"Do it yourself" mistakes

Some of the more complicated jobs we deal with are ones where the homeowner has attempted to do the job themselves. I understand the want to do this, I often try to look up how to do things that are out of the realm of what I know how to to as well. But that is not a good idea when the problem your dealing with is a living animal(s) and can cause major damage. Newtons third law states “every action has an equal and opposite reaction” and when we take on clean up jobs to fix these types of situations, that “equal and opposite reaction” can be a serious problem

The process of wildlife removal involves 2 main steps - Getting the animals out, and sealing up the entry points. Now there are a ton of factors that go into each of these processes, but we find most of the homeowner problems come from skipping step one and starting at step two. For instance, assuming squirrels are outside during the day does not mean you should go and seal up the entry point. Yes you may see squirrels outside, but are they YOUR squirrels that have been going in and out of the structure? There’s no way to tell. You have to either trap, monitor, or somehow verify that is the only spot and it is not being used over a few days. Another factor here is the breeding season. Even if you successfully seal up the main entry point, do you understand squirrel biology and know that they have young in February-April and often again in July-August? If you seal out the mother, the young will die and could possibly smell, or cause damage inside trying to get out, or chew through your ceiling because they are desperate for their mother which is now gone. Another factor you have to take into consideration is the actual mindset of the animal. When it comes back to get inside and the hole is closed, what is it going to do? If it really wants in, it will start chewing, gnawing, tearing, prying, at everything it can to get back in. This is going to cause more ugly damage, and cost extra money to fix.

How about having your handyman seal up underneath your deck or three season room because skunks keep going underneath and are spraying? Well he may have looked underneath and said “there’s skunks that I can see, so I’m going to close it up and fix your problem”. Does he know that skunks will typically burrow down into the ground so you may not actually see them from looking eye level under the deck? Well when that skunk(s) dies, and you smell both the awful decaying animal smell and well known scent gland release coming through your floorboards into your house (when a skunk dies the body relaxes and the gland releases) you’ll wish you had done it right and called a true professional in this industry. Now you have to hire someone to go underneath and get that carcass out, or cut into your floor and get it out that way. Believe me, we’ve done both and its not pretty.