Suburban Raccoons

In our previous post, we wrote about raccoon roundworms, what they are, and how you can ingest the roundworms and what the impact might be if you were to ingest them.

We ended the post by indicating that no confirmed case in humans has ever been successfully treated which is pretty scary when you think about it. Sounds like it is pretty serious and something you definitely do not want to deal with.

If you have raccoons living in your area or raccoons living in your attic, there is a very high probability that there are literally millions of roundworms in your attic, on your roof, and in your eaves trough. We suggested how to protect your person and your family from ingesting roundworm.  This is something to take seriously and that is why we are continuing to add more posts about this subject and how to protect yourselves. We talked about how a person could ingest these raccoon roundworms but we did not discuss the symptoms.

Raccoon Roundworms – Symptoms

Symptoms can include irritability, weakness, lethargy, deteriorated speech, behavioral changes, and change in vision. The infection of the central nervous system may cause further problems as well. Contact with an infected person is not a risk factor since humans are considered an intermediate host and does not infect the intestine.

We do not shed eggs like the raccoon will, as many as several million every day. There can be many other diseases that have these same symptoms so it is best to see a doctor and have this problem diagnosed rather than ignore it hoping the situation will improve.

Prevention

Raccoons are here to stay in suburbia. They are very adaptable animals and can exist almost anywhere. Trapping them, killing them, or taking them miles away will not solve the problem. Many of them are just too smart to enter a trap and will ignore the traps much to our frustration.

Consumers need to make their home unattractive to raccoons. Eliminate all potential food sources outdoors to decrease the interest in spending time around your yard. Don’t feed raccoons and if you have such things as grubs in your lawn, kill the grubs with the appropriate treatment and eliminate that particular food source. Skunks also like grubs and eliminating the grubs will keep the skunks away as well.

If you must deal with raccoon feces, wear gloves and also a mask if the feces are dry and come apart or float in the air. Raccoon roundworms can exist for years and in very difficult conditions. Disturbing dry powdery feces in your attic is a perfect condition for the contraction of roundworms.

Remember your attic gets very hot in the summertime and just about anything is going to dry out, especially the feces of Raccoons, but not the roundworms.  They can last forever and that is one of the reasons that you must protect yourself in these conditions. Be sure to hire professionals to remove them, your insulation and arrange for proper disposal of the insulation as well. This should be considered an environmental hazard.

For more posts about health risks associated with raccoons, click here.

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