As I have grown older I have come to terms with having to do things I don’t want to do. Gone are the days of me throwing a tantrum and storming off to my room. Now, as an adult, I have to suck it up and just mow the lawn, take out the trash, and empty the dishwasher.

As a business owner, there are many things in my day to day that I don't necessarily want to do, but in order for my clients to receive the highest level of service Huntsman Wildlife can provide, they are necessary for us to do. Commonly, it is having to give the hard truth to the client as to what needs to be done regarding the animal damage to their home. In the nuisance wildlife industry, the worst is always raccoons.

I can truthfully say that for most of the decade that I have been in the industry, I have never come across a pest that can cause such a grand scale of damage in such a short window of time. The only structural pest that wins over raccoons are termites. There are three main factors that come with raccoon damage.

The Entry/Exit Holes

When a raccoon decides it wants in a home, there is usually no stopping them. I have seen raccoons rip apart roofs, tear away siding, and peel back roof vents like the pull tabs on my grandfather’s beer cans. If they can fit their tiny paws into a void, crack, or crevice, they will use their disproportionate brute strength to widen the hole, and just like that, they are in your home. The cost of reroofing, installing new siding, and replacing roof vents often ends up in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars price point.

The Latrine

Raccoons have a peculiar habit of picking one spot in particula and using it as a space to evacuate their bladder and bowels. This spot is often a communal latrine that multiple raccoons will use. This rapid accumulation of feces and urine can cause irreversible damage to ceilings, joists, subfloors, and insulation.  Raccoon fecal matter is sometimes a transmission vessel for roundworm and could be very serious for humans to contract. 

Internal Damage

Raccoons are very temperamental animals, if they don't like something being in the way, they will move it or destroy it. Be it the HVAC system running through your attic, to the plumbing and wiring, they will rip, tear, bend, chew, and generally destroy whatever they want whenever they want. This of course leads to water damage, electrocution/fire damage from the destroyed wiring, and inefficient heating and cooling due to the damaged venting and duct work.

I will be honest, in my years of experience, I have never delivered an estimate to a client for less than $4,000 to repair the damage the raccoons have done to their home. This is always a hard conversation to have with the client, and often times they are besides themselves as they try and figure out how to pay for such a large invoice. Some of my clients have been fortunate in the past, and their homeowner’s insurance policy covers the cost of the repairs (minus the deductible), but I have never had a client whose insurance company was also willing to cover the hundreds of dollars in trapping and removal charges.

Either way, it is never a fun conversation and at the end of the day, I know no client ever expects the estimate to reach the levels it does. Fortunately, there are finance companies that work with these situations. Though Huntsman Wildlife does not specifically endorse one finance company over another, we have had many clients tell us after the fact that Hearth Financing (www.gethearth.com) was a useful option.

Regardless of the costs, I would be remiss if I did not point out that not addressing the damage caused by raccoons is a bad idea. Just hiring a company to remove the raccoons, but not sealing the entries, not repairing the damage, not cleaning and sanitizing the affected areas, and not addressing the causes for the raccoons to gain access to your home in the first place is a horrible idea and increases the odds of other raccoons taking the place of the ones you just paid to remove.

You may not want to, but sometimes we can just throw a tantrum and the problem goes away. Sometimes you have to just deal with it the best you can and hope tomorrow is a better day.

Till next time… see ya folks.