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October 10. 2007 5:14AM

Creepy critters

When disease-bearing animals become home invaders

By Patricia J. James TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF pjames@telegram.com

A technician with Critter Control of Worcester shows a trapped squirrel. Fitchburg resident Maureen Cormier woke up to a nightmare.

It was 3 a.m. and her cat was fighting with something in the attic. Another cat, perhaps, she and her husband thought.
“We grabbed a couple of clubs and ran up in the attic,” Mrs. Cormier recalled. “We knew it wasn’t people ... We didn’t know how, whatever it was up there, got in.”

The cause of the commotion was a raccoon, which later tested positive for rabies. The animal climbed three stories and got into the Cormiers’ attic by ripping out some insulation.
“It didn’t take a very big spot,” Mrs. Cormier said. “It’s amazing how they can get into things.” Mrs. Cormier remembers searching for her cat, as the raccoon walked around the attic. When the raccoon “started walking to me, I flew down the stairs,” she said. Her husband got the cat out of the attic, and the couple used a trap to capture the raccoon the following night before calling police.

Because they handled the cat, the Cormiers, including their daughter who was 10 at the time, had to go through a series of rabies shots. Their cat had to be put down because it was so severely injured.

“We’re just trying to get past it,” Mrs. Cormier said of the May ordeal. “This thing has really been a nightmare.”

The number of animals testing rabies-positive in Worcester County rose 77 percent in the second quarter over the first quarter, according to the state Department of Public Health, with 12 raccoons, two cats and a woodchuck testing positive in the most recent period.

The DPH said the increase in rabies-positive animals in Worcester County was not a seasonal event but likely a result of the natural cycling of infectious disease that occurs within animal populations. There are no human cases of the disease in Massachusetts.

The likelihood of property damage and health risks that threaten humans when wildlife wander into our lives, including rabies and conditions that can exacerbate respiratory illness, become greater as temperatures drop. Wildlife management experts say that as fall arrives, raccoons, flying squirrels, bats, mice and other animals looking for warmth and food will be inventive housebreakers. Now is the time to button up the house for winter, they say.

Although suburbs may have more woodland for wildlife to flourish, city residents are not immune to unwanted animals in homes, experts say.

“The more of these nice neighborhoods we build, the more mini-havens we are making for wildlife,” said Thomas J. Reilly, secretary of the Massachusetts Association of Problem Animal Control, a trade association in West Boylston. People think development takes away animals’ habitats, but it actually just alters them, he said. “We’re altering their habitat and they’re adapting quite well and moving in with us.”

And with them come health risks.

Rabies in raccoons arrived in Massachusetts in 1992, after migrating slowly up the East Coast, said Ann M. Sellew, Charlton’s animal control officer and animal inspector. “There seems to be more testing going on this year than in the past few years,” she said, though none of the animals she has had tested for rabies this year, including bats, cats, foxes, raccoons and a baby doe, have been positive.

Rabies in bats, which carry a different strain of the disease, has been around for probably 100 years, she said.

“Bats, essentially, are local to the area pretty much year-round whether they’re in hibernation or they’re active,” said Charles A. Boulmetis, owner of the Critter Control franchise in Worcester, which serves Central Massachusetts. “We get quite a few house calls where people have bats living in their attics ... A dozen calls a week from May through the end of October is not uncommon.”

Bats can squeeze through an opening as small as 3/8 of an inch by half an inch, Mr. Boulmetis said, and find intriguing spots to hide.

“We find them behind paintings on a wall, photographs, we find them in people’s shoes,” he said. “I found one in a closet once in somebody’s jacket pocket ... When they’re tired, they just land and they look for a dark spot.”

Bat season typically peaks in August, said Mr. Reilly, as young bats in attics or chimney stacks lose their way and high temperatures drive them down — often following a cool draft — toward the living space. The season ends as temperatures drop to 50 degrees or lower and bats become less active and begin to migrate to their winter hibernating places, said Mr. Reilly.

As temperatures drop and winter approaches, animals look for warmth.

“All wildlife have the tendency to seek warm places in the winter months, which lead them into attics, chimneys, and crawl spaces,” said Mr. Reilly, who is also president of the National Wildlife Management Professionals Association and All in One Wildlife and Pest Management.

Rabies isn’t the only concern.

“Bat and bird droppings can contain a spore that may lead to histoplasmosis, a serious lung infection,” Mr. Reilly said. “Rodent urine has been tied to childhood asthma; insulation infested with mice or other critters, for example, can trigger asthma and allergies.”

Additionally, pigeons are vectors of dozens of diseases, beavers harbor giardia, an intestinal parasite, and raccoon feces contains roundworm eggs, which are dangerous to children, he said. Ticks and fleas from wildlife also carry disease.

“All wildlife has the potential for health risk of some sort,” Mr. Boulmetis said. “Some are high-risk, some are low-risk ... Little kids can be affected a lot quicker than adults.”

Mr. Boulmetis recommends people inspect their homes. “If you see a hole, something probably caused that hole,” he said. “It may have started with water damage, but if it gets bigger and bigger, something’s usually picking at it.” Attic windows should be closed if they have no screens, chimneys should be capped and cat and dog doors locked at night, Mr. Boulmetis advised. Also, trash should not be left out overnight, birdfeeders should be kept away from the house and pets should not be fed outside.

“Pretty much button up the house,” he said. “Do inspections of the house, determine entry points for animals.” Signs of an uninvited visitor in a home include droppings, odors, unexplainable staining on siding and woodwork, noises in the night and unexplained allergies, according to Mr. Reilly .

If an animal is found in the house, Mr. Boulmetis recommends that rather than handling animals, homeowners call a professional or the community’s animal control officer, who can usually be reached through the police department. “Just be cautious. My feeling is always don’t mess with something you don’t understand,” he said.

In an effort to prevent another experience like the one they had, the Cormiers boarded up where the raccoon got in and added a couple of coats of paint to the deck in hopes of covering up the animal’s scent. They keep outdoor lights on all night. “If I could blast Beethoven out there at 2 in the morning, anything to keep them away,” Mrs. Cormier said. “I’m absolutely more on guard.”

Contact reporter Patricia James by e-mail at pjames@telegram.com.

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