Wildlife Pest Control
While it's wonderful to admire Long Island's wildlife from a distance, the situation shifts dramatically when these creatures choose your attic or backyard as their new home. The presence of wild animals on your property can lead to significant health hazards and damage. Facing a wildlife infestation requires the expertise of a seasoned wildlife control company to ensure your safety and protect your property.
Wildlife such as squirrels, raccoons, and opossums might seem harmless, but sometimes they can wreak havoc on your yard and even make their way inside your home. If this happens, they can cause expensive damage to your home while endangering your health and well-being.
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Squirrels are so common in the area that many people forget they are rodents and pests. They range in color from white to grey, yellow, red, and brown and have a distinguishable bushy tail. Squirrels are sneaky creatures with climbing, jumping, and scurrying skills that aid them in breaking into your home.
Once they find their way in, they will use materials from your home like insulation, linens, and paper products to build their nests and make themselves at home. Like other rodents, squirrels' teeth never stop growing, making gnawing essential to their survival. They won't hesitate to chew through wires, furniture, and the structure of your home.
With their unique mask-like markings, ringed tails, and salt-and-pepper coloring, raccoons will eat anything and will do what they can to get food, from raiding gardens to climbing into garbage cans and dumpsters and breaking into homes. Any way they do it, they are likely to leave a mess and cause you distress. Not all raccoons have rabies, but no one wants to find out which ones do. This is one of the problems that come with raccoons. If they are rapid and bite a person or pet, it can cause significant medical problems if not treated.
Some places you might find raccoon dens on your property include backyards, under decks, outdoor structures, attics, and chimneys. Raccoons can cause damage to your house and spread illnesses to people. When searching for a place to den, these pests might rip off shingles, fascia boards, or rooftop ventilators to get into your attic. After gaining access to your home, they'll tear up the insulation in walls and heating and air conditioning ducts.
Some raccoons can spread diseases and parasites if they get inside your home. Some of the diseases include:
- Baylisascaris (roundworm)
- Leptospirosis
- Giardiasis
- Salmonellosis
- E. coli infection
- Rabies
Opossums are nocturnal critters that you might spot scurrying across the road. Like raccoons, opossums will eat a variety of food, including trash. When threatened, they will produce a disgusting smell and show their teeth, but they are not generally aggressive. They have white or grayish hair, a long, pointed face, and round hairless ears.
Opossums are also skilled swimmers and can use their opposable rear thumbs and long tails to effectively climb trees and other structures. Opossums can eat fruit, grains and insects, but will also eat out of compost piles, garbage cans and pet food dishes if they can get access.
Opossums will seek out structures such as garages, hollow logs, tree cavities, brush piles or burrows of other animals when looking for a home. When digging for food, they can also damage lawns. Opossums carry a host of diseases harmful to people and pets, like Leptospirosis, TB (Tuberculosis), Rabies, Relapsing Fever, Tularemia, Toxoplasmosis, Coccidiosis, Trichomoniasis, and Chagas disease.
When threatened or harmed, opossums have been known to “play possum” by acting like a dead animal.
Our Wildlife Control Process
Wildlife control is NEVER a DIY. You can run the risk of agitating a cornered animal that is looking for a source of food and shelter. To avoid the possibility of injury, it’s always better to leave this work to a professional. When you call EM Pest Control to get wildlife off of your property, we’ll do the following:
- Inspect the property to find how they are getting into your home or business.
- Apply exclusion methods or set traps.
- Produce a detailed wildlife removal report to describe the completed treatment.
- Share prevention tips to avoid future infestations.
EM Pest Control is here to help when it comes to wildlife control, elimination, and prevention. Although the professionals are here to help, you should also properly maintain your property to keep wildlife at bay:
- Always make sure your garbage is secure with a fitted lid.
- Keep your yard free of debris and materials that can be used to make nests.
- Fence in gardens and easy to access fruit trees.
- Remove water sources like birdbaths if they are attracting unwanted wildlife.
