Solving Animal Control Problems

Calls to animal removal services are focused on all kinds of critters. Depending on where you live, residential animal control could involve anything from mice and rats to opossums and raccoons. Some residential animal control services have even involved larger fauna, like nutria or even alligators! While your average removal is not going to be quite so exciting, nearly every call for residential animal control is made for one reason: the animal or animals in question are cause for annoyance or concern. If you have a pest problem with four legs instead of six or eight, here is some helpful advice on determining whether or not animal removal is necessary, and who to call when it is.

When Animal Removal Services Are a Necessity

Though they can get pretty annoying, animal removal services are probably not a must if you’ve got a few squirrels at your bird feeder. However, when a few furry critters are posing a danger to person or property, you should call a service as quickly as possible. Animals that nest inside the house are of particular concern as the property damage they cause can be significant and the likelihood of disease increases dramatically. Mice and rats are notorious for making their homes in your home, but they’re not the only culprits. Opossums, raccoons, squirrels, and birds can all carry diseases and cause property damage; if they set up shop in your walls, attic, or basement, they should be considered a cause for concern.

Humane Animal Removal Services

While homeowners dealing with insect infestations are typically fine with hiring an exterminator, residential animal control is a task that most feel should focus on humane removal tactics. Gone are the days when the first step was dropping down poisons (or loading a gun)! Not only were these tactics inhumane, they were also less effective than the tactics of today, because they often left dead animals inside the house or around the property, creating a health hazard.

Now, most residential animal control focuses on luring animals away from the home or trapping them and physically removing them alive as well and then making your home a less inviting environment for those animals to return to. Though these tactics do not have a 100% success rating, their predecessors didn’t either. In some cases, it may take multiple trips to completely rid you of your pest critters, but eventually, nearly every small animal problem can be solved using friendly tactics.

Possible Consequences

Just as spider extermination sometimes leads to an influx of other bugs, removing certain animals from your property can have unexpected consequences. Nowhere is this more pronounced than with bat removal. While you certainly don’t want these critters living and breeding in your attic, bats are an incredibly important part of the food chain, and their removal often results in infestations of mosquitoes and other small, annoying insects. The solution in this case is often removing the bats from your actual home (taking every precaution to keep them from returning, of course!) and creating a bat house nearby where the population can continue to exist and eat bugs without the threat of their droppings/carcasses collecting in your home.

Who to Call

In non-emergency situations, finding the best animal removal service is the same as finding the best deck builder or plumbing contractor: contact several companies, get estimates from each, and go with the one you feel most comfortable with. Here is where HomeAdvisor can help. Unlike the phone book, we screen each of our companies thoroughly to ensure we don’t match you with some fly-by-night operation. We also offer feedback given to us by other homeowners who have used these companies in the past. Not only does this allow you a better view of how well this company has performed for others in your area, it also gives each company we work with an extra incentive to get the job done right and quickly!

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