How We Solve Riverside Wildlife Problems
It starts with your phone call. We answer our phones 24/7, and we will carefully listen to your wildlife problem. Every case is different, so we will ask appropriate questions to help
us understand the situation better. Questions like, "do you hear the noises at night or during the daytime?" or "what type of roof do you have?" After we have a general idea of your
situation, we can provide a ballpark price range, and schedule a same-day or next-day appointment to inspect your property.
INSPECTION: Once on site, we will perform a full inspection of your home and property. This allows us to use the correct strategy and traps. If the animals are in an attic, a full building inspection is crucial, including the following:
- All ground-level areas, such as piper or A/C line entry & exit areas, A/C chase bottoms, ground-level vents, etc.
- All mid-level areas, such as dryer vents, siding gaps, first floor eaves or dormers, etc.
- We inspect the entire roof, including all plumbing stacks, ridge caps, vents, and other potential gaps or holes.
- We also inspect inside your attic, to identify animals and damage they have caused.
- If the animals are outside, we notice many subtle clues that will assist us in a successful strategy.
TRAPPING, EXCLUSION, REMOVAL: Once we understand what animal species we are dealing with, and the problem, we use the most effective means of removing the animals. We use dozens of different types of traps.
- Trapping - If trapping the animal(s) in live cage traps, trap type, set, and location are crucial to success.
- Exclusion - Oftentimes, we are able to simply set one-way doors or other exclusion devices that allow the animals inside a building to safely exit, but never get back inside.
- Removal By Hand - Sometimes we actually remove animals by hand, or with special tools like snare poles.
- The Law - In all cases, we obey state and local laws regarding wildlife, but aim to take the most humane approach.
ENTRY HOLE REPAIRS: Repairs are a crucial step in the wildlife removal process. In many cases, such as bat or rodent control, the job cannot be performed without detailed repairs, and in all cases, sealing the entry holes shut ensures that no future wildlife will ever enter your home.
- 100% of the entry holes must be found, and sealed shut, or the job is not complete.
- Our repairs are professional contractor grade, look good, and when applicable we use steel, which rodents such as rats or squirrels are unable to chew through.
- We give a written guarantee on our repairs against any future animal entry.
ATTIC DECONTAMINATION SERVICES: It may be desirable to clean your attic after we've removed the animals. They can leave behind large amounts of droppings, urine, hair, oils, food, nesting material, and so on. These remnants can attract insects like cockroaches, and the scent left behind can encourage new animals to chew their way into your house. You might experience odor problems from the waste. It's possible that mold will grow on waste areas.
- We remove or vacuum all droppings, or remove all the soiled insulation.
- We fog the attic with a special enzyme-based cleaner that destroys any organic matter and deodorizes the space.
- We repair damage, such as ductwork, electrical wires, pipes, insulation, and more.
When our beautiful California weather turns into nothing but blazing sun and heat, birds tend to look for ways into homes and attics for some much needed shade. If you find yourself with a bird problem, or any wildlife problem, give us a call! We answer our phones 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to asnwer all of your questions. We service the following cities: Canyon Lake, Cathedral City, Coachella Desert Hot Springs, Eastvale, Banning, Beaumont, Blythe, Calimesa, Corona, Chino, Hemet, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee, and Jurupa Valley. We also service the following counties: San Bernardino County, San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Kern County.
Other Riverside animal pest control topics:
Skunk Prevention Tips
Rat Repellents
Information About Moles
How to Kill a Pigeon
To learn more about our services, visit the Riverside wildlife control home page.
This month's wildlife how-to article: How to get rid of opossums
How to get rid of opossums
The easiest and simplest way to get rid of opossums is to make your home unattractive to them. There are numerous easy ways to do this, a couple of motion activated deterrent devices i.e. lights to come on and water sprinklers, neither of these on their own will act as a deterrent for any length of time but combined they seem to confuse the opossums and rather than risk it the opossums will go elsewhere. If you are using these as an outer wall defense then you will need something different for inner defense.
Here, closer to the house, it seems that a lot of people use different things scattered on the ground or rubbed onto places that the possums use as walkways, these things are the usual suspects, ammonia, mothballs and pet hair, by all means use dog and cat hair but don't bother adding human hair, opossums are not in the least bit afraid of humans. Something I've read a couple of times suggests that some opossums really object to the smell of raw garlic but other people have even said that the opossum at their house ate the garlic, but it might be worth a try.
Forget about using store-bought chemical repellents, they are just a waste of money as the opossums will totally ignore them according to all the experts. The easiest and most effective way of getting rid of opossums is to make sure there is no reason for the opossum to look twice at your house or yard. That means there are no sources of food for the animal and there is nowhere for it to hide. That also means keeping your lawns mowed, your gardens tidy and your house in good repair. The absolute worst thing you can have in your garden is a tree or plant that produces fruit or berries or anything else edible in late spring to early summer, this is when the females have the most demands on them by their young an are desperate for anything edible.
If it is legal and you have a permit by all means trap an offending opossum and remove it, if your local authorities have a particular area they want you to release animals into, then use it. As a last resort, if you can stick it out, opossums are nomadic, that means that the opossum that is driving you crazy today will move on of its own accord sooner rather than later especially if you deny it food at your house.
