Animal In the House - Get it Out!

10.07.2005 - It usually starts with a late-night phone call. I'm one of the few wildlife trappers who
1) carries his phone with him at all times
2) answers it 24/7/365
3) has no life outside of wildlife removal to distract me.
Thus, when that call does come in at 2:00 AM, I cheerfully answer it.  This particular call came in at midnight.  As usual, the caller didn't want to pay me to get out of bed, get dressed, and drive a half-hour away to remove the critter.  They never want to pay me.  That's okay, I don't mind, it's all part of the job. I simply tell them that they can come to my house when I get a water leak at 3:00 AM and do my plumbing.  They agree, and all is settled.

I arrived at this house to find an opossum backed in the corner.  Opossums aren't smart or fast, so their best defense mechanism is to stand in the corner and bare their teeth.  I got a holding cage and my trusty white snare pole and approached the beast.  I attempted to snare it around the body, but that sneaky possum grabbed ahold of the snare loop and held on for dear life, preventing me from snaring it! No problem, I lifted the pole, and the animal grabbed the pole with its prehensile tail.  Then the homeowner took a photograph of me.

The easiest way to get an animal out of the house is usually to open all the doors and windows and let it go out on its own.  But if the animal is tired or injured or just too confused to leave on its own, then the best way is to catch it with a safe snare pole and transport it to a carrying cage, which is what I do to ensure immediate removal.

Most people would prefer not to have an animal in the house, but it's unlikely that the animal will attack.  It probably wants to get out as much as you want it out.  Most of the time, animals in homes are the result of openings from the attic space, where animals were living.  So you should have a pro like me inspect the home and seal off all entry points.

More Info: Visit my Rats in the Wall page if you hear scampering in the wall at night.
Do it yourself: Visit my How To Get Rid of Opossums page for tips and advice.
Get professional help: Visit my Nationwide Pro Directory of wildlife removal experts.

Animals in walls - Animals like raccoons are cute critters, but they cause a real mess when they start to live inside your home. The majority of the time, the raccoon in your house is a female with babies. This makes trapping and removing her more complicated. The legal nature of the job is also complicated, and most states do not allow homeowners to trap raccoons without a license. Before you can think about removing the raccoon, you need to decide what you are going to do about the babies. Some females will remain in the attic or wall to protect their young; scaring the adult into a trap isn't always possible. In this situation, the mother animal needs to be caught with a pole snare and pulled out of the wall and then put into a cage. This is one incidence where you can see why trapping is reserved for the professionals. Animals in the house can carry rabies, a fatal virus that is transmitted through infected saliva. While many other animals can be potential carriers, the raccoon is one species with a high incidence of the disease. On the off-chance that the raccoon in your walls is not a female, you'll have to trap this animal as you would any other problem creature outside. Attach the trap to the roof near the entrance hole. Use bread or marshmallows as bait; meat will draw in too many other critters.

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Wild animals can be a nuisance in your home in many ways. They can damage parts of your house, cause disturbance, transmit diseases, or attack your family, pets, and livestock. And that's why you may have a growing concern over the presence of a nuisance animal in your house. Some wild animals such as armadillos and foxes can dig under your house, thereby ruining the foundation of your house.

Besides that, rodents like rats, mice, and squirrels can dig into your yard, producing heaps of soil that can be unsightly, and at times they may chew into your house, making the situation even more complicated. Squirrels make noise during the day, dig holes in your yard, and are also known to break into homes about twice a year to give birth to young ones.

Since some animal pests such as rats and mice multiply pretty quick, leading to more headaches, if no action is taken early enough, the damage they cause could be extremely costly.

In the case of rats, they chew through anything they find obstructing. Not to mention, raccoons too can be a great threat to your home, pets, and children. Additionally, they make a lot of irritating noise and damage parts of your house using their agile hands. So, if you're looking for the best ways of getting that unwanted tenant out of your house, well, we've got you covered. For every case, there are three steps to get the work done.

Identification of entry points

Installation of exclusions and laying of traps

Employing preventive measures

At the identification step, you should scout ad inspect every part of your house for any sign of invasion. Look for any crack or gap that gives rodents and raccoons entryways to your house. Of course, the animals in your house must have squeezed through someplace. When you identify all the entry points, you're good to move to the next stage.

So, have you identified all the entry and exits that the critters use to maneuver in and out of your house? If so, then it's time to set exclusions and lay traps. For the case of rats, traps can be ideal. Even though the use of a poison may seem a better bet, resist the temptation as it might land you in more nasty problems. Can you imagine ransacking your house for a dead and decomposing rat? Let alone the horrible smell that could come from the rotting rat, locating the rat is a mundane task.

You can also use a live cage trap for trapping and transporting the nuisance animal about ten miles away. Again, never be tempted to poison animals as a means of getting a quicker relief as the bottom line may be nasty. Apart from the fear of a rotten smell, the use of humane ways is recommended. But before you trap any animal, ensure you check with both local and federal laws before to make sure it is legal to do so.

For the case of your house getting infested by a colony of bats, seal all the entry and exit routes leaving two or three main ways used by the bats. After that, you should install bat excluders on the main routes. Be careful not to lock the animals in their hideout as they may starve and die, thereby making your house inhabitable. Without mentioning, some animals can be dangerous to handle alone; therefore, seeking the services of a professional wildlife remover is crucial.

And when done with the wildlife removal phase, always employ relevant preventive measures to prevent a re-infestation of your home. Some of the common ways of keeping critters out of your home are by sealing or fencing off your garbage bin and other sources of free food. But, fences only work effectively for big critters such as opossums and raccoons. Also, you can mend any potential entry hole, gap, or crack on your home's exterior.