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WILDLIFE PROOFING
How do you convince a wild animal to move out without spending hundreds of
dollars?
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Your home is
your castle. That means you have an obligation to keep it in a good
state of repair. If you are too lazy to do that, don't complain about
the wild animals that are taking up residence in your attic.
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If you rent -
your landlord has an obligation to keep the property in good repair.
Contact your city building department and let them know that you have a
wildlife infestation and have them come out to check it out.
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In some cases,
living with wildlife in your attic can be a health hazard, especially if the
feces and urine is starting to drip through into your living area.
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In other cases
the solution is simple and inexpensive.
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Cap your
chimneys. Securely.
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Buy wire
hardware cloth and have someone help you attach it to all the vents on
the outside of your home and your roof to prevent access by animals such
as birds and squirrels. It's a low cost solution for peace of
mind.
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One thing to
keep in mind is that unless you do the repairs to prevent re-entry or access
by another wild animal, there's little point in doing a removal and in
trying to humanely harass a wild animal out of your living space.
It'll just come right back.
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If you're
dealing with a mother raccoon, who has babies that are less than 3 weeks
old, you may want to wait until they are that age (size of a small kitten
the same age). The success of her moving all her babies is much
greater (98%) if you wait until they are just a bit older to harass her into
moving.
Three things will
disturb the mother enough to get her to declare your attic or chimney or shed, a
low rate 'motel' and she'll begin to move the young.
Those three basic
things are:
1. Noise
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Get a radio
(electric or battery powered) and tune it into a talk radio station.
Make it loud enough to bother her, but not you or your neighbours.
Leave it on for a few days. To the mother, this is the same as you
trying to sleep if there is someone standing in your bedroom talking non
stop. It's annoying.
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Place it as
close as you can to the area where she is.
2. Light
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Use a flashlight
with batteries or a plug in safety worklight and shine the light in the area
where she is denning with the babies so that it's no longer dark in there.
If you doubt this, try it yourself at night. Try sleepnig with the
lights on in your bedroom. It's irritating and after the first night,
you'll be trying to sleep in your closet or anywhere else that it's dark at
night.
3. Offensive Odours
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Try this.
Place your compost collection bin or your most ripe bag of opened garbage
next to your bed and see how well you sleep inhaling that odour all night
long. Bet you opt to sleep in your bathtub where there is no trash
smell!! You need to simulate that experience for the wild animal you're
trying to humanely evict, but using an odour that is offensive to them.
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To annoy a wild
mammal that has taken up residence in your house, or under your shed, or in
the plumbing area under or behind your hot tub, you need to get some clean,
empty margarine containers.
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Buy some AMEX®
ammonia cleaner at the grocery store. Don't buy the pine or lemon
scented type, get the plain type.
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Place some old
rags or socks into the margarine containers and sprinkle the ammonia on
them. You don't need to soak them, just get them damp.
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Place the covers
back on the margarine containers, and poke holes in the covers using a sharp
knife and give it a twist as it pierces the plastic lid to make small holes.
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Toss these
containers into the area where the mother and the babies are and leave a
trail of them outside around all the walkways that she is using to get in
and out of this space. E.g. at the bottom of your chimney, around your
yard perimeter, base of trees, etc. Whatever you see that she may be
using to climb in and out of, put the containers there. If you can see
the opening, put a container near that opening so she has to pass it all the
time.
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Do not use
mothballs, as some types of mothballs are carcinogenic to humans, never mind
wildlife!
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This smell is so
annoying to wildlife that they just leave. It's as annoying to them as
sleeping next to the compost and/or garbage would be to you.
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You must do ALL
THREE THINGS simultaneously in order for this to deter the animal and get it
to move out on it's own.
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Yes, even a
skunk cannot tolerate the smell of ammonia - imagine that!
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BEFORE you
repair the entrance holes, make sure that a few days have passed and there
are no more babies remaining and no more noises indicating any animals are
coming and going
THE CHOICE IS
YOURS TO MAKE
Does it take a bit
of effort to do this? Yes it does, but it's your choice. You can put the
effort into it very inexpensively, for the cost of a few batteries or a bit of
electricity to power the radio and the light, and for the ammonia, or you can
pay a humane wildlife removal company to come and do it for you. It's
entirely up to you which way you go.
There are only a
small number in Niagara that are reputable and who use humane solutions to
wildlife problems. They also ensure that your home is repaired when they
leave and guarantee those repairs. Check around and find out who
they are.
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KNOW THIS!
Wildlife removal companies, are NOT regulated so it's buyer beware.
There are far too many 'fly by night' operators out there who buy a couple
of traps, a roll of wire hardware cloth, stick a magnetic sign on their
trucks and call themselves wildlife removal experts. Don't deal with
these individuals. Ask them for references, and for proof of training
or membership in professional organizations for nuisance wildlife removal
personnel. Ask for proof to see if they are licensed as trappers by
the Ministry of Natural Resources (they must be to remove wildlife from your
property). Call the MNR and check up on their claims.
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Many of these
unregulated outfits, will just trap the adult, cart it off and kill it and
not check to see if it's a lactating female with dependent young. Those babies
will die in your living space, and the bodies will begin to rot.
You're the one left with that odour for a long time or if you're
lucky and you hear them crying before they starve to death, then you have an
entirely new problem - orphans. Then the onus is on you to find and support a
rehabilitator who will ultimately have to bear the cost for rehabilitation
for these creatures.
NOTE: These
techniques do not work for birds. Why? well, a mother bird cannot pick up
her chicks in her beak and/or feet and fly off with them. This only works
for mammals.
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