14 exterminator nightmares that will make you cringe

Birds in vents, raccoons in the attic, and a python on the front lawn: You won’t believe what these experts have run into on their house calls.

This car owner heard a scratching noise coming from the hood of her car – when it wasn’t running. When she lifted the hood, she came face-to-face with this opossum. She called David Seerveld, a wildlife removal expert at AAAnimal Control. “It chose to assume a defensive position rather than play dead, and it bared its teeth and stood still,” says Seerveld. That’s when he took the photo. After using a snare pole to noose the opossum, he placed it in a cage and relocated it to a nature preserve. Head here to find out how to prevent pest infestations.

A client heard noises coming from the fireplace one night and opened the damper to check it out. Imagine the surprise when bats flew out and into the living room! Apparently, they made the chimney their home. Although bats eat up to 1,200 flying insects an hour, you wouldn’t want them inside your house. Seerveld safely captured and released the unharmed bats outside.

Seerveld was called in when residents ran into this Guinea hen in an apartment building stairwell. Seerveld says that sometimes Guinea hens are kept as pets; apparently, this one decided to fly the coop. An attempt to capture the hen with a net failed, so Seerveld waited until he was able to approach the hen and grab it by the body and feet and place it in the net. Thankfully, he was able to find the hen a more suitable home: “A wildlife rehab clinic accepted the bird since I was not allowed to just release it into the wild.”

The mother of these adorable raccoon kits was responsible for the extensive damage to the siding and roof of a house – but all she wanted to do was create a maternity wing. “This female raccoon tore a hole in the wall,” explains Seerveld, and then gave birth to this litter. “I mounted a trap over the hole, went in the attic and confronted her, and then chased her out.” Mama raccoon ran out of her hole and into the trap. “I removed the litter of babies by hand, and re-united them with the mother, and relocated them all together. The mother carried them off one by one to a new nesting site.”

Termites are quite the architects. Michael Luten, regional sales manager with Arrow Exterminators, says in severe infestations, they can make free-standing tunnels where they stack up dirt, along with other things like saliva and fecal matter. The word gets out, more termites join the party, and more dirt increases the size of their tunnels. The ones you see here span the main support beam under this house. Head here for more essential tips on pest control.

Dave Cook, regional sales manager with Arrow Exterminators, was called to a local high school because of a termite swarm. The only hitch is that the school staff couldn’t figure out where the termites were coming from. After an inspection, Cook found them behind this picture. “The termites had come through an expansion joint and built tunnels to this picture, and you can see what happened. I’d say that this is a picture-perfect visual of subterranean termites,” says Cook.

When Cindy Mannes, vice president of public affairs at the National Pest Management Association, noticed her car was running funny, she took it to the shop. Her mechanic soon called to tell her a rodent had made a nice little nest for itself in the engine compartment and chewed up several of the car’s electrical wires. Shortly after her incident, Mannes’ husband’s car had the same problem. “We ended up calling a licensed pest control professional to come out and take care of the situation. Luckily, it hasn’t happened again since,” she says.

According to the National Pest Management Association, a mature colony of bald-faced hornets has 200-400 workers – that’s a lot of stinging power. The nest in this picture is about a month old; they can get as big as a basketball if they’re in a location where the winters are mild or the nest is in a protected location like a barn or garage. Find out how to handle a wasp infestation here.

You can’t blame this bird for picking a dryer vent for its home – it’s warm, safe, and dry! “While seemingly harmless, bird nests in dryer vents can cause poor dryer efficiency, human respiratory infections, and dryer fires,” says Jason Kapica, president of Dryer Vent Wizard. “The safest way to remove a nest once spotted is to call a professional.” That’s because built-up lint is extremely flammable and a fire hazard.