Fire and soft critters aren’t always friendly. They can cost serious damage to your property. Many people have had to empty their wallets because of the damages caused by these creatures.
Many animals like to make human houses their abodes because of several reasons, including searching for food, warmth, and safety. To prevent your home from being damaged by these creatures, you may need to contact a pest removal service provider to assist you. However, knowing the critters and how to control them can also help you keep them from your home. This article highlights five creatures that shouldn’t have any business in your home.
- Groundhogs
Despite being cute and comical critters, groundhogs can considerably damage your house and yard. These creatures are notorious for building their dens under homes. They’ll not only dig up your lawn and ransack your garden but also burrow the foundation of your house. Their speed of digging and the amount of dirt they excavate can weaken your house’s foundation and make it to slant. That can be made worse if your home is built on a slab foundation.
To avoid your house from being damaged, you have to control groundhogs. Controlling these animals isn’t difficult. Only ensure you know your municipality’s rules on relocating and removing pest animals. One of the most humane ways of eliminating groundhogs is to trap them and release them somewhere away from your home. If you succeed in catching one using a trap, be careful when taking it to the wild because it may bite you if it feels threatened. It’s recommended that you wear thick gloves when catching and releasing them.
Groundhogs love to eat fruits. Therefore, using fruits as bait and making a successful catch, rub the trap walls with its favorite fruit and then place a few pieces in the trap. You can also create a trail leading to the trap. Some states have rules against trapping. So ensure you check your state’s laws before you use the trapping method.
- Opossums
Opossums may seem harmless, but they can be destructive visitors to your residential property like other invaders. The creatures can indiscriminately eat everything from carrion to garbage. However, their natural diet consists of bugs, rodents, and a wide variety of plants. This diet draws it to human dwellings, which have unsecured and ample food for rummaging.
Their climbing agility makes them easily access your attic through holes and slits in the vents and eaves. Their droppings’ size and repulsive smell make opossums one of the stinkiest invaders in North America after the skunk.
When these critters get into your house, they can cause a lot of damage. With their very sharp teeth, they can bite and scare your pets and steal their food. They can also get into your food storage unit and rot the food by contaminating the entire room. Worse still, they can tear your home apart as they try to get nesting materials. If you aren’t lucky enough, these creatures may bring diseases like tularemia, toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, coccidiosis, and spotted fever to your home.
You can prevent opossums from getting into your house by using garlic and pepper. These creatures hate the smell of these condiments and may not stay where they’re placed. Throwing some pepper and garlic on your attic and possible entry points can help keep them from entering your house. It would be best if you crushed the garlic and pepper. Use the crushed garlic and pepper every day until they leave your compound.
- Raccoons
The fluffy fur and the cute bandit masks or raccoons may amuse you. If one of these creatures nests inside your house, your comfortable abode will turn into chaos. Raccoons love to visit houses that unintentionally give them food sources like pet food, bird feed, and unsealed garbage containers. If a raccoon gets into your compound, it’ll soon be tempted to get into your house. That mostly happens during the winter when females are seeking shelter to give birth. Raccoons love to nest inside attics where they can know electrical wires.
To control these creatures, avoid leaving pet food outdoors. If you have to feed your pets outside, do so at certain times of the day and clean everything that’s uneaten. Also, if you like to dine al fresco, ensure you clean after meals. For better results, use cleaners that have bleach or chemicals that eliminate odors. Pouring some of that cleaner on trash bags left outdoors can prevent raccoons from invading them.
- Skunks
Everybody dreads skunks because of their strong, stinky, and long-lasting liquid that they spray when defending themselves. If you’ve never encountered this omnivore before, don’t be fooled that it can’t hide under your patio or house to seek refuge in winter. Skunks are attracted to houses offering easy access to shelter and food. These may be homes that aren’t adequately fenced or reinforced. These creatures can also access your home by tearing ventilation screens.
Once skunks nest into your home, they’ll spread their stinking smell to the whole house. Removing this pest from your home can be difficult because if you attack it, it’ll spray defensively and make every part of your home stinky. Therefore, to avoid using hundreds of dollars to purchase detergents, it’s advisable to call a pest removal service to help you eliminate the animal from your home.
- Squirrel
The squirrel’s teeth are its biggest weapon and destructive tool. Through its teeth, it can chew its favorite food like walnuts, seeds, and acorns. Unfortunately, those teeth don’t stop growing, and regular chewing keeps them trimmed. That means that if they get into your house, they’ll chew everything which isn’t metal. The damage caused by squirrels isn’t apparent at first. You may hear them rustling in the ceiling or gnawing some wood. However, you’ll notice the damage they have caused the wall or ceiling when you look at their entry points.
The best ways of getting rid of squirrels include fumigation, trapping, using poisonous baits, and repelling them with electronic deterrents or liquid solutions. Squirrel traps are usually tube-shaped, though the regular cage traps can also be useful.
Bottom Line
Though many animals aren’t welcomed into your home, they may find their way into your compound in various ways. Knowing how destructive these animals are and what they like, can help you keep them from your home. Only ensure that you follow your state’s laws of trapping and eliminating the critters.