Score: Wash-rat 1, Trap 0
Mar. 18th, 2026 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationWe've had an uninvited visitor for the past month here at Villa Ranocchio, New Orleans. Some scratching and thumping in the wall space leading from under the house to the attic by Ms. H's office. From the noises, something larger than the the mouse problem we had a few years ago (and we've had mouse traps and poison around the property since). At first I thought it likely a possum, as I've seen 2 dead ones nearby over the past decade. But it started to make skittering sounds, which Ms H recorded on her phone; we compared it, and it was clearly raccoon. A few days later I saw it climbing up an oak tree, then a couple days after that running across the street, confirming the identification (though it went too fast for me to get a photo). Both were daytime sightings, somewhat unusual as they're mostly nocturnal.
As my previous entry noted, at first my subconscious conflated the raccoon with Shia LaBeouf, obnoxious unwelcome celebrity in New Orleans. In Cajun country, raccoons are often called "chaoui", from the Choctaw word. In the city the slang term "trash panda" is fairly common. Ms H's other language is French, and she noted that in conventional French the term for raccoon is "raton laveur" which can roughly be translated to English as "wash-rat". We both found that amusing, and we've found ourselves referring to it as "the wash-rat".
Raccoons and opossums are still found in parts of the city urbanized for more than 150 years, what with the old trees, bits of area along the riverfront batture where there aren't wharves often left wild, and the creatures adaptability to scavenging human garbage. I have nothing against them, but when they decide to set up camp in a house frame it can be harmful to the house and potentially dangerous to the animal (don't claw or bite the wiring!). I sprayed "Critter Ridder" and sprinkled cayenne pepper, but wash-rat didn't seem to get the message they were unwelcome.
So I put out a message on community chat. Someone in the neighborhood loaned me a live catch trap. My plan was to catch wash-rat and relocate it to the forest at the back of City Park. (I watched some raccoon trapping videos on YouTube to get the procedure, and it seemed doable.)
I set up the trap a couple of days ago. I ate most of an apple, poked a hole in the core and ran a string through it, and hung it in the back of the set trap. Night before last we had a rainstorm pass through, so I wasn't surprised the wash-rat hadn't ventured out. When I checked this morning, however, the apple core was gone but the trap unsprung. Victory to wash-rat! However this is just round one. I plan to rebait the trap and see if I can reset it to spring at a more sensitive setting.
As my previous entry noted, at first my subconscious conflated the raccoon with Shia LaBeouf, obnoxious unwelcome celebrity in New Orleans. In Cajun country, raccoons are often called "chaoui", from the Choctaw word. In the city the slang term "trash panda" is fairly common. Ms H's other language is French, and she noted that in conventional French the term for raccoon is "raton laveur" which can roughly be translated to English as "wash-rat". We both found that amusing, and we've found ourselves referring to it as "the wash-rat".
Raccoons and opossums are still found in parts of the city urbanized for more than 150 years, what with the old trees, bits of area along the riverfront batture where there aren't wharves often left wild, and the creatures adaptability to scavenging human garbage. I have nothing against them, but when they decide to set up camp in a house frame it can be harmful to the house and potentially dangerous to the animal (don't claw or bite the wiring!). I sprayed "Critter Ridder" and sprinkled cayenne pepper, but wash-rat didn't seem to get the message they were unwelcome.
So I put out a message on community chat. Someone in the neighborhood loaned me a live catch trap. My plan was to catch wash-rat and relocate it to the forest at the back of City Park. (I watched some raccoon trapping videos on YouTube to get the procedure, and it seemed doable.)
I set up the trap a couple of days ago. I ate most of an apple, poked a hole in the core and ran a string through it, and hung it in the back of the set trap. Night before last we had a rainstorm pass through, so I wasn't surprised the wash-rat hadn't ventured out. When I checked this morning, however, the apple core was gone but the trap unsprung. Victory to wash-rat! However this is just round one. I plan to rebait the trap and see if I can reset it to spring at a more sensitive setting.
Singing to myself while resetting catch trap
Date: 2026-03-20 10:14 pm (UTC)We've got an apple for you to attack.
You'll move to the forest in City Park
Where no humans will bother you after dark.
Mister Wash Rat, let's hear that snap!
Mister Wash Rat, please spring the trap.
----
Shia the Wash Rat, was like a pesky vole
He'd scratch by night and screech by day
And dig many a hole.
There must have been an apple in that old steel trap he found...