CU has another critter concern – raccoons
People living on campus see a lot of interesting things, especially at night. Too often, this scenario is played out for students walking home at night: There behind a trash can, in the ditches or in a tree, they are lurking and watching your every move and seemingly plotting theirs. When you take your trash out, they pop their masked faces out of the dumpster and scare you back indoors. And the problem does not stop at campus boundaries.
“(Raccoons) are taking over the streets of Boulder,” says senior Sarah Abeyta, who lives on the Hill. “I am afraid to walk outside my house at night because they are on my porch and in the trees. They make a mess of our trash, too.”
According to Dougal Neralich, an officer for the City of Boulder Animal Care and Control center, he gets dispatched almost daily to CU for raccoon removal.
“This year has been particularly bad on campus. It’s insane,” Neralich said.
Neralich explained that because of the lack of rain in the mountains this year, many wild animals – especially raccoons – have been migrating to towns where they can find more food.
The food they seek ranges from what they can find in trashcans to pet food left outside on porches. Neralich suggests preventing raccoon problems by waiting until collection morning to put trash outside, keeping tight lids on garbage cans and feeding household pets indoors. He discourages having compost piles as well.
For those who already have a raccoon problem, there are a few tactics to get rid of the pests. One very effective option is to soak rags with ammonia and scatter them around the house, such as in the bushes and on the roof. Another option is to scatter mothballs.
“Raccoons are looking for a quiet, comfortable place to live. Sometimes if you leave AM talk-show radio playing outside, it will make them leave,” Neralich said.
Although it is rare, raccoons can do more harm than creating a messy alley.
“Raccoons can carry diseases like rabies, ringworm and distemper virus,” said Sandra Sonoda, a nurse at the infection control department at Wardenberg.
Raccoons in Colorado generally do not carry rabies. Distemper, however, is rampant among the raccoon population here. Distemper causes animals to stagger when they walk, have seizures, foam at the mouth and act aggressively. Besides these physical indicators, distemper also causes raccoons to be disoriented mentally and become active during daytime.
“Raccoons are night creatures. If you see one during the day, there is probably something wrong,” warns Sonoda.
Though very serious and painful for a raccoon, distemper is not transmissible to humans. It is, however, transmissible to household pets, especially dogs. Most dogs are vaccinated for such viruses with regular shots. If a dog has not had updated shots, it could be prone to distemper, which could be life threatening for your pet.
Neither Neralich nor Sonoda have heard of any reports of raccoon attacks or bites during their careers.
Most students on campus have negative things to say about raccoons.
“They are really scary. I don’t like how they are all over campus, although I guess they don’t do any real harm,” Krista Melbach said.
“They look like bears!” said junior Amy Foster.
When asked if CU should do something about the raccoon problem, such as removal, nobody thought such an action was necessary. It seems that although CU’s raccoons are oversized, brazen, and overpopulated, they are an inherent part of life at CU, and they are here to stay.
