Skunks

Overpopulation of Skunks

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get rid of skunks

Tammysmom:

Anyone else notice that we seem to have an overpopulation of skunks?  Lately there’s a lot more odorous and destructive animal activity in our city, and more skunk road kill.  Usually, we only notice skunks in this area as we’re driving through a particularly odorous section of road and figure some fox was stupid enough to challenge a skunk.  But, over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed a lot more dead skunks in the road.  If there are more dead skunks in the road, there must be more skunks in the area, right?

Snickerguffaw:

True.

Runninmaster:

Hey, yeah, I’ve been seeing the same thing!  I think you’re right, we have an overpopulation of skunks around here.  I go running pretty much every morning and I’ve even seen a couple scuttling across the path.  Good thing I’ve got my running light or I mighta been sprayed!

Retirednhappy:

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that.  I had one by my deck the other night.  Looked like it was digging for something, but I didn’t feel like going out to chase it off.

Tammysmom:

You had one by your deck?  Scary!  Makes me wonder if I should be more careful about letting my daughter go out and play outside after dinner.  Do you think any are rabid?

Retirednhappy:

Doubt they’re all rabid, but you can’t be too careful.

Runninmaster:

Yeah, I wouldn’t risk it.  If you’ve got some crawling around in your yard, I say get some help.

Snickerguffaw:

@Retirednhappy  If you got em at your house, there must be something they want.

Tammysmom:

@Snicker  It’s not like anyone puts out skunk food.  I’m beginning to think it’s just that we have more in the area, an overpopulation of skunks, for some reason.  So, we’re more likely to see them around our neighborhoods.

Snickerguffaw:

@Tammysmom  I’m just saying they’re gonna go after what they like.  Pet food, garbage, a mouse, whatever’s around your house.

Retirednhappy:

I assure you there are no mice in my house.

Runninmaster:

I still say get a professional to come in and trap the skunks around your house.  No use letting them dig up your yard or making a den under your stairs or something.

Retirednhappy:

@Runninmaster   You’re probably right.  Better get rid of the skunks now instead of having to repair damage later.  My knee just won’t let me do much around the house anymore.

Snickerguffaw:

Maybe they can get rid of your mice, too.  Juuuuust kidding, dude!

Tammysmom:

I just looked online.  I believe we have an overpopulation of skunks in the area because of the new subdivisions going up.  It used to be nothing but empty fields over there, so their habitat is probably being disturbed.  It looks like the best thing to do is to make sure garbage is secured, and don’t put pet food outside.  Basically, take away their food and water sources in our neighborhood.

Runninmaster:

Thanks for the info.  Will that get rid of all the skunks, then?

Tammysmom:

@Runninmaster  No, but it’ll help keep the problem down.  Looks like the best thing to do is to get a professional wildlife trapper to get rid of the skunks around your house.  Just like you said.

Retirednhappy:

Sounds good to me.  I’ll be calling tomorrow.  Night all.

Tammysmom:

I’m off, too.  Good night, everyone.

Runnimaster:

I have to get out and run tonight before bed.  Chat with you tomorrow!

Snickersguffaw:

Peace.

Voles

Overpopulation of Voles

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Last spring, my neighbors and I battled an overpopulation of voles in our lawns, and many of our conversations this winter have been wondering if we would continue to have a vole problem once the snows thaw.  One of our neighbors was particularly upset, because they invested in some gorgeous apple trees a few years ago and were starting to enjoy the “fruits of their labor”, so to speak, when we experienced an overpopulation of voles in our county.  Most of us just had to deal with vole damage such as trails of dead grass crisscrossing our yards, making them look like some kind of road map.  A few of us had planted tulips and daffodils and were disappointed, because voles had eaten the bulbs we’d so painstakingly planted throughout our flower beds.  But, the neighbors with the apple trees suffered the worst damage.  Voles had basically gnawed rings around the trees and roots, and exposed the trees to disease.  All of their hard work and the money they’d invested in the trees were now for nothing, and they were understandably upset.

I’ve done a little more research on the subject during this winter.  I was worried once I found out that voles can breed all year long, and a mother vole can have three or four litters during the winter season, each with up to ten babies.  I didn’t even bother planting bulbs last fall, and I’m not planning a vegetable garden until I can get a barrier in place to discourage the voles from eating all my vegetables and herbs.  I just imagined hoards of voracious voles running rampant under the layer of snow, munching, breeding and tunneling.  It made me sick and for the first time in my life I dreaded the spring.  I just dreaded the idea of battling an overpopulation of voles again when the weather turned nice and I could see the extent of the damage.

I inspected the yard as the snow melted off after each storm, but I couldn’t see any damage so far, and I began to have hope.  Had some disease spread through the vole community and wiped them out?  Did the high number of vole traps throughout the neighborhood actually catch them all?  Would we be able to enjoy our lush, green lawns this year, like normal?

Some of my neighbors actually considered getting outdoor cats to roam the neighborhood, and I could certainly see some merit in that.  They’d keep down the vole population, as well as mice or rats, right?  Of course, not everyone in the neighborhood likes cats or sees the value of having them around.  One neighbor was pretty upset, because she’d already had a problem with feral cats getting into her garage and making a mess of everything in a previous home, and swore she wouldn’t go through that again.  I guess an overpopulation of feral cats isn’t the solution to an overpopulation of voles, but something has to work, right?

So, we still don’t know what, if any, vole damage or vole problem we’ll have to deal with when the weather gets better.  But, I do know this – I won’t settle for setting my own vole traps or doing battle with them alone.  I’ll call in a professional to handle the problem for me this year!

Rats

Effects of Rat Poisoning

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get rid of rats

In order to become licensed foster care parents in our state, my husband and I were forced to completely reevaluate the safety of our home, and learn all kinds of fun facts like the effects of rat poisoning in the body.  So, we put safety covers on all the electrical outlets, installed child safety gates on the stairs, and quickly locked up all the poisons in the home.

Learning about the effects of rat poisoning on the body left us particularly cold, thinking about all the awful things a child would go through if they get into anything poisonous, especially rat poison.  I thought the idea of having a rat in the house was bad enough, with all the diseases it carries, the parasites that can infest your home, its destructive capabilities, and the contamination from its droppings.  But, the products used to poison rats can do terrible things to humans and pets.

Rat poison is basically a blood thinner, because it reduces the levels of vitamin K in the blood.  Vitamin K affects the blood’s ability to clot, so when you seriously reduce it, the body bleeds abnormally.  This means whoever ingests it can bleed from their nose and mouth, they can have bad diarrhea or vomiting streaked with blood, they get extremely dizzy and lethargic because their blood is too thin, and death is most likely from hemorrhaging or heart complications.  It’s awful to think about any animal experiencing the effects of rat poisoning, but when it comes to a loved one, an innocent child or a pet, it’s horrific.

Incidentally, it can take days before a rat feels the effects of rat poisoning.  Rats are extremely intelligent, and quickly learn to avoid dangerous or harmful food or situations.  Since it can be days before they feel the poison’s effect, they continue to eat the poisoned food source, thereby ensuring they consume enough to finally kill them.

Unfortunately, it can also mean a child or pet may not experience the effects of rat poisoning in their body for days.  And, if the child is too young to communicate what they ate or how they’re feeling, it can mean the parent doesn’t know to get them help until it’s too late.  Or, a parent may discover a child has consumed some rat poison, but won’t do anything about it right away, because they don’t see any immediate symptoms.

The instant you suspect a child has ingested any amount of rat poison, get immediate emergency help.  You can also contact the National Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 anytime night or day.

My husband and I really looked forward to becoming licensed foster care workers, and we locked up things like paint and oil for the car.  But, we completely got rid of the rat poison.  It was too risky.  Instead, if we ever have a rat problem, we will get a professional exterminator out to our house.  I just couldn’t bear the thought of any child in our care accidentally consuming it.  Better to just let a professional handle a rat problem if and when we ever needed it.

Exterminator

Cache County Exterminator

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Exterminator portrait
Portrait of an exterminator enjoying his job.
(Artwork by Sharon Davis. Contact us for her contact info.)

As a Cache County Exterminator, most people assume I hate animals.  Not true.  I probably appreciate animals more than your average Joe, because I understand them so much better.  I have to understand them to do my job right.

I’ve seen more crazy stuff in my career than most people realize.  I’ve got stories that’ll make you laugh until you cry and stories that are more gruesome than a bad horror flick.  I’ve worked with guys who scream like little girls when a little baby mouse jumps out at them from a garbage can.  I’ve pulled raccoons out of chimneys in pieces.  I’ve seen maggots and fleas raining down out of a ceiling lamp because something was rotting in the attic.  I’ve seen buildings overrun with pigeons and pigeon droppings.  I’ve seen porcupines eating the undercarriage of a car for the salt.  I’ve seen it all.  And, I still love every kind of animal I deal with.  Well, okay, I’m still not crazy about snakes, but since most are relatively harmless, I just deal with it.

One of the most common calls I get, though, as Cache County Exterminator is to remove rats out of someone’s house or business building.  And, surprisingly enough, I really love rats.  They’re pretty amazing creatures, really, built to survive.  They can jump up and run off after a 50 foot fall.  They have a great sense of taste and a fantastic memory.  They’re excellent swimmers and can live in the water for three days, which means they can survive being flushed down a toilet and return to your building by swimming upstream through the same pipes.  They climb vertical and horizontal surfaces, and can get through a hole only a half-inch wide.  They’re smart and social and pretty incredible, and I personally own two domestic rats: Shiny and Igor.

But, that doesn’t mean I’m okay with wild rats living in my home.  They transmit all kinds of nasty diseases and parasites, which infest homes and businesses.  Dead rats can build up in wall spaces or attics or basements, further contaminating the building.  They have to chew constantly to keep their teeth down, so pipes, wood, wiring, plastic are all fair game.  I know of several buildings that went up in flames because rodents chewed through electrical wires, and I’ve helped people who have water damage because rats gnawed through the pipes in the wall.  Most people who have rats in their building have to throw out a lot of food that’s been contaminated, and even couches or clothes that rats used as nesting materials and bathrooms.  One guy found out he had a rat problem when he discovered a snake eating one under his kitchen sink.

Yeah, I really do think rats and most animals I deal with are amazing creatures, even though my livelihood as Cache County exterminator is removing wild animals out of homes and businesses.  As amazing as they are, they still damage people’s property and make people sick, which is why I do what I do.

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Utah County Exterminator

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get rid of voles

“Hon, call the Utah County Exterminator, I think we have voles.”

“What?  We have what?”

“Voles, honey, we have voles.”

“I’ve never heard of that.  Do you mean moles?”

“No, haven’t you heard of voles?”

I felt kind of stupid, but I’d never heard of that before in my life.  Growing up, my Dad always did all the yard work.  With four girls, two of whom were fighting at any one time, he somehow always had yard work to do.  As an adult, I suspect it was an excuse to get out of the house for a little bit for some peace and quiet.  We’d never had any vole problems before, that I know of, and when I grew up and lived in apartments, I had zero yard work to do.  So, who could blame me for never hearing about voles?

My husband and I bought our first house almost three years ago, and boy was that a wake-up call.  It was a brand new home, so we put in the yard ourselves.  I’d never dug ditches, raked dirt or laid pipes for a sprinkler system before, but I sure did learn fast.  I’m not the kind of woman who makes her husband do all the outdoor chores, so I learned as I went.  I got to the point where I was proud of my calluses and got so excited when the first grass seeds sprouted.  I actually watched grass grow sometimes, and couldn’t get over how successful I felt making bare land look beautiful.  It cost more money than we really had at the time, and I lost count of the hours we worked out there, but it was worth it.  We ended up with one of the most beautiful lawns in our new subdivision.

So, now, after three years, we had to have the Utah County exterminator come over and get rid of voles, a creature I’d never heard of before.

Winter was coming to an end, and I had been looking forward to watching our lawn green up again for the spring, but I’d noticed trails of dead grass in the yard.  I thought maybe it was a result of letting the thatch build up in some places, but my husband taught me it was these little mouse-like creatures that tunnel under the lawn, chewing up grass roots and flower bulbs and sometimes even chewing the bark off of some trees.  I worried about our trees, since they were still pretty young, but fortunately the damage was mostly limited to the yard and apparently the tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted last fall.  All our work was being damaged by tiny little rodents?!  I just couldn’t bear the thought of spending my spring fighting off rodents instead of planting a garden and putting in some ornamental bushes I had my eyes on.  I agreed with my husband that we had to get the Utah County exterminator in as quickly as possible to get rid of the voles for us.

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Box Elder County Exterminator

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We gotta get the Box Elder County Exterminator out to our ranch here pronto, because I am sick to death of replacing fence posts.  I got enough to do around here.  Every day I work myself to exhaustion and every night I go to bed thinking of fifty more things I need to do the next day.  It’s fine, it’s the life I chose.  I’m happy that I’m working for myself and not dependant on anyone else for a paycheck.  But, when I find woodpecker holes in fence post after fence post, I have to spend my days chasing down woodpeckers and replacing those posts.  I have better things to do, and I’m no expert on which woodpeckers are protected by federal or state laws and how to get rid of woodpeckers.  The Box Elder County exterminator is, though, and I’ll let him deal with it.

I’ve been dealing with this woodpecker problem for a few years now.  I guess what finally sent me over the edge was this morning.  The ranch hasn’t been doing so well lately.  We’ve been dealing with sick cattle, a fight over mineral rights in one of our pastures, and the price of feed has skyrocketed.  High cost of feed means my prices have to go up.  High price of oil means it costs more to transport the cattle and the feed, which means I have to raise my prices again.  Now, meat prices are so high that consumers aren’t buying as much of my products as they used to, which leaves me up the proverbial creek without the proverbial paddle.  What’m I supposed to do?

So, one night I’m up late worrying over it, as usual, and I fall asleep after a rough day of work and worry.  I’d decided to let myself sleep in a bit the next morning, let myself get a little extra rest so I can tackle the problem fresh.  But, real early next morning, I hear the tap tap tap, peck peck peck of the stupid woodpeckers chipping away at the fence posts again.  I just spent last Thursday replacing some of the older posts that looked like swiss cheese, and here was this bird going at it on one of the newer stretches I finished.

I consider myself a reasonable, fair-minded person.  Live and let live.  Let nature do its thing.  But, I just lost it that day.  Got so mad I grabbed the gun.  My wife caught me before I headed out the door, though, and reasoned that the woodpecker is probably protected, and shooting at the bird on the fence post would probably just do more damage to the fence post I was trying to protect.  So, I gave in, grumbling, and tried to enjoy the huge and delicious breakfast my wife had prepared for us.  Every time that tapping started up again, my knuckles would go white and my shoulders would get all hunched.  Finally, my wife just turned on some music so I couldn’t get annoyed at the birds anymore.

Time to call the Box Elder County exterminator. I figure, even though times are tight, it would save me a lot of time and money, not to mention keeping me from getting too angry to see straight, if I just got a professional out here.

Exterminator

Weber County Exterminator

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As a skunk, is it possible to ask the Weber County Exterminator to get rid of my embarrassing skunk problem?  I mean, it’s not for me, of course.  It’s for . . . .a friend, right.  A friend.  And, this friend of mine, also a skunk, has this thing for soda.  This is like a real addiction, you see.  She finds the cups just lying around in the parking lot, or in a park, or digs them out of people’s garbage, and then she just licks the inside of the cup until her tongue is raw and she can’t taste the sweet stuff anymore.  I just can’t get enough of the stuff.  I mean, she can’t get enough of the stuff.  And, they say the first step is to admit you have a problem and get help.

Okay, okay, I admit it, it’s not a friend, it’s me.  I’m a skunk and I have an addiction to soda.

So, the only thing I can think of to do is to ask the Weber County exterminator to help me help me get rid of the soda cups.  Is that possible?  I mean, I’m not hurting anyone . . . but it’s time to ask for help, you know.  Can we get rid of the soda cups just lying around or sitting in the garbage for me to bust into?  Because the only thing I can think of to do is to get rid of the temptation.  I’m just not strong enough to kick the habit myself.

The day I knew I needed real help was the real low point of my life.  I was just minding my own business, looking for grubs, and I walked by a house with the most wonderful smell emanating from the garbage can out front.  This was a family that drank a lot of soda, and ooooh, I could NOT resist.  I got up in the can, rooted around for a while, throwing garbage out across the lawn left and right.  A dog startled me at some point, so I had to spray it.  I couldn’t help it, I wasn’t going to run away and leave the sweet stuff behind!

At long last, I finally found it and thrust my head all the way inside, tasting those wonderful last few drops.  Oooh, pure heaven.  And when I drank every drop and even licked the wax coating off of the inside, it suddenly occurred to me that I could not get my head back out.  There I was, in someone’s driveway, wandering around in circles, my head deep in the recesses of a soda cup.  And that’s when I realized I had a real addiction.

So, what do you think?  I know the Weber County exterminator is the person other people call to take care of their wild animal problems, and I’m a wild animal with a problem.  Will he help?

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Summit County Exterminator

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Is it possible to get the Summit County exterminator to follow me around at the park and get rid of these dang pigeons?  Every day, rain or shine, snow or sun, I take my walk, and it used to be a wonderful perk to retirement.  I get up, put on the same dark gray jacket (rain or shine), my dark gray ball cap (snow or sun) and head out the door.  My usual route takes me about a mile and a half down the street, and then I stroll down the park paths of our neighborhood park, and another couple of miles around the business district before heading home for lunch.  I’m a regular, so people know me, and I know them.  Moms have their kids wave to the “nice man” and I wave back and keep walking.  There’s a guy I usually see who’s out jogging around 10:00 every morning, and he gives me a friendly nod as he huffs on by.  A couple of businesswomen take their smoke break around 11:00 every day, and we tease each other as I make my way past their building.  I’m the guy who waves at the cars that pass me, and some of the drivers even wave back.  Walking is just my thing.  I enjoy it every morning, have lunch at home, and then head back out to go play cards with my friends.  It’s not an exciting life, but it’s my life, and I love it.

One day I got stupid.  I had some old bread leftover at home, so I grabbed it up and took it with me on my walk.  As I walked through the park, I tossed a few crumbs here and there to feed the pigeons that roost in the nearby apartments.  And now I need my own personal Summit County exterminator.

These little suckers just won’t leave me alone.  As soon as my feet turn onto the park path, they fly down from their roosts up in the buildings adjacent to the park, poop raining down on the sidewalk and anyone else who happens to be on it.  Then, they parade after me like they expect me to give them a free handout every time I step out my door.  I’ve tried shooing them away, but they just fly up around my head, then land all around me and follow like I’m some dagum pied piper.  I even stepped on one once.  I just can’t seem to get rid of the pigeons.  Now, instead of being the happy, friendly old man who waves at people as he strolls by, I’m the crazy, grumpy old man with a pigeon problem.

Not okay.  I’ve got a phone number for the Summit County exterminator and I’m taking it over to the apartment managers.  I hope they’ll get rid of the pigeons living in their building, but if not, I’ll have to find another park to walk through every day.  Either that or just accept my fate as the leader of the pigeons.

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Davis County Exterminator

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I so desperately want the Davis County Exterminator to get rid of my brother.  Look, we’re all baby swallows, tucked up safely in this nest under the eaves of someone’s house.  But, I swear, this nest is getting smaller and smaller by the day.  He’s just crowding me out and cramping my style.

Mom went through a lot of trouble to make this mud nest for us before we were born.  Bit by bit, she brought tiny chunks of mud from a small distance away and stuck it up on this stucco, right over someone’s front door.  She brought in some tiny twigs to help give it structure and took her time to build it just right.  Sure, some of it fell down and spattered across the doorstep, and some of it inevitably got dropped on cars or sidewalks on her way back and forth.  But, it’s wonderfully safe, making it extra hard for any predators to get to us.  And Mom says now that us baby birds are here, the Davis County exterminator has to obey really specific laws about how to remove barn swallows, so we’re pretty safe even now.  I don’t want the Davis County exterminator to get rid of all of us, just my brother.

After we hatched, Mom worked super hard to keep us fed, and let me tell you, we’re ALWAYS hungry.  All day long, the four of us crowd at the tiny nest opening, sticking our heads out, opening our beaks as wide as possible, and taking our turns getting fed.  But, not my brother.  He always pushes and shoves, and switches places with us to try to trick Mom into feeding him twice before she gets to the rest of us.  You know, he almost pushed me right out of the nest the other day, and since he gets fed more, he’s getting bigger and bigger and it’s getting harder and harder to push back.  But, the rest of us baby swallows have had it.  We’re saying enough is enough and starting to fight back.

My sister came up with a great idea the other day.  When Mom flies off for another morsel of food, she stands up, gets on the edge of the nest, and turns around to poop out of the nest.  We learned to do that early on – let the poop fall down out of the nest onto the front step of this house instead of staining our own nest.  Well, when she’s done, she spreads her wings just a little wider and pushes big brother further back into the nest.  By that time, Mom’s back and the rest of us get a fighting chance to get the food.  It was perfect until big brother caught on.  Now we’re back to getting pushed around a lot.  So, I’m wondering, what would it take to get the Davis County exterminator to get rid of one big baby swallow?

Bats

San Diego County Exterminator

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“See?  This is why we should have called the San Diego County exterminator instead of trying to get rid of the bats by ourselves.  We had no idea what we were doing!”

“But, the internet said you could exclude the bats and the problem would be solved.”

I love my husband, but he’s a constant do-it-yourselfer, without a lot of expertise.  He has a huge honey-do list that he’s written for himself.  I don’t have to give him any projects to do, because he’s constantly finding them.  He’s great at changing the oil in my car, taking care of the yard, keeping hinges oiled in the house, and a thousand other little things, and I’m grateful to him.  However, he does have a problem.  He doesn’t know how to do a lot of the projects he takes on.  He loves to tell me, “I’ll learn as I go.”  And, that’s why there’s a crack in the pipe under the sink, a basement that’s been “nearly finished” for over a year now, and a partially reupholstered couch in our front room.

Occasionally, he’ll get instructions on some internet site or another, but he only skims the article and doesn’t read all the way through.  So, when we found bats roosting in the attic a few months ago, he wouldn’t let me call the San Diego County exterminator or anyone else to help us with our problem.  He got online, said “Hmm mmm” a couple of times, and went to work excluding a colony of bats.

Now, I did some research of my own, and quickly learned that we most likely had a maternity colony roosting in the attic.  If the bats were excluded improperly or at the wrong time, we could really harm the animals as well as unintentionally causing a bigger bat problem for ourselves.  Plus, I realized there were state and federal laws that protect bats and govern when and how you can remove them.  I didn’t read through the laws myself, but begged my husband to contact the San Diego County exterminator at least for some advice.  He told me not to worry, he’d take care of it.

Sure enough, over the last couple of weeks, we’d both noticed a smell that was getting stronger and stronger.  It took us a while to locate the source, and unfortunately my husband discovered some new projects he wanted to undertake while we searched.  Finally, though, it was clear the smell was strongest in the part of the attic where the bats had roosted.

It was worse than I expected, though.  A few baby bats lay dead and rotting on the floor of the attic.  Bat urine and feces hadn’t been cleaned up, so it had dried and stained the wall and insulation.  I didn’t look any closer – I didn’t want to think too much about maggots or anything else that was crawling over that mess.  I think my husband finally saw the look on my face, because he immediately went downstairs to call the San Diego County exterminator for help.