Ecological Wildlife Solutions™

Your enjoyable home improvements may end up causing unexpected problems. Poorly designed structures harbor wildlife unintentionally. Decking is an all too common example. Open spaces underneath decking or inside accessible crawl spaces are favorite sheltering locations for wildlife. These hiding places serve as occasional daytime rest areas, and as regular daytime harborages, places where wildlife hide, den, or nest. When skunks move in, how do you keep your pets away? When a dog acting territorially is skunk sprayed, it immediately comes into your home and rubs itself all over everything; you, your furniture and carpet, your bedspread, your children. That’s a lot of really smelly business you have not planned for!

Mom and young failing to find a way in after EWS excluded them from their lair and installed a low impact barrier system to preserve our clients landscaping.

Night shift, harborage under a deck.

Day shift, prowling for who knows what?

EWS offers help for clients at all stages: Pre-construction consulting, we offer guidance for building-in defenses against wildlife incursions. During construction, we work with your contractor to install barrier systems while your yard is already torn up. Post-construction problem solving, all too often our clients discover they have a problem only after the work is done, the turf is in, and the flowers and shrubs are planted. We offer low impact solutions using minimal excavations for clients not wanting to redo their landscape.

We currently serve central Ohio counties. Questions? Email tom@ecologicalwildlifesolutions.com

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!

Mystery wildlife investigations & day-night imagery

Infrared image of nocturnal coyote

Ecological Wildlife Solutions™ offers wildlife investigative and imagery services for clients who want to know, “Who goes there?” We investigate wildlife concerns, big or small, from reports of troublesome squirrels in the backyard to reports of Bigfoot in the back-forty! We bring comprehensive knowledge of wildlife and investigative tools including research quality day-night remote cameras.

All animals, big and small, leave behind signs of their activities in the habitats they use, these signs are clues to their identification. Experienced investigators read animal signs in a landscape that tell the story of its occupants and visitors.

Animals as small as insects can be identified by signs they leave behind. A specific kind of caterpillar may use only one plant or only a few species of plants as forage and may leave a characteristic trail of foraging damage to the leaves they use for food. Large mammals leave behind more than tracks. Examples illustrate how obvious are signs of large mammals, if know what to look for: Deer damage saplings and small trees as they browse, and leave abundant droppings where they feed regularly.

A bear leaves disturbed ground where it has excavated tubers, characteristic twig and leaf damage on blackberry canes it stripped of berries by deftly using its mouth, and logs shredded by heavy claws searching for grubs and other larvae, rich sources of fats and protein. A “latrine” used over and over again by raccoons or Ruffed Grouse, the “J” shape droppings of Wild Turkey, and so on, are just a few of the identifiable evidence of specific species.

Trail cameras raise the level of investigation and gather interesting images of wildlife being wildlife. Cameras open a window on nocturnal and diurnal wildlife sharing human habitats and private landscapes:

Tiny eyes aglow as deer mice visit a snowy deer carcase

White-tailed deer in rainfall imaged with infrared camera.

A white-tailed deer buck in search of a doe-eyed mate. November-December is peak “rut” in the Midwest, a season for mating. Most states experience a sharp rise in deer-vehicle collisions during the rut.

Mallard at take-off.

The splash ripples seen at lower left indicate the duck flushed moments earlier, triggering the camera for fast wake up.

Do you prefer to buy a camera and collect your own imagery? See our “Tips” section below.

Tips for choosing a day/night infrared camera:

Voracious insectivores

Short-tailed shrew

Ecological Wildlife Solutions™ offers clients services and guidance for managing shrews and other beneficial animals and plants in human habitats.

Gram for gram shrews are the most voracious mammals in our forests and fields (shrews rarely reach an ounce in weight). Shrews are energetic pugnacious predators of insects and worms. They are active and tireless year-round, day and night, and they rest little. They eat up to their weight and more daily, mostly protein and fats from worms and insect prey. Shrews are insect-eating machines and more. Short-tailed shrews occasionally eat mice larger than themselves and, often, they are found more abundant than mice.

Short-tailed shrews forage diverse habitats, occasionally patrolling foundations and formal gardens, occasionally entering garages, rarely causing damages.  They are commonly found in urban neighborhoods. This is the odd-looking little short-tailed, dark gray “mouse” under the bird feeder and inside the flower bed or caught in a mouse trap. Shrews help control insect populations everywhere they forage. They also scavenge corpses of mice and birds and even large animals like road-kill deer. They are most abundant where leaf litter or deep thatch in tall grass offers high insect and worm populations and sheltering duff crisscrossed by mouse and vole tunnels. Short-tailed shrews make tunnels, too. They connect rodent and mole tunnels into vast foraging networks. They spend most of their time in these tunnels. They are most mole-like of all shrew species–their charcoal gray fur is felt-like, just like that of moles.

Short-tailed shrews are unique among mammals, they are venomous! Blarina toxin, named for the shrew Genus Blarina, enters insects, mice and other prey (as large as rabbits) in saliva traveling along external grooves in the shrew’s incisor teeth. Shrew bites to humans are very rare but reportedly result in minor swelling and pain. Bites from all small animals may result in infections, of course. Don’t handle shrews, let them do their thing–they are the gardener’s best friend even when they nibble an occasional garden bulb during winter!

All shrew species benefit from natural landscape management practices that restore native habitats. Human habitats benefit from the insectivorous habits of shrews.

Masked shrew Sorex cinereus Madison County, OH

Tips for controlling shrews around the house:

• close the cracks and crevices and small openings that allow tiny animals and insects into homes and garages (don’t forget garage door seals!)
• manage garbage well by keeping containers firmly closed and clean
• manage pet food well, avoid spilling and remove surpluses (shrews love dog food!)
• clean up seed husk piles accumulating under bird feeders
• maintain uncluttered foundations around homes and businesses, space foundation plantings and remove brush and leaf piles
• feather mulch thin toward foundations so there is too little depth to hide tunnel galleries near the foundation block of homes and businesses

Tips for keeping shrews doing their thing, catching outdoor insects and mice:

• keep cats indoors
• avoid using those little packets of poison bait to control mice outdoors
• allow natural accumulations of litter & duff (loose leaves and twigs & decomposing litter) beyond your landscaping, Beyond Turf…

Deer nipping hostas, Parma, a Cleveland suburb. Superabundant deer readily adapt to mature landscapes, often living their entire lives within a few blocks.

White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus

Eastern redcedar Juniperus virginiana browsed to its core by white-tailed deer Evergreen sculpture, art of ungulate browsing

Throughout the Midwest white-tailed deer are over-abundant generally and super-abundant locally wherever they find lots of winter browse and where large protected areas offer refuge from annual hunting pressure. Successional abandoned farms and older neighborhoods adorned with many fruit-bearing ornamental shrubs, succulent garden flowers, and large green lawns attract troublesome deer, some neighborhoods are overrun, residents are frustrated. Girdling browse patterns, evident on the eastern redcedar imaged above, indicate overpopulation. We found these girdled cedars in a large successional area, part of Great Seal State Park, Ross County, Ohio.

A common development pattern in the Midwest produces conditions that increase the number of white-tailed deer and deer problems around growing communities. Resulting damage to landscape plants is troublesome and costly. The high incidence of vehicle-deer collisions is a serious problem resulting in occasional serious injuries to vehicle occupants and high insurance costs for all of us, and carnage–mutilated deer carcasses lie in grotesque heaps along Midwestern roadsides.

The purchase of farming landscape surrounding growing communities by developers changes the landscape of land use and of plants and animals in the area, including white-tailed deer. Real estate ownership patterns and early zoning changes result in large successional areas slated for housing or other development while development proceeds, often slowly, from core development locations. Elevated woodlots and wooded ravines become the desired locations for pricey home development. Abandoned crop fields are slated for cookie-cutter neighborhood developments and mini-malls. All areas develop using abundant ornamental landscapings, the kinds that produce showy flowers and fruits, and attract hungry deer. Often, deer hunting is restricted or prohibited in developing areas. Deer habitat is squeezed as development accelerates.

Deer carry parasites, sometimes leaving infestations on home lawns. Intestinal parasites afflicting humans are found in droppings of a small percentage (2% to 7% in a Southeastern study) of suburban deer. Giardia sp., and Cryptosporidium sp. are mostly spread person to person, but can be spread by deer and other wildlife, beaver particularly. Deer ticks are brought into our landscaping by deer. Deer ticks carry Lyme disease, a potentially dangerous infection spreading southward and westward into the Midwest.

Ohio neighborhood white-tailed deer, doe with young

Deer learn their landscape and form behavior patterns they pass on to their young. They find lawn grass, ornamental plants, fruit trees, and backyard gardens and bird feeding stations easy sources of food. They adapt quickly to fearless foraging around busy streets. Suburban neighborhoods become routine foraging areas for deer. Deer seek refuge in suburbs during hunting season.

Young white-tailed deer at sunflower seed tray feeder

Tips for reducing deer damages around your home habitat:

Coyotes are out there…

Suburban coyote scavenging roadkill deer

Ecological Wildlife Solutions™ offers services, insights and guidance to help clients understand how coyotes use home and business landscapes and to avoid practices that attract coyotes. Rarely, human food-conditioned and aggressive coyotes may require removal.

A glimpse of a coyote crossing the road ahead while driving is thrilling for most people, a rare treat. Coyote packs howling in the black of night, the din of their collective yaks and short howls, strums a deep chord in the human breast, a wilderness apprehension rarely experienced except when we encounter wild canines or other large predators like bears or big cats.

Canine encounters inspire adrenaline rushing excitement for some, fear for many, an atavistic experience for all. Everyone experiences powerful feelings in the moment: wild canines engage our full attention. Canines like coyotes loom large in our imaginations, though rarely reaching forty-pounds. These strong feelings guide our different responses to wild canines. Opinions about coyotes in our landscapes vary wildly. Coyotes are here to stay, regardless.

Today, coyotes are abundant and widespread in Ohio, the Midwest, the Northeast, and throughout most of North America. Little more than a century ago they were found only west of the Mississippi River, denizens of the Great Plains. They were first discovered and described for Western science by Lewis and Clark in Missouri country during their remarkable journey of discovery through the Louisiana Purchase (1804-1806).

The coyote’s range expansion may have followed early industrial logging from the eastern fringe of the Great Plains eastward into southern Canada and into Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With logging, the eastern timber wolf population, already reduced by long persecution, was pushed north of the Great Lakes corridor, opening the way for coyote occupation in the Midwest and eastern United States. Coyotes reached the Northeastern states late in the 19th century or early in the 20th. Along the way, they picked up a small percentage of wolf genetics through interbreeding with eastern timber wolves. Coyotes in the Northeast are a bit larger than Midwestern coyotes. Large ones are sometimes called, “coywolves.”

Coyotes spread eastward into the Midwest more slowly, arriving in Ohio in 1919 but rarely encountered until mid to late-20th century population growth. Since, they have increased in number to fill our landscapes and adapted to our development in spite of decades of persecution through poisoning, trapping, and shooting. Coyotes are remarkable survivors!

February is the peak of breeding season for coyotes, the time for “coyote soap operas,” said Dr. Stanley Gehrt, leading coyote researcher and associate professor of wildlife ecology at The Ohio State University during a talk with Ohio sheep raisers. Coyotes are remarkable in that their reproduction success is very plastic in response to reduced population stress. The fewer the coyotes in a landscape, the more pups a female brings on. They do very well in suburban areas, too. Here, Canada Geese and large deer herds, pet food, bird feeders attracting rodents, and garbage availability supplement or replace their usual mouse and vole diet. Urban, suburban, exurban, and rural coyotes adapt to many reliably available food sources, and they are opportunistic; you name it, they probably eat it!

Coyotes are active at night, that’s how they share our landscapes and remain unnoticed. In rare cases, coyotes adapt to frequent human disturbance and pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and develop daytime foraging habits centered on human habitations. Most often, this results from careless or purposeful wildlife feeding. Coyotes emboldened through regular handouts may become dangerous to pets and even to small people.

Coyote control? Many abundant species become nuisance problems best solved through population reduction. Coyote populations do not respond to population reduction measures, long-term. Control is best focused on bold coyotes demonstrating potential threat.

Tips for living with coyotes:

• Coyotes are here to stay, we can adapt!
• Coyotes are rural dwellers, suburban dwellers, exurban dwellers, and common urban dwellers too, we must adapt.
• Keep coyotes wild and shy: Fed coyotes become bold coyotes. Avoid feeding coyotes intentionally and unintentionally.
• Contain garbage in sturdy cans with attached tight-fitting lids. Keep garbage containers in a garage or a can shed until pickup morning. Coyotes and other nuisance wildlife can become regular garbage invaders.
• Be most vigilant during April through July or August. Coyotes become most bold during rearing months when alpha pairs feed hungry pups.
• Feed outdoor pets once or twice daily and remove bowls and leftover food to a protected location after the pets have eaten. Pet food attracts coyotes and other nuisance wildlife to your doorstep.
• Keep bird feeding stations clean. Coyotes will approach large bird feeding stations with deep accumulations of seed husks and spilled seed on the ground–they find their favorite foods there: mice and voles feed on the seed and dig tunnel galleries in the seed waste piles. Coyotes are attracted to squirrels, chipmunks and birds attracted by feeders, too.
• Compost piles should be contained and meat and fish should be composted only in sturdy containers.
• Coyotes will prey on domestic cats, or just kill them! Cultural practices such as leaving cats outdoors must change if we will reduce losses to coyotes–keep cats indoors!
• Size matters, says coyote expert, Stan Gehrt: Small dogs are vulnerable to coyotes. Don’t leave leashed dogs outside unattended.
• Two large outdoor dogs are better than one for discouraging close approach by coyotes.
• Community-wide roadkill cleanup is essential. Coyotes scavenge roadkill wildlife.
• Our livestock raising practices must be adapted to minimize losses to coyotes. Large breed guard dogs raised from very young age alongside their livestock, by far, offer the best protection.
• Rarely, an aggressive human habitat-habituated coyote may require removal.

Frightened by repeated sightings of coyotes during daytime? Call EWS for a Wildlife Site Consultation to discuss ecological solutions and control options.

Want to do further research yourself? See authoritative resources below.

Urban Coyotes: Conflict & Management by Stanley Gehrt and Courtney Quirin.

Community-Level Strategies for Urban Coyote Management by Courtney Quirin and Stanley Gehrt.

Urban Coyote Ecology and Management, a report of the Cook County, Illinois Coyote Project written by Stanley D. Gehrt, PhD.

Managing human-wildlife conflicts

The intersection of human ecology with wildlife ecology is considered. We develop unique environmentally sensitive solutions aimed at enabling people and wildlife to live apart while living together.

• Nuisance wildlife management services
• Nuisance wildlife damage control
• Desired wildlife attracting
• Wildlife habitat consulting and services

Welcome to Ecological Wildlife Solutions™. We help you solve your wildlife conflicts. We offer wildlife solutions founded in ecological approaches. Every home is habitat. We help you exclude undesired wildlife while attracting desired wildlife.