Cold temperatures drive wild animals to seek warmth, meaning your home looks especially inviting to them in the winter months. Prevent animals from damaging your home and its surrounding areas by eliminating or protecting food sources and preventing access to habitable areas. Here are a few tips from the pros at Wild Trappers:
Eliminate Food Sources
- Garbage: Secure any garbage containers that are kept outside with rocks, cords, ropes, or weights. Better yet, keep the cans indoors and put trash out on the morning of collection (not the night before). Clean out the bins occasionally to reduce smells and keep the trash area clean.
- Pet Food: When feeding pets outdoors, make sure the area is cleaned after they eat and no food is remaining in dishes.
- Ponds: Raccoons love water foods like crawdads and fish, so if you have a pond or outdoor water feature with potential food sources, consider installing a fence.
- Gardens: Your beautiful garden looks like a giant salad bar to a wide variety of wildlife. To protect your fruits and veggies, you may wish to install a fence around your garden.
- Compost: Cover and secure your compost piles and never add meat products to compost.
Inspect Your Home for Entry Points
Raccoons, squirrels, skunks, and other animals may see your chimney, attic, or the space under your porch as the perfect spot to spend the winter. To keep wildlife out of your home, inspect your house from top to bottom to look for gaps, holes, and access points. Look closely because animals can squeeze into all sorts of tight spaces (mice only need a ¼ inch opening). Pay attention to places where different types of building materials come together, window wells, dryer exhaust vents, and gaps in your brick or siding.
- Chimney: After checking that no animals are present in the flue, place an animal-proof grate over your chimney opening.
- Gutters: Clean out gutters and consider adding gutter guards.
- Attic: Inspect attics with a flashlight for any signs of animals (droppings, chewed areas, and nesting material)
- Foundation: Check your foundation for openings, especially where pipes, vents, and cables exit the house.
Critter Removal
If you have a critter that has made its way into your home, you notice droppins, or you hear scratching and rustling in your walls, don’t try to remove the intruder yourself—call Wild Trappers! Our state certified wildlife trappers will remove any uninvited wildlife from your property via safe and humane animal trapping and removal techniques.
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