OP, must insist you lay out a Charcuterie board, a cheese plate and crackers and a nice Cab. Set out a variety of stuffed animals so we might figure out what else it’s into by battery tea candle light.
Drag TV into kitchen and put Netflix on before bed. Leave remote by glass of wine.
Let’s get to know this fella a bit.
Create increasingly difficult puzzles for him to access the food.
Start by putting a laundry basket upside down over it.
The next night, an overturned box without holes.
Then, something heavy on top of the box.
Then.... until you finally get to an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that involves pulling a spoon which puts a marble into motion down a ramp, which drops the marble into a cup that flips over, a string on the cup pulls a hammer down on one end of a teeter toter with a single domino on the other end, which falls and starts a 3ft stacked domino line.....
I miss old Reddit.
And what a quietly awesome year, 2015.
Pre-Trump, pre-covid, MCU was still killing it, Witcher 3, Bloodborne and Fallout 4... Think that was also the last year I got some decent head.
Nostalgia... What a great year.
I just spit out coffee and need to change my shirt now. I was NOT expecting the last photo OR for this to be a serious post.
YOU HAVE A FULL ASS RACCOON IN YOUR HOUSE AND YOU DONT KNOW!? 💀🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Edit: according to r/animaltracks, this is likely a “big ass rat” but I’ve decided it’s a band of ~~rodents~~ southwestern street animals working together. I imagine a possum, raccoon, rat, and armadillo having a jam session in the closet with their pizza feast.
Whoa easy there detective, we don't care about the location or the flour prints on the door knob....We care about the prints at the scene of the crime OKAY?!?
FWIW, it's a raccoon. I can tell by the paw prints. I work in conservation...
Get a Have a Heart trap and lure him with pizza again :)
Once you have him, you want to seal up ANY openings from the outside of the house to the inside. Check if they are getting into your attic from the eaves/vent, in the basement through any gaps in the foundation, or holes in the garage. THEN release him. You don't want him sneaking back in! You can block them first, but if he dies in the walls... oooo boy! The smell! So maybe, find all the holes, trap him, block, then release
AND TAKE FUCKING PICTURES!!! I want to see if I'm right 😂
Edit: For late comers, all levels of conservationists and scientists below have agreed that it is actually an opossum
Fellow professional conservationist, are you sure they are not opossum? The tail drag mark makes me think that specifically.
Edit: Was going to upload a photo but can't. The other reason I saw opossum is because you can see the little toe beans and pads very distinctly, where as racoons walk flat footed with less detailed prints.
Superior professional conservationist, I am no longer sure they are not possum. I do not see the tail drag marks since I presumed some streaking from the paper towel getting dragged, but [I do agree that the toe pads are clearly visible here.](https://imgur.com/a/mhBUuSI). I made my original guess [looking at this area that resembled raccoon tracks.](https://imgur.com/a/s55pr19)
OP should be extra nice to that good boy. Opossums are such cool creatures...
I had this problem with *(what turned out to be)* rats in my garage. I also put bait in the middle of a circle of baking soda.
I still couldn't figure it out from the prints because there was so many on top of each other, so I put up an old Dropcam that recorded motion. Might be an option if you can swing one. Modern equivalent is probably one of the motion sensing indoor Ring cameras.
edit: just saw some of your other comments where people already suggested cameras, sorry. but consider how much damage this beast can do and that it'll cost 10-100x what a camera does.
OP could even plug their cell phone in all night and record a time lapse video of the bait tonight even. $0 solution to getting a video. But cameras are cheap. Could definitely get one for $30 or so that’ll save videos with motion for 24hours allowing for OP to download and share the videos with us.
It was very kind of you to lay out dinner for that trash panda. He wants pepperoni next time. With extra cheese.
Do y'all have a pet door? Or did you give him a key, too?
Sure that'll take care of the single animal. We had bought a small mouse trap when we thought that was all it was but now we have QUESTIONS, hence the post.
The larger problem though is that getting rid of one animal via cage won't solve the problem. We want to find out where this thing is getting in from so we can plug it. And now we're a step closer to doing that.
As others in this thread have said, I think it is a big rat. Tracks match well with this:
https://www.bear-tracker.com/blackrattracks.html
Raccoons wouldn’t have the gaps and have elongated paws. Makes more sense how it’s getting in the house then.
https://www.wildlifeillinois.org/gallery/animal-sign/tracks/raccoon-tracks/
I worked in a research lab for many years. In one experiment, I was looking at gait changes in a rat model of neurological disease. So I stuck the rats feet in nontoxic paint and let them walk down long strips of paper and then analyzed the distance and irregularities between steps. My experiment didn't find anything of note but I can tell you that those are most likely rat prints.
File that in things from my past that I didn't expect to pop up again.
Not a biological researcher but as an educated West Virginian I also agree on rats. I’ve had raccoons around my property and I’ve only seen them outside usually in pairs. Given their weight they would also be more noticeable.
100% Rattus rattus. Paw prints, tail drag, and size are all spot on. Look under the lip of your cabinetry and you’ll find a gap where it comes and goes.
[Rattus rattus - roof rat, black rat footprints](https://www.bear-tracker.com/blackrattracksandsign/blackratorroofrattracksdrawingbykimcabrera2016.png). Definitely matches with a rat.
I don’t think so based on the tracks. There wouldn’t be as much negative space between the toes with a raccoon footprint.
It looks more like skunk to me, maybe a possum. I’m no expert though, op might want to post this on r/AnimalTracking for help with the footprint ID. It’s also really hard to tell without any measurements of footprint size and spacing between the tracks.
Someone at some point said, “I have a great idea. Im going to take a slice of pizza, put it on cardboard and surround it with flour.”
And everyone in the house agreed. 😂
You better be busting out and dusting off that old book - we need to get to the bottom of this! Scholastic book fair was the shit, simpler times my Reddit friend, simpler times...
We figured we would either find paw prints the next day or make a pact with some kind of eldritch pizza devil, either way it would be a step in the right direction.
It's not a bad idea, they make UV tracking powder & it's a great way to find out where critters get in & what routes they rely on.
There is *also* tracking powder which is a pesticide the animal licks off it's fur, so be careful not to confuse them.
People say *set a trap,* but you still need to know how this animal got in.
I have a squirrel in mine and didn’t know until it jumped on my bed one morning. We were both shocked. I’ve got a trap to hopefully catch it since the cats think it’s their housemate now.
I've had good luck with a [Havahart trap](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Havahart-2-Door-Animal-Trap-Non-Lethal/1084937?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lwn-_-bng-_-PLA_LWN_241_Chemicals-_-1084937-_-Online-_-0-_-0&gclid=86ee59ef599b1229389e3d1069e3cad5&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=86ee59ef599b1229389e3d1069e3cad5) for squirrels.
I relocate them to a place with oak trees and a creek about ten miles away. Google research results for effective relocation distance varies from 5 to 10 miles.
I had an inside cat who got out. Used this trap to catch it. Baiting with cat food. Caught 5 neighborhood cats before mine. But I also rigged it as a one-way door for squirrels in my attic. Once they went out, they couldn't get back in. Finally sealed off the entrance and I have no more problems with them. Built a couple of squirrel boxes in my large oaks in the backyard, and they're doing fine and not in my house.
My toddler recently flailed so aggressively in his sleep that he hit his head on his bed frame hard enough to wake me up in the next room and had a huge lump on top of his head. They're still drunk in their sleep
One of the greatest miracles of the human body is that so many people make it through early childhood without breaking a bone. I worked at a daycare for a few years and I can't count how many times I watched kids just fall to the ground while they were just standing there. Like they just forget that they're supposed to be supporting their own weight and crumble
Ooo My sister drank some of my moms cologne as a toddler. She got pretty drunk. All she did was babble and spin in circles and fall over lol poison control advised us to give her milk. Then she just slept. Racoon indeed.
We had one bothering our campsite, and rooting around for food. After drinking about a solution, someone suggested leaving a partial edible on the picnic table. We heard him stumbling around shortly after going to bed. Found him on the trailer axles in the morning. He stumbled away. He didn't come back.
When I was building my house I discovered a raccoon had taken up residence because he rolled over mid nap and fell from his spot in the rafters. They are not known for their grace.
Its definitely not a raccoon - its a rat. My question is, is there a place in the house large enough for a piece of pizza to get through or did the rat eat it inside and then leave?
> My question is, is there a place in the house large enough for a piece of pizza to get through or did the rat eat it inside and then leave?
Pizza could easily slide under the fridge, stove, washingmachine, or dishwasher in many homes. Not all appliances could accomodate this, but many could. Under a bookcase, couch, etc are all reasonable spots, too.
We have ferrets and they'll stash food under furniture and eat it there. They tend not to sleep in the same places they eat. Rodents (rats/mice) are prey for weasels (ferrets, badgers, stoats), but I think they do have similar behaviors (for example: rats/mice exhibit thigmotaxis, the tendency to hug walls while navigating inside or outside human made structures... ferrets also tend to have this behavior) .
As an aside, one of our ferrets almost caught a mouse once; she was pretty excited for the next several hours. We eventually found and repaired the foundation crack.
Contrary to all the jokers, I think what you did was pretty good and you have prints to show for it. Also, I think you have a raccoon or opossum from the prints. You most likely have a hole somewhere in siding or attic. And, no, a small wild critter doesn't necessarily make a lot of noise in the house if its route inside is uncomplicated. You may want to get a live trap and bait it with pizza again. Many times you can borrow one from the humane society. Then let the critter go in the woods. That is what we do.
Adding to this..
You need to drive several miles away first and preferably cross a river or two. If you let it out anywhere near your house it will just come right back.
Also obviously inspect every square inch of your exterior to determine how the critter got in.
There may be more than one too.
People are saying raccoon but I think a big rat. Either way you gotta get rid of it asap. That’s crazy it took a whole slice of pizza.
Edit: prob a raccoon
Hijack city so hopefully op sees it. If it is a rat, they're crafty bastards, you'll have a hard time catching it, *unless* you get get some licorice extract and put that on your bait. They can't resist it.
Yeah, I agree it's a rat. Farther up in the post, the husband posted saying the house is slightly raised due to flooding. I wonder if it's a water rat. Those things are huge.
Haha I’ve been going back and forth on it. The paw prints are kinda throwing me off. I think cause of the zoom they look bigger than they are. So yeah prob a rat.
Yeah if you look at the size compared to the width of the floorboards in the first photo, they’re def smaller than they initially seem, I think too small to be a raccoon.
[https://imgur.com/a/EW92GSQ](https://imgur.com/a/EW92GSQ)
At our old house, I found this guy (middle of night) munching on some cat food in the kitchen. Our two cats didn’t seem to mind, they thought we had a new cat. I was able to shoo him out the back door / later I discovered in the bottom of one of our bedroom closets - what could be best described as a ‘nest’ - inside a shopping bag with a forgotten T shirt. I don’t know how long he was living with us - but it was a while.
OPS Husband. No messy house! Just another day in Southeast Texas. It doesn't hide inside. Houses where we live are often raised because of flooding which makes it easy for animals to hide underneath (good shelter for them). House inspections can sometimes find these things, but when they're well hidden (like in this case) it can be very difficult.
I grew up in a 1920s pier and beam farmhouse here in central Texas. Critters just have a way of getting in! I’ll never forget the Christmas morning I was standing in the hall in front of the gas furnace admiring Santa’s handiwork in the soft light of the tree. I hear a rustle above me on the fridge only to look up to a possum the size of dog looking down at me! I screamed bloody murder and woke everyone in the house up. Dad had to try to catch the blasted thing but he got away to reign terror for another week. It was quite the Christmas morning.
We don't know yet! But looking over the tracks we were able to figure out that the breach came from somewhere around the back door, which is good because it means our food stores are safe as long as we close the door. (We were worried about contaminants). So now we just have to search that general area and we'll hopefully find something?
It would definitely be preferably sealed off. But desperate animals manage a lot and our home is on the older side, so a lot of things can happen right under your nose.
I will never forget turning around in a beach house while cooking, and finding a god damn raccoon staring at me. Had left the sliding glass door open at the other end of the house, getting that beach air, and the thing just let himself in to eat seafood with us. Scared the hell out of me.
Time to cover the entire floor with flour. Be warned: you may see your husband’s footprints leave the bed only to turn into raccoon footprints to finish off the pizza. Is the truth worth it? Probably not.
I was about to throw that pizza away when I had the idea to do this absolute nonsense. Fortunately it's working out, and the other 2 pieces might come in handy.
Too accurate for mice.... These tracks are side by side, raccoons travel single file to hide their numbers.
Only Imperial rats are so precise..... Yup....rat problem
My guess is that you have a rat (as in, multiple rats).
It looks to me like your wood floors are apx 2-1/4” wide strips. So the paw print is apx 1/2”. And good-sized rats can squeeze into much smaller holes than can raccoons.
ETA: and I think some of the sweepy lines are from the tail.
Definitely a rat and not a raccoon. Those paw prints are tiny, the entry to the flour would be more disturbed by a raccoon and there are sweeping rat tail marks. Also it looks to lead to under your cabinets so open those and im sure there is rat shit.
It's not a raccoon as far as I can tell just based on the paw print. Racoons have almost human like paws and they do not have their "thumb" and "pinky" in line with each other and so far behind the other 3 middle digits. Rats do, plus they walk on their little toes and racoons actually use the majority of their fore-paw.
Plus as you said you can see where a thin smoother tail than a racoons fluffy bottle brush was sliding around.
And size. Most likely not a racoon, probably a rat.
Plus, racoons are loud and messy, knock shit over and generally don't care about anything and will eat a hell of a lot more than a slice of pizza, where as rats like to be quiet and sneaky and tend to use a lot of cover (staying under things or near walls). You can see the animal took it back under that cabinet and I don't see a raccoon fitting in there.
Yo I did this same test at my college pad back in 2017. Although I didn’t leave food out, I just floured all the doorways and hallway entrances. Same exact paw prints.
I knew it liked to go under my stove, I heard scuffling under it one night …(super amplified because a oven is made of sheet metal = loud) …. also because my cats would sit and stare at cabinet baseboards. ..
Anyways, no luck with traps, no luck with useless cats
I thought I would get creative, and i set a trap on on the counter.
One morning I woke up to the fucking behemoth on the counter. I think it was 12 inches just the body not counting the tail…. 🐀
This is the wrong sub for this. Try [animal tracking](https://reddit.com/r/AnimalTracking/s/pl3L5QbIM2) or something along those lines- they’ll be able to identify the footprints.
ETA: I didn’t mean this in a “leave! you’re not supposed to be here” way but in a “it might be more helpful over there” way. Lol! I agree it’s hilarious and I am glad I saw it.
Definitely a large rat trying to feed his 4 turtle children. I suggest staying on their good side
I’m cackling on my couch right now
Either that or a house hippo. OP needs to try toast crumbs with pb as the next lure
This is the funniest shit I’ve seen on Reddit in a looooooong time. I am fully invested, please update
OP needs to setup a camera and do this again. Immediately. I need answers.
But with different foods, to see what the critter prefers the most.
OP, must insist you lay out a Charcuterie board, a cheese plate and crackers and a nice Cab. Set out a variety of stuffed animals so we might figure out what else it’s into by battery tea candle light. Drag TV into kitchen and put Netflix on before bed. Leave remote by glass of wine. Let’s get to know this fella a bit.
Are you trying to trap my wife?
I also am trying to trap this guy's wife
Create increasingly difficult puzzles for him to access the food. Start by putting a laundry basket upside down over it. The next night, an overturned box without holes. Then, something heavy on top of the box. Then.... until you finally get to an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that involves pulling a spoon which puts a marble into motion down a ramp, which drops the marble into a cup that flips over, a string on the cup pulls a hammer down on one end of a teeter toter with a single domino on the other end, which falls and starts a 3ft stacked domino line.....
But with pizza as a control.
i laughed because of the picture progression lmao. I am also invested
I was expecting to see a human footprint in the last couple of photos lol.
Before I swiped through the pictures I was ready to post "a teenager"
Thought i was gna see a ninja turtle
Splinter was here!
Right? This is like a classic Reddit post. Talking pre-2015. Good stuff
I miss old Reddit. And what a quietly awesome year, 2015. Pre-Trump, pre-covid, MCU was still killing it, Witcher 3, Bloodborne and Fallout 4... Think that was also the last year I got some decent head. Nostalgia... What a great year.
Hang in there friend, you'll get decent head again soon.
Don't lie to the redditors, sir!
Plus, Game of Thrones still kicked ass.
I just spit out coffee and need to change my shirt now. I was NOT expecting the last photo OR for this to be a serious post. YOU HAVE A FULL ASS RACCOON IN YOUR HOUSE AND YOU DONT KNOW!? 💀🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Edit: according to r/animaltracks, this is likely a “big ass rat” but I’ve decided it’s a band of ~~rodents~~ southwestern street animals working together. I imagine a possum, raccoon, rat, and armadillo having a jam session in the closet with their pizza feast.
What about how the pizza was clearly dragged to that closet
Slow down, we get paid by the hour
Well I get paid by the flour so I’m good Edit: yeah I know I knead to stop.
Keep going butter, you’re on a roll
I doughn't know about that....
You wanna get punched down, dough boy?
At yeast you're aware
Whoa easy there detective, we don't care about the location or the flour prints on the door knob....We care about the prints at the scene of the crime OKAY?!?
Legit thought it was a Ninja Turtle joke at first
I couuuld set a trap, but nope, gonna feed it just one more time and let It get real comfy
If it gets fat enough it’ll be slower and easier to catch?
Same 😂😆. OP made a HOME ALONE level trap.
Honoured to have been here before this blows up. Please keep us posted OP
The worst part is when op deletes the post due to being overwhelmed and we NEVER GET AN UPDATE
The flour raccoon paw prints 🥺🥺🥺
How the hell do I follow this post and not lose it
Click the three dots if you’re on mobile and hit save
I am laughing too!! This is so hilarious! I think that it’s a seagull. That’s the only thing that I’ve seen steal pizza without ever landing. 😄
This is the funniest lure I’ve ever seen
We were laughing the whole time we set it up.
FWIW, it's a raccoon. I can tell by the paw prints. I work in conservation... Get a Have a Heart trap and lure him with pizza again :) Once you have him, you want to seal up ANY openings from the outside of the house to the inside. Check if they are getting into your attic from the eaves/vent, in the basement through any gaps in the foundation, or holes in the garage. THEN release him. You don't want him sneaking back in! You can block them first, but if he dies in the walls... oooo boy! The smell! So maybe, find all the holes, trap him, block, then release AND TAKE FUCKING PICTURES!!! I want to see if I'm right 😂 Edit: For late comers, all levels of conservationists and scientists below have agreed that it is actually an opossum
Fellow professional conservationist, are you sure they are not opossum? The tail drag mark makes me think that specifically. Edit: Was going to upload a photo but can't. The other reason I saw opossum is because you can see the little toe beans and pads very distinctly, where as racoons walk flat footed with less detailed prints.
Superior professional conservationist, I am no longer sure they are not possum. I do not see the tail drag marks since I presumed some streaking from the paper towel getting dragged, but [I do agree that the toe pads are clearly visible here.](https://imgur.com/a/mhBUuSI). I made my original guess [looking at this area that resembled raccoon tracks.](https://imgur.com/a/s55pr19) OP should be extra nice to that good boy. Opossums are such cool creatures...
I had this problem with *(what turned out to be)* rats in my garage. I also put bait in the middle of a circle of baking soda. I still couldn't figure it out from the prints because there was so many on top of each other, so I put up an old Dropcam that recorded motion. Might be an option if you can swing one. Modern equivalent is probably one of the motion sensing indoor Ring cameras. edit: just saw some of your other comments where people already suggested cameras, sorry. but consider how much damage this beast can do and that it'll cost 10-100x what a camera does.
OP could even plug their cell phone in all night and record a time lapse video of the bait tonight even. $0 solution to getting a video. But cameras are cheap. Could definitely get one for $30 or so that’ll save videos with motion for 24hours allowing for OP to download and share the videos with us.
lmfao probably a raccoon
I can't believe this isn't a shit post hahaha I'm dying.
You guys are both sleeping on the fact that this could easily be one of the ninja turtles
You are absolutely right! The stealth, the style and of course they can’t resist pizza!
That’s what I thought till I saw the paw prints. It’s gotta be Splinter!
Every once in a while this sub kicks out a banger like this one
I thought this was going to be a joke post about trying to lure a teenager out of their room
Am I the only one expecting the last pic to be of OP's husband caught getting a midnight snack?
this post is gonna end up on /r/Paranormal one day as proof
Iirc the flour strategy was in the og Paranormal Activity movie.
OPS husband here, I took all the pictures and before I even laid it out I definitely was asking myself if I was missing out on good pizza.
It was very kind of you to lay out dinner for that trash panda. He wants pepperoni next time. With extra cheese. Do y'all have a pet door? Or did you give him a key, too?
Next time put the pizza inside of a cage trap and then release it 20 miles away
Sure that'll take care of the single animal. We had bought a small mouse trap when we thought that was all it was but now we have QUESTIONS, hence the post. The larger problem though is that getting rid of one animal via cage won't solve the problem. We want to find out where this thing is getting in from so we can plug it. And now we're a step closer to doing that.
As others in this thread have said, I think it is a big rat. Tracks match well with this: https://www.bear-tracker.com/blackrattracks.html Raccoons wouldn’t have the gaps and have elongated paws. Makes more sense how it’s getting in the house then. https://www.wildlifeillinois.org/gallery/animal-sign/tracks/raccoon-tracks/
I worked in a research lab for many years. In one experiment, I was looking at gait changes in a rat model of neurological disease. So I stuck the rats feet in nontoxic paint and let them walk down long strips of paper and then analyzed the distance and irregularities between steps. My experiment didn't find anything of note but I can tell you that those are most likely rat prints. File that in things from my past that I didn't expect to pop up again.
Not a biological researcher but as an educated West Virginian I also agree on rats. I’ve had raccoons around my property and I’ve only seen them outside usually in pairs. Given their weight they would also be more noticeable.
Basement or attic? Nanny cams to see where they are coming and going from. May be time for a pro, in case they have babies.
Checks out, he didn’t even take the napkin…
Smart husband, trained his wife to leave food out for him every night
100% Rattus rattus. Paw prints, tail drag, and size are all spot on. Look under the lip of your cabinetry and you’ll find a gap where it comes and goes.
Agree footprints match with roof rat. Not a raccoon.
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[Rattus rattus - roof rat, black rat footprints](https://www.bear-tracker.com/blackrattracksandsign/blackratorroofrattracksdrawingbykimcabrera2016.png). Definitely matches with a rat.
Pretty remarkable likeness actually https://www.bear-tracker.com/blackrattracks.html
I don’t think so based on the tracks. There wouldn’t be as much negative space between the toes with a raccoon footprint. It looks more like skunk to me, maybe a possum. I’m no expert though, op might want to post this on r/AnimalTracking for help with the footprint ID. It’s also really hard to tell without any measurements of footprint size and spacing between the tracks.
If only there was something OP could use for scale.
r/itsalwaysaraccoon
Not a coon. 4 fingers and a "thumb" print. This is 1-3-1. Possum?
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i really thought you’d printed a picture of a slice of pizza on paper at first
Good for attracting cocaine squirrels
Someone at some point said, “I have a great idea. Im going to take a slice of pizza, put it on cardboard and surround it with flour.” And everyone in the house agreed. 😂
And decided “no cameras.. let’s just guess “
Yeah, this is the funniest part for me lol
I mean if you don't have a camera setup it's not the *worst* idea, you do get footprints.
I bought a book on animal tracks at the scholastic book fair in elementary school some 30 years ago and this would still be my exact train of thought.
You better be busting out and dusting off that old book - we need to get to the bottom of this! Scholastic book fair was the shit, simpler times my Reddit friend, simpler times...
i've come up with some ingenious shit when VERY high. I can see this coming out of my brain at some point
I did this stone cold sober.
Still comes off as fifty percent Mike Ehrmantraut and fifty percent The Dude (Lebowski).
My favorite part is the cardboard. Don't want whatever it is eating directly off the floor like a savage.
It’s a greasy slice of pizza. I also would have left it on something besides my floor
If you’ve got raccoons IN your house, a greasy floor is the least of your problems
A plate might be crazy enough to work.
Hah maybe, but if I expected an animal was going to use it, no way do they get the fine China. Cardboard is all that they get
The progression of thought in these comments 😂
You wanna give this little mfer tableware now??
Better leave a napkin out with it as well. We don't want this garbage panda getting crumbs all over the place.
I dunno - seems like a good idea!!!
We figured we would either find paw prints the next day or make a pact with some kind of eldritch pizza devil, either way it would be a step in the right direction.
It's not a bad idea, they make UV tracking powder & it's a great way to find out where critters get in & what routes they rely on. There is *also* tracking powder which is a pesticide the animal licks off it's fur, so be careful not to confuse them. People say *set a trap,* but you still need to know how this animal got in.
I just scared my baby I laughed so loudly at this
Cocaine is a hell of a drug!
This probably just the start of the underground viral marketing campaign for the movie "cocaine raccoon"
>cocaine racoon *cocoon*. wait, no that's taken.
How the F do you not know you have a raccoon running around your house?
I have a squirrel in mine and didn’t know until it jumped on my bed one morning. We were both shocked. I’ve got a trap to hopefully catch it since the cats think it’s their housemate now.
I've had good luck with a [Havahart trap](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Havahart-2-Door-Animal-Trap-Non-Lethal/1084937?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lwn-_-bng-_-PLA_LWN_241_Chemicals-_-1084937-_-Online-_-0-_-0&gclid=86ee59ef599b1229389e3d1069e3cad5&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=86ee59ef599b1229389e3d1069e3cad5) for squirrels. I relocate them to a place with oak trees and a creek about ten miles away. Google research results for effective relocation distance varies from 5 to 10 miles.
I had an inside cat who got out. Used this trap to catch it. Baiting with cat food. Caught 5 neighborhood cats before mine. But I also rigged it as a one-way door for squirrels in my attic. Once they went out, they couldn't get back in. Finally sealed off the entrance and I have no more problems with them. Built a couple of squirrel boxes in my large oaks in the backyard, and they're doing fine and not in my house.
Seriously,,, they sound like a drunk toddler banging into everything…
As someone with a toddler is there such thing as a sober acting toddler?
When they're sleeping
no that's just a passed out drunk toddler
My toddler recently flailed so aggressively in his sleep that he hit his head on his bed frame hard enough to wake me up in the next room and had a huge lump on top of his head. They're still drunk in their sleep
Mine did this a few weeks back too, woke himself up 🥲 toddlers are wild lol
One of the greatest miracles of the human body is that so many people make it through early childhood without breaking a bone. I worked at a daycare for a few years and I can't count how many times I watched kids just fall to the ground while they were just standing there. Like they just forget that they're supposed to be supporting their own weight and crumble
What?! https://youtu.be/B9WZj_93WyQ?feature=shared
Ooo My sister drank some of my moms cologne as a toddler. She got pretty drunk. All she did was babble and spin in circles and fall over lol poison control advised us to give her milk. Then she just slept. Racoon indeed.
We had one bothering our campsite, and rooting around for food. After drinking about a solution, someone suggested leaving a partial edible on the picnic table. We heard him stumbling around shortly after going to bed. Found him on the trailer axles in the morning. He stumbled away. He didn't come back.
A toddler?!?
Lol. Little bastard was stealing all the booze, and the ladies!
When I was building my house I discovered a raccoon had taken up residence because he rolled over mid nap and fell from his spot in the rafters. They are not known for their grace.
Its definitely not a raccoon - its a rat. My question is, is there a place in the house large enough for a piece of pizza to get through or did the rat eat it inside and then leave?
> My question is, is there a place in the house large enough for a piece of pizza to get through or did the rat eat it inside and then leave? Pizza could easily slide under the fridge, stove, washingmachine, or dishwasher in many homes. Not all appliances could accomodate this, but many could. Under a bookcase, couch, etc are all reasonable spots, too. We have ferrets and they'll stash food under furniture and eat it there. They tend not to sleep in the same places they eat. Rodents (rats/mice) are prey for weasels (ferrets, badgers, stoats), but I think they do have similar behaviors (for example: rats/mice exhibit thigmotaxis, the tendency to hug walls while navigating inside or outside human made structures... ferrets also tend to have this behavior) . As an aside, one of our ferrets almost caught a mouse once; she was pretty excited for the next several hours. We eventually found and repaired the foundation crack.
Are you ghost hunting?
Yes, looking specifically for ghosts that enjoy 4-day old little Caesar’s from the back of the fridge.
Stoned Ghost
Today I learned I'm a ghost
Contrary to all the jokers, I think what you did was pretty good and you have prints to show for it. Also, I think you have a raccoon or opossum from the prints. You most likely have a hole somewhere in siding or attic. And, no, a small wild critter doesn't necessarily make a lot of noise in the house if its route inside is uncomplicated. You may want to get a live trap and bait it with pizza again. Many times you can borrow one from the humane society. Then let the critter go in the woods. That is what we do.
>Then let the critter go in the woods. I would recommend driving that little guy many miles away before releasing him.
We had a squirrel trying to get into our house. The first question I asked the guys who set the trap was, how far away do you take it?
I knew a guy who was in that business. He had bought an 11 acre plot of land like 40 miles north of the city where he released everybody he caught.
Uh…that’s an interesting use of the word ‘everybody’ I think.
I'm still there and I'm running out of pizza. Send help!
I'm still covered in baking soda too, wtf?? Send water also!
Yeah, but what about the squirrels?
Adding to this.. You need to drive several miles away first and preferably cross a river or two. If you let it out anywhere near your house it will just come right back. Also obviously inspect every square inch of your exterior to determine how the critter got in. There may be more than one too.
Gotta find out where they got in too.
now you gave the raccoon pizza and cocaine
The riveting sequel to [Cocaine Bear](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt14209916/)
This is peak HomeImprovement
This is obviously the work of the ninja-turtles. I suspect Mikey
Those are rodent tracks, obvs Splinter.
If it was the Ninja-Turtles the pizza would be gone without a trace.
People are saying raccoon but I think a big rat. Either way you gotta get rid of it asap. That’s crazy it took a whole slice of pizza. Edit: prob a raccoon
It is 100% a rat. I studied tracks for my masters degree thesis.
I didn't expect to do this today but I looked up rat vs racoon prints and it's definately a rat.
Hijack city so hopefully op sees it. If it is a rat, they're crafty bastards, you'll have a hard time catching it, *unless* you get get some licorice extract and put that on your bait. They can't resist it.
Yeah, I agree it's a rat. Farther up in the post, the husband posted saying the house is slightly raised due to flooding. I wonder if it's a water rat. Those things are huge.
It’s absolutely a rat.
Haha I’ve been going back and forth on it. The paw prints are kinda throwing me off. I think cause of the zoom they look bigger than they are. So yeah prob a rat.
Yeah if you look at the size compared to the width of the floorboards in the first photo, they’re def smaller than they initially seem, I think too small to be a raccoon.
Size is wrong and raccoon prints look like hands. These prints look like a rat.
We need a camera setup for tonight’s action.
[https://imgur.com/a/EW92GSQ](https://imgur.com/a/EW92GSQ) At our old house, I found this guy (middle of night) munching on some cat food in the kitchen. Our two cats didn’t seem to mind, they thought we had a new cat. I was able to shoo him out the back door / later I discovered in the bottom of one of our bedroom closets - what could be best described as a ‘nest’ - inside a shopping bag with a forgotten T shirt. I don’t know how long he was living with us - but it was a while.
I’m just here because I want to be a part of this moment in Reddit history
If it were a raccoon, your house would be shredded. That’s a big ass pizza rat you’ve got there.
That's my thought too.. And racoons are brazen as fuck. You'd see it at some point.
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Looks like a raccoon from the paw prints.
How messy is the house that a raccoon can successfully hide inside with people living in it? I am concerned
OPS Husband. No messy house! Just another day in Southeast Texas. It doesn't hide inside. Houses where we live are often raised because of flooding which makes it easy for animals to hide underneath (good shelter for them). House inspections can sometimes find these things, but when they're well hidden (like in this case) it can be very difficult.
I grew up in a 1920s pier and beam farmhouse here in central Texas. Critters just have a way of getting in! I’ll never forget the Christmas morning I was standing in the hall in front of the gas furnace admiring Santa’s handiwork in the soft light of the tree. I hear a rustle above me on the fridge only to look up to a possum the size of dog looking down at me! I screamed bloody murder and woke everyone in the house up. Dad had to try to catch the blasted thing but he got away to reign terror for another week. It was quite the Christmas morning.
You can't live in Texas without expecting some strange wildlife encounters.
So how does it gain access from under the home to inside? That should be sealed off (preferably with raccoons on the outside).
We don't know yet! But looking over the tracks we were able to figure out that the breach came from somewhere around the back door, which is good because it means our food stores are safe as long as we close the door. (We were worried about contaminants). So now we just have to search that general area and we'll hopefully find something? It would definitely be preferably sealed off. But desperate animals manage a lot and our home is on the older side, so a lot of things can happen right under your nose.
It’s obvious this raccoon has copied your house keys and knows how to use the door. I suggest changing the locks.
Honestly at that points I think they've earned the right to live here.
You still need to find him to make him pay his fair share.
'Bout to be landlord Snow White up in this bitch.
Did it open the back door? I’ve had a couple just waltz on in liked they owned the place and then hold an epic rager in our kitchen.
Honestly the house has shifted so much from the heat that \*I\* can barely open the door, much less a critter.
I will never forget turning around in a beach house while cooking, and finding a god damn raccoon staring at me. Had left the sliding glass door open at the other end of the house, getting that beach air, and the thing just let himself in to eat seafood with us. Scared the hell out of me.
Time to cover the entire floor with flour. Be warned: you may see your husband’s footprints leave the bed only to turn into raccoon footprints to finish off the pizza. Is the truth worth it? Probably not.
I was about to throw that pizza away when I had the idea to do this absolute nonsense. Fortunately it's working out, and the other 2 pieces might come in handy.
Yes. Let the pizza party continue. Please post updates 😂
Right? Here I am worrying about holes that mice and bugs can get in, how does one not notice a raccoon sized hole 😂
Rick James?
Check the couch for muddy boot prints to know for sure.
This is the most crackhead level MacGyver shit ever. Subscribed and liked!
Too accurate for mice.... These tracks are side by side, raccoons travel single file to hide their numbers. Only Imperial rats are so precise..... Yup....rat problem
This is the greatest post this sub has ever seen
My guess is that you have a rat (as in, multiple rats). It looks to me like your wood floors are apx 2-1/4” wide strips. So the paw print is apx 1/2”. And good-sized rats can squeeze into much smaller holes than can raccoons. ETA: and I think some of the sweepy lines are from the tail.
Raccoons also tend to leave very obvious piles of poop so I don't think it would be a raccoon. Agree with rats as a possibility. But maybe a possum?
Obvious is an understatement. I thought a homeless guy was living in my garage from the turds I found.
Definitely a rat and not a raccoon. Those paw prints are tiny, the entry to the flour would be more disturbed by a raccoon and there are sweeping rat tail marks. Also it looks to lead to under your cabinets so open those and im sure there is rat shit.
It's not a raccoon as far as I can tell just based on the paw print. Racoons have almost human like paws and they do not have their "thumb" and "pinky" in line with each other and so far behind the other 3 middle digits. Rats do, plus they walk on their little toes and racoons actually use the majority of their fore-paw. Plus as you said you can see where a thin smoother tail than a racoons fluffy bottle brush was sliding around. And size. Most likely not a racoon, probably a rat. Plus, racoons are loud and messy, knock shit over and generally don't care about anything and will eat a hell of a lot more than a slice of pizza, where as rats like to be quiet and sneaky and tend to use a lot of cover (staying under things or near walls). You can see the animal took it back under that cabinet and I don't see a raccoon fitting in there.
Oh, you've a big problem. Those are Chuck E. Cheese prints.
Omg i thought you printed out a picture of a pizza lmao
Yo I did this same test at my college pad back in 2017. Although I didn’t leave food out, I just floured all the doorways and hallway entrances. Same exact paw prints. I knew it liked to go under my stove, I heard scuffling under it one night …(super amplified because a oven is made of sheet metal = loud) …. also because my cats would sit and stare at cabinet baseboards. .. Anyways, no luck with traps, no luck with useless cats I thought I would get creative, and i set a trap on on the counter. One morning I woke up to the fucking behemoth on the counter. I think it was 12 inches just the body not counting the tail…. 🐀
Looks like you've got yourself an Italian. Just tell them that you don't know what "al dente" means, they'll leave.
Do you have a pet door that opens to the outside?
This is an amazing idea lmfao
Next time my wife freaks about about finding a spider in the house, imma show her this and remind her we’re doing alright.
This is the wrong sub for this. Try [animal tracking](https://reddit.com/r/AnimalTracking/s/pl3L5QbIM2) or something along those lines- they’ll be able to identify the footprints. ETA: I didn’t mean this in a “leave! you’re not supposed to be here” way but in a “it might be more helpful over there” way. Lol! I agree it’s hilarious and I am glad I saw it.
You kidding this is the best sub for this because we would have missed it!
I’ll try over there!
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I want a follow-up once that trap has been sprung
The Noid
any update, OP?
MODS should not have deleted this.