Birds were not the chimney noise culprits
A maple tree outside my kitchen window is an animal sanctuary. Birds nest there. Squirrels glide among the branches. Rabbits nibble greenery in the tree’s shade.
During the day, animal activity in and around the tree is robust, but at night calmness fills the air.
At least, it typically does.
We recently heard nighttime noises from our second-story bedroom window and thought the birds were unusually active after dark. It was hard to pinpoint the location and source of the noise, especially at 3 a.m.
Then we realized the noises were coming from our chimney. We have a fireplace in our bedroom but rarely use it, especially this time of year.
Did chimney swifts, a type of bird that nests in chimneys, make their home in ours?
My husband planned to chase away the birds, which are also called chimney sweeps, and install caps so they would nest elsewhere.
With that plan in place, he ordered the caps.
While we waited for the caps to be delivered, the nighttime activity increased. How do birds make that much noise? It didn’t seem possible.
When the caps arrived, it was time to shoo away the birds. My husband went outside to start that process, but he wasn’t gone long.
“We don’t have birds in our chimney,” he said, with a look that encouraged me to ask a follow-up question.
“What is in our chimney?” I asked, not really wanting to know.
“I think it’s an opossum or maybe two or three,” he said. “Their nest is on top of our fireplace damper.”
Seriously? An opossum family camping out a few feet from our bedroom?
He started looking for a cage. I started looking up chimney companies.
We ended up not using either. The animals were not going to come out during the day, and chimney companies don’t handle pest removal, although they install chimney caps once the animals are removed.
It was time for another look. This time my husband’s flashlight revealed a different story.
“We don’t have an opossum in our chimney,” he reported, extending his phone with the evidence.
I was beginning to tire of this, especially since I was “on guard,” sitting in the center of our bed, eyes fixed on the fireplace, while he was outside investigating.
“What do we have in our chimney?” I asked.
“A family of raccoons. There are three of them, at least,” he said.
My daughter and I started researching raccoons. What do they eat? Can they climb up and down chimneys? How can we get rid of them?
One site said raccoons might get in a chimney but have trouble getting out. My husband lowered a thick rope to help them escape.
We also learned that raccoons don’t like noise, which is ironic because they are very noisy creatures. We blared some music and shook handheld instruments our kids had in elementary school.
Raccoons don’t like the smell of ammonia, so we doused a cloth with it and put it under the damper.
The next day, our animal friends were gone and haven’t been back since.
With chimney caps in place, we hope the raccoons will stay in the woods where they belong.
They probably don’t want to come near these crazy humans again.
We smell funny and make too much noise.
Lisa Tedrick Prejean writes a weekly column for The Herald-Mail. Email her at lprejean@localiq.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Can raccoons get into your chimney? Yes!
