Raccoons, bats, possums: It's Critter City

ROBINSON STREET above Lansdowne Avenue, in Overbrook, is under siege.

Raccoons, among a burgeoning population of wildlife that infests much of the city, are so audacious on the street that they're trying to get in people's windows.

At least that's the way it seems to worried residents.

"They're looking in the window, trying to pull the screens out," said Robert Ragland, a retired homeowner on Robinson Street near Jefferson.

Down the street, Helen Days said that she was astounded to see one of the creatures staring through her bedroom window.

Whether it's raccoons in Overbrook, a sick opossum trying to drag itself to safety across 18th Street near Christian, in South Philly, or bats so numerous they make up what Mark Coopersmith called "bat belts" in the Northeast, wildlife complaints in the city have increased tenfold in the past 25 years, the pest-control expert estimated.

"They're overpopulated," Coopersmith said.

The raccoons are not really trying to break in, despite their bandit-like faces, said Coopersmith, manager of Peerless Pest Control, in Olney. They're climbing drain pipes and running across roofs looking for openings from rotted fascia boards or other holes in people's walls where they can squeeze in and make nests, especially as the weather grows colder, Coopersmith said.

Once the raccoon, squirrel or other critter gets in, it's up to the homeowner to evict it, said Jeff Moran, a city Health Department spokesman. And that can be costly. Like other big cities, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, Philadelphia city government doesn't provide removal services to get rid of the varmints.

And the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will come out only to retrieve sick or injured animals. That leaves homeowners to hire state-licensed pest-control companies - at a cost of $200 or more just to set up cages and $95 to remove each animal, Coopersmith said. Another wildlife pest-control operator, Azmat Masih, said that his company sets up cages for $200 and then charges $75 apiece for each animal captured. Masih said that his company has trapped about two dozen raccoons and a smaller number of opossums in the past six months.

Homeowners can try to do the job themselves, purchasing a special trap from pest-control companies like Peerless or at chain hardware stores, Coopersmith said.