DO YOU HAVE CRITTERS IN YOUR HOUSE?
Hear scurrying behind your walls, chirps in your attic, or squeaks in your crawlspace? You may have an undesirable tenant that has become trapped inside or is seeking shelter in your home.
“The most common animals that will get into your home are mice, rats, squirrels, raccoons, snakes, opossums, birds, and bats,” says Clarissa Benny, a certified pest control technician with HouseGrail.com. “Wild animals are attracted to your home for three main reasons: food, shelter, and safety.”
Animals often seek shelter in attic spaces and other indoor spots to give birth to their young, too.
“Raccoons give birth once per year during the spring, causing mother raccoons to look for a safe place to den,” Thomas Ward, a training specialist and biologist for Critter Control in Marietta, Georgia, explains.
While the thought of a bird’s nest upstairs or a temporary raccoon den in your crawlspace sounds cute, consider the damage animals can cause inside your house.
Additionally, these pests can make noise and commotion that disrupt your sleep, and they can leave behind stains and soiling, notes Roger Dickens, operations manager for Ehrlich Pest Control in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Unless you can easily and safely coerce the creature to depart somehow, it’s best to enlist the aid of a professional. If your unwanted guests are insects or small rodents, contact a pest control company. If the animal is larger and more dangerous or a species that is protected, contact an animal trapping/control company. You can likely expect to pay from around a hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars, depending on the species, level of infestation, and difficulty of the scope of work, according to Dickens.
In most states, the laws homeowners need to follow are particular regarding the release of the trapped animal.
“Homeowners and do-it-yourselfers can get into trouble if they unlawfully release wildlife. These laws can vary from state to state,” says Dickens. “For example, in many states, it’s unlawful to release raccoons and skunks or release animals on public lands such as county parks, state parks, game lands, or federal lands.”
To prevent animals from finding their way inside your home, keep food sources away from your property and inspect your home’s exterior carefully.
“You want to seal off all current and potential animal entry points so that you don’t have to worry about a future intrusion,” adds Ward.