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 Bill Lauto is an Environmental Scientist and Energy Consultant who has been teaching how we can save our money, energy, environment, and health, since 1982. Mr. Lauto operates GoingTrueGreen.com and his work has been published in magazines such as: Consumer Report, Kiplinger's Financial and Business Ethics. |
| A few weeks ago I was on the New York campus of St. John’s University for my speaking engagement when I saw Ross, a good friend and professor. Our discussion ran the spectrum from the Shroud of Turin to String Theory, like all our usual conversations. However, this time, our focused settled on how to deal with raccoons! The topic came up because my friend recently discovered a raccoon living in the rafters of his unconnected garage,that he converted into his studio. The discovery came about after seeing a continuous and growing amount of destruction about the room. First he saw that his tools were disrupted and a few days later found his studio asunder. Not wanting to cause any harm to the animal we were talking about how each township has their own set of rules and laws when dealing with undomesticated animals such as squirrels, possums, and raccoons. One popular rule is how we are not allowed to trap, transport and relocated the animal elsewhere, even if that area is a protected park or forest. So the question remained about what is the best way to move a raccoon out of one’s garage. Exactly at that moment we heard, “Good day gentlemen.” Lou, another good friend and professor was passing by and joined the conversation. Turns out that Lou also had raccoons living in his back yard studio and he immediately injected the answer: Talk Radio. Turns out when you leave a radio on, that is tuned into a 24 hour talk radio station, the continuous sound of humans talking keep the raccoons on alert all the time. So after a few days or so of non-stop human talking, the enervated raccoons will leave to find more suitable living quarters. Then at that point of our conversation, Lou had to leave to teach a class. I then discussed with Ross that once he ascertains that the Raccoon had moved out, he had to find the entry point and seal it up. Thus avoiding any new destructive and non-paying tenants. Having unwanted animals move in, is not an uncommon event, especially when winter winds start blowing and you have older buildings located by a park or woods. Thankfully Lou knew the solution, one which I learned about 15 years earlier and neglected to remember. I just started teaching part-time at BOCES for Outdoor Education and one of our classrooms inside a stable had a terrible odor of urine inside. I was told that we had a family of raccoons living in the rafters. The following week, I arrived early in the morning to set up the classroom ahead of time and found inside an old battery operated radio playing an all talk station. I learned a few weeks later that our uninvited guest moved out. I hope sharing this information proves helpful for some of my GoingTrueGreen.com readers and visitors. Bottom Line: There is always another way. |
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