some raccoons are heavy enough to fall through the structurally weak floor of an attic. You can imagine a homeowner’s surprise upon finding that a raccoon has fallen through a ceiling and onto a dinner table, or directly in the middle of the living room floor during family movie night. Such instances are usually terrifying for a home’s occupants, as Panola County Election Administrator, Cheyenne Lampley and her coworker, Belinda Curry, know all too well. Lampley was about to leave her workplace at the Panola County Courthouse Annex in Texas when she heard her colleague, Curry, scream in terror. As it turned out, Curry’s scream was a reaction to a massive 50 pound raccoon that fell through the courthouse ceiling.

Lampley was naturally concerned for her coworker, as she knows Curry as a tough and fearless woman. When Lampley opened her office door and looked down the hallway to see what was going on, she saw a “humongous” raccoon running toward her. Naturally, Lampley slammed her door closed before peering out of her office window only to see the raccoon making an effort to leave the building through the front door. Lampley then saw Curry’s arm reach toward the door knob to let the raccoon out of the building. Once the raccoon made it outside, the two coworkers breathed a sigh of relief. However, upon returning to work the next day, the two found the courthouse trashed and damaged in a variety of locations. Apparently, there was more than one raccoon in the building, but the two were not sure how the animals could have gained access to the building. No raccoons were found in the building and authorities began searching for the mammalian vandals, as their behavior suggested that they may have been infected with rabies. So far, no raccoons have been apprehended.

Have you ever found any type of wild animal within your attic?

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For the most part, people in the southern half of the United States don’t really have to worry too much about porcupines. They are wild animals that northerners have to deal with, not people down in Texas or Southern California. Well, that is no longer the truth. Porcupines seem to be expanding their territory farther and farther south as the years go by, and the warmer winters we’ve been having are also making them more active year-round. While the expansion is slow, as porcupine females only have around one baby porcupine, or porcupette, a year, they are starting to make people notice their increasing habitat range and presence, causing them to fear for their pets. As anyone that has seen Homeward Bound can attest, porcupine quills on a dog’s face look like they are incredibly painful for the poor pooch.

The North American porcupine carries an estimated 30,000 quills all over their bodies, and these quills are as sharp as hypodermic needles. These wild animals don’t need to be aggressive when they’re packing that kind of weaponry. Porcupines would actually rather climb up a tree than face a curious dog, let alone a predator. Lately, however, an increasing number of reports have been coming in about dogs and wild raccoons having been “quilled” by porcupines in areas farther south than people are used to. One poor raccoon was brought into a wildlife sanctuary with a couple hundred quills decorating its face. It took three hours to pull them all out while the critter was sedated. Numerous internet posts have surfaced recently reporting on people’s pets that have come in contact with porcupines, including one cat. Officials are recommending that people keep their dogs on a leash or in a fenced yard to avoid any unwanted encounters.

Porcupines are mostly nocturnal and herbivores, eating only plants and vegetation. They will spend most of their days in sleeping in trees, going out at night to forage for food. This is when most of their encounters with pets occur. The black and white coloring of a porcupine’s quills is actually a signal that they are dangerous, similar to the way bright colors on some insects act as a warning of danger to other insects, since most animals see in only black and white. Porcupines will first try to climb up a tree and escape when confronted by another animal. If they can’t, the porcupine will then face away from the attacker and wag its tail back and forth. They will also curl themselves into a ball and simply let its quills on its back and tail protect its more vulnerable parts like the stomach. The quills aren’t actually thrown or ejected at the other animal; instead they are very loosely attached, making it easy for one to detach and pierce the other animal thinking they’ve found lunch. The barbs at the tip also help the quills imbed themselves into skin, of which there are around 700 to 800 around the top 4 millimeters of the tip of their tail. It takes very little pressure for a quill to pierce the other animal’s skin and work its way deeper, causing extreme pain for the “quilled” animal. Those barbs also make it much harder to remove the quills and more painful for the animal covered in them. This also means removing them is a slow, long, painful process that can cost a pretty penny to have performed by a veterinarian. Keep your pets safe and away from these slowly invading pin cushions.

Have you ever seen a dog or other animal that encountered a porcupine and got “quilled?”

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