Should I pay for a nuisance wildlife inspection?
Woodchuck trapped at burrow entrance along a home foundation.
Ecological Wildlife Solutions™ offers professional nuisance wildlife inspection services, exclusion services, capture services, and much more.
How much should I pay for help with a nuisance wildlife problem? Do I need an “inspection”? Should I pay for a nuisance wildlife inspection, or should I expect a free inspection? Do I need a “trapper”? Will trapping animals solve my nuisance wildlife problem?
A proper inspection is the essential first step toward solving a nuisance wildlife problem. When you agree to an inspection, you should get a proper inspection and inspection report. Beware of the “free inspection” that ends up being little more than an in-your-face sales pitch pushing a hard sell to get you to sign a contract for lots of expensive services.
Most nuisance wildlife problems reach beyond private boundaries, they are community problems. Your nuisance wildlife problem is a symptom of the larger community problem. Raccoons are a common example, raccoons are abundant and often over-populated in busy neighborhoods.
Raccoons are abundant in communities throughout the Midwest.
Nuisance wildlife is a symptom, not the disorder. The disorder is caused by a mismatch between human habitat and wildlife habitat. Often, a trapper removes an invader, a symptom of the disorder, then not long afterward another invader shows up, the disorder continues.
Trapping is often necessary, but trapping alone is rarely a long-term solution.
Ecological Wildlife Solutions™ humanely captures and removes wildlife when necessary. At EWS™, our job is not done until we help clients understand the habitat mismatch resulting in nuisance wildlife problems.
Commonly, mismatches between human habitat and wildlife habitat involve things we do that are easy to fix, and you don’t need a “trapper” if you are proactive.
- Contain trash in solid containers with tight-fitting lids, nuisance critters know your trash pick-up day, too.
- Feed household pets indoors or clean up daily after they are fed outdoors, nuisance critters love dog food and cat food.
- Clean up under the bird feeder, deep accumulations of seed waste attract a myriad of nuisance critters from mice to coyotes looking for mice.
- Prune tree branches overhanging your home and other buildings, these are squirrel highways. Squirrels chew roof materials, sofits, utility wires, and so on.
- Trim or remove heavy vegetation along the foundations of buildings to remove overhead cover which invites critters to your foundation where they might dig a den, groundhogs love digging against hard objects under cover.
Nuisance wildlife species are really common in many areas, even urban areas. Simple fixes like those listed above, and many more, are first steps. Sometimes they solve your nuisance wildlife problems, sometimes they don’t. The long-term solution may involve additional interventions such as excluding wildlife. Exclusion services are best provided by professionals.
- Cap chimneys, screen drier vents and roof vents and similar openings.
- Reinforce gable-end vents using hardware cloth to exclude bats.
- Close cracks and crevices allowing penetration of your home’s outer skin, from foundation to roof-top.
- Install underground barrier systems around decking and other crawlspace hollows.
- And, more….
Costly professional inspection is a good investment only if the inspection centers on the misfit between human habitat and wildlife habitat…
Don’t be fooled by advertising offering free inspections, too often these service providers are just getting in your door to make a sale, to sell you trapping and other pricey services, often emphasizing capture of scary and dangerous disease-carrying animals without considering the habitat mismatch underlying your nuisance wildlife problem. Professional inspections by EWS™ and by many other responsible nuisance wildlife control operators (NWCO’s) are detailed, time-consuming, and content rich, a high value service–not a free service. You don’t need a professional just to tell you you have a nuisance animal problem, that’s why you called a nuisance wildlife control operator in the first place. You need to know much more: Where did it come from? Why is it here? What attracted it? Is it really a problem? Will it cause damage if left alone? Are there health concerns? How can I get rid of it? How can I prevent a repeat of the problem? Should we trap it? Can we avoid the expense of trapping it? Will trapping solve the problem? Do I need additional modifications like underground barriers?
EWS™ offers professional comprehensive nuisance wildlife inspection services. We work with DIY efforts, too. We can help you understand the mismatch between your human habitat and local wildlife habitat, and offer you helpful guidance for preventing nuisance wildlife problems.
Enjoy wildlife without wildlife headaches, call EWS!