What is a Trash Panda?
“Have you gotten any calls for trash pandas lately?” was a question posed to us recently by friends and Redditors Chris and Derek.
It was one of those questions where the asker waits as the wheels turn, knowing that a smile is soon to follow the light bulb of recognition.
“You mean raccoons?” is spoken aloud as the term is vetted with our knowledge of raccoons and is quickly judged an incredibly fitting term for a raccoon.
Of course they did.
And then everyone is grinning and the obvious question, “Where did you hear that?” is hashed out.
The Credit Goes to Reddit and Carl Peligro
And we thought we knew most everything there was to know about raccoons…
Well, it turns out that Chris and Derek were able to scoop us with the term trash panda because they are Redditors, users of the website Reddit. (For those unfamiliar with Reddit, here is the Wikipedia entry)
They weren’t really expecting us to know what trash pandas were as it is a relatively new term and seems to reside mainly within Reddit (for now).
But…the use of the term is growing. (And after this post is read by all of our dedicated readers, approximately 2 more people will have heard the term. Viral.)
A little online research points out some interesting facts on the term.
As Kim Renfro reports from a September 19, 2015 posting on Tech Insider’s web site:
- Carl Peligro is the Redditor given credit for the term’s origin
- The term was first posted in January 2014
- Over the past year, the term has earned its own page (a subreddit) where users share all things trash panda
- The term is growing
The term trash panda only appeared on Urban Dictionary on July 26, 2015 and there is no page on Trash Pandas on Wikipedia or reference to the term on Wikipedia’s Raccoon page.
ScreenShot of the Subreddit Trash Pandas
On November 19, 2015 the moderator of the Trash Panda subreddit, admitting some disbelief, posted there were nearly 10,000 subscribers to the Trash Panda subbreddit. And a check 30 seconds ago from this writing, has 10,164 registered subscribers to all things trashpanda.
Will the Term Trash Panda Go Mainstream?
That’s hard to say, but we’re ok with it if it does. More importantly, now we know what a trash panda is and so do you. Whether or not this fitting term for a raccoon becomes widely known and used is one of the mysteries of culture in a digital age.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll have to start advertising for ‘trash panda removal’ and ‘trash panda in the attic’ when the cuteness of the trash panda wears off and they’ve been deemed a good old fashioned nuisance.
Help with Trash Panda Removal
If the novelty of living with and posting videos of trash pandas wears off and solving a trash panda problem is more of what you have in mind, please give us a call.
We’ve been helping people with trash panda problems of all kinds in the Akron, Canton, Kent, OH area since the days they were just raccoons.
For more information on trash pandas and trash panda removal, please visit:
