Wildlife Entry Points: Exhaust Vents

If you’ve ever had problems with wildlife infestations, you know what pain it can be to remove the critters. While the occasional unwanted visitor may be an unfortunate (and annoying) part of life, it doesn’t need to be. Making a habit out of maintaining your home and seeing to it that all the potential entry points, such as exhaust vents, are properly secured, can prevent animals from seeking shelter in them.

Exhaust vents work by depressurizing your home, in turn providing adequate ventilation for your home, whether it’s in the kitchen, living room, or bathroom. Unfortunately, they’re also prime targets for nesting birds.

If you’re not sure if there are any animals making shelter in your exhaust vents, place a cloth or paper inside and check back in three days to see if it’s been moved. If it has, that means animals have been using it as shelter.Make sure that there are no more animals inside before sealing the entry point.

Not all vents are the same and for the ones that vent gas appliances, such as a high-efficiency furnace, you should not attempt to put a screen over it. This can prevent the furnace from exhausting properly and create a back up of carbon monoxide, putting the lives of everyone inside the house in danger.

When first installed, vents don’t typically have screens to keep out wildlife. Vent screens can be purchased from hardware stores and are pretty easy to install. The difficult part is in knowing which kind to get. This will depend on the kind of wildlife accessing your home. Light-gauge vent screens are for smaller animals like mice or pigeon. For raccoon or skunk problem, grills might be the better option.

When in doubt, consult the help of a professional. This will ensure that any proofing done to your home is done properly and, should there be need for removal of any animals, humanely as well. 

From 1 to 2 to a Full-Blown Mouse Infestation

Dealing with mice at home is an unfortunate fact of life. Despite the lengths we go to ensure our house is spic and span, the occasional unexpected house guest is bound to visit every so often. Mice infestations can occur even in the most immaculate of settings. Knowing how to deal with it and taking measures to prevent it is your best defense. Here are some tips on how you can get rid of those furry, four-footed critters.

Prevention is key!
• Make sure you don’t leave any food out overnight. Keep all food in airtight containers or in the fridge.
• Assess any potential entry points around the house. Use steel wool in sealing holes or cracks as mice will have a hard time chewing through it.
• Rodent-proof crawl spaces under the house by eliminating any sources of water or humidity. Do not store any food there as rodents will scratch and chew their way through walls or cabinets to get to it. Monitor the area regularly and keep watch for any droppings or gnawed furniture.

If you’re dealing with an infestation and you're thinking about getting a cat to solve the problem, think again. While cats may be useful as a deterrent in mice coming into your home, if an infestation has already occurred, a cat won't be of much help.

While using traditional mousetraps can be useful, quick way to get rid of mice, it does not offer a long-term solution. Spring-loaded traps are a cheap and readily available in the market. Oatmeal or beef jerky are more effective bait than cheese or peanut butter. But even if they do work, they're not the most humane way of catching mice. Traditional mousetraps usually only maim the mouse, leading it to suffer until you check the traps.

When you already have a full-blown infestation in your home, the best approach is to call in professionals who employ humane methods to get rid of mice. Aside from catching the critters using professional-grade non-lethal traps, they release them back in the wild, far from your home. They also often offer exclusion services to prevent the return of mice to your home.

Allergies? Insect Bites? Try Pest Control

People who have insect allergies rejoice! A recent study from Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology gives new hope for your aversion to creepy-crawly-bitey insects as it reveals the possibility of injections that would make you “less allergic”. It's a promising development that should decrease the risks for particularly vulnerable people, even though some will not find the insects any less disturbing. While this is a good development , effective pest control will always be an issue for as long as there are bugs—and there are a great many of them. When you call in a reliable animal control company, such as Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control, you might not even find use for cures or therapies being marketed to the public. If you're uncertain of exactly how to ensure your family's safety then call in the ones who do, and you're going to be sting-free soon enough.

http://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/allergies-insect-bites-try-pest-control/

Catching the Fast and the Furry-ous: Humane Raccoon Removal

"It's short, it's fluffy, it's absolutely adorable, and apparently it's the newest celebrity of the mammalian world. The olinguito is the latest discovery announced by Smithsonian scientists in Washington; and it is now being welcomed as yet another cute and cuddly member of the raccoon family. It is a rarity, after all, and is therefore treasured by many people; unfortunately, the same cannot be said for its masked black and white cousins, who are often taken out of properties through humane raccoon removal methods. No bigger than a regular house cat—at roughly 2.5 feet long and weighing 2 pounds—the olinguito uses its agility to live and travel through the trees. This is one of the main reasons this species has managed to remain unknown for such a long time, and why it is only now that more facts on the animal are being discovered. There are four subspecies, with different colors and sizes, all of which are found in the Andes. "

http://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/catching-the-fast-and-the-furry-ous-humane-raccoon-removal/

Getting Rid of Mice: Both Business and Residential Issue

"Esteemed journalist and Toronto resident Robert Fulford wrote in 1999, “Kensington today is as much a legend as a district. The (partly) outdoor market has probably been photographed more often than any other side in Toronto.” In one of the neighborhood's photographs that came out this January posted on social site Reddit, three rats feast on scraps in a shelving unit at New Seaway Fish Market. Within the same day, health inspectors visited the shop, and shut it down . Completely getting rid of mice in a semi-open space full of goods and produce as old as Kensington Market is truly a difficult undertaking. However, early signs of infestation merit due diligence. According to news reports, Kim Chou, owner of the mouse-infested shop, takes full responsibility for the problem getting out of control. Although the shop received a conditional pass back in November 2012, Chou was told to handle what seemed like a beginning of a rat infestation."

http://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/getting-rid-of-mice-both-business-and-residential-issue/

Getting Rid of Rodents Effectively Prevents Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Effectively getting rid of rodents is the first and best step people can do to avoid the said virus. Early this year, the State Health Department of Oklahoma warned people to be careful with their spring cleaning. Cabins, attics, storage units, and other areas largely left unused over the winter might have provided shelter for infected mice. Simply inhaling contaminated dust from mouse saliva, droppings, and urine can infect a person with pathogens that cause Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). To minimize the chances of infection from a contaminated room, Laurence Burnsed recommends home cleaners to ventilate the area for at least 30 minutes, and then wetting down the area with a mixture of bleach and water to prevent virus-laden dust from being stirred up.

http://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/getting-rid-of-rodents-effectively-prevents-hantavirus-pulmonary-syndrome/

Effective Rodent Control Service to Contain Squirrel Population and Prevent Damage to Homes

"Last year, Tom Oder wrote an article for Mother Nature Network (MNN) citing residents' concerns over the apparently increasing squirrel population. This is an issue faced by homeowners living in several areas in the eastern United States and in several regions in Canada as well. While much has been written about the health dangers these furry creatures pose, not a lot has been written about the possible damage they cause when they gain entry to a home. The most common entry point for squirrels is the attic. Once squirrels have made one's home their home, the results can turn ugly as they normally produce at least two to eight offspring in each litter. However, in those cases when a homeowner suspects that there are several families of squirrels who've already settled in quite nicely, it's best to call on a reliable rodent control service before things turn for the worse."

http://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/effective-rodent-control-service-to-contain-squirrel-population-and-prevent-damage-to-homes/