Winter is rarely easy for anyone, but you may wonder sometimes just how wild animals make it through, lacking heat, cozy blankets, and hot chocolate or coffee to keep warm. As it turns out, they’ve evolved a fascinating array of physical or behavioral adaptations to either avoid or cope with winter’s woes. Naturalists sometimes simplify the approaches into three main categories: migrate, hibernate, and adapt, and there are all kinds of variations … [Read more...]
Havahart Traps and Other Live-catch Wildlife Traps
This article focuses on how to ensure live-catch traps work their best, both for resolving your situation and preventing, or at least minimizing, harm or stress for wildlife. Before attempting to trap any wild animal in or near your home, though, you need to check with your local humane society or state wildlife agency about pertinent laws for your area. Even more important—before resorting to obtaining a live-catch trap, such as one of the … [Read more...]
Think You Have Animals in Your Chimney?
Wondering what that scratching or chattering you hear coming from your chimney is? It’s good you noticed, because sometimes animals in a chimney are in distress—having fallen inside by accident, they may be trapped. Sometimes, though, an animal chooses to enter your chimney, hoping to escape cold weather or looking for a safe place to raise young. If the chattering just began, wildlife babies may just now be getting to a size where their voices … [Read more...]
What You Need to Know About Baby Raccoons
Baby raccoons are undeniably adorable. But discovering that you have a family of raccoons living in your chimney, attic, or walls can be surprising. Find helpful guidance on safe removal of raccoons from your home and guidance specifically on evicting raccoons from chimneys. But you might also find it useful to know a little more about raccoons in general. Understanding these animals will go a long way toward resolving any problems, so check … [Read more...]
Matching the Resourcefulness of Raccoons
How to succeed in today’s constantly changing world? Ask your neighborhood raccoons! “Be smart, resourceful, and adaptable,” they’d say—qualities that have helped raccoons flourish in a growing range of places. So, exactly what does success require in the daily life of a raccoon? Depends upon where she lives, but let’s focus on those living in cities and towns. Staying Safe… Although deaths from hunting, trapping, and vehicle collisions are … [Read more...]
Thinking About Using a Fox Trap?
If you are considering using a live trap to capture a fox on your property, this article is meant for you. You may not realize that there are more effective options available to you before resorting to a fox trap. Here you’ll find helpful, practical ways to troubleshoot the problem and avoid the pitfalls associated with trapping. Consider this first… At first you may be frightened to learn that there are foxes living in your neighborhood, but … [Read more...]
Looking for Tips on Raccoon Removal?
Has a raccoon entered your home through a pet entrance? Have you heard one rustling around inside your ceiling, walls, attic, or chimney? Don’t waste time and money on a temporary solution. Here’s the sensible raccoon removal advice you need to assess, solve, and prevent problems with raccoons in your home. For the easily observed accidental intruder… If you find a raccoon in a room of your home, remaining calm will help minimize trouble and … [Read more...]
Looking to Get Rid of Foxes?
Foxes denning under your deck? Or denning in your yard? Or, maybe you’re just seeing them around and wonder if you should be concerned.” Well, the good news is that you have nothing to fear. If they’re raising a family in your yard, you’re in for a treat. It is fun and educational to watch fox parents raise their young. No, foxes won’t drag off your kids --- their main prey items are mice, rats, chipmunks, and some squirrels or rabbits. They … [Read more...]
Flying Squirrels in Your Attic?
Flying squirrels are extremely acrobatic members of the squirrel family, gliding from tree to tree, making 90-degree turns mid-air, and landing with ease. What enables them to do these amazing things is a fleshy membrane of skin that extends from each wrist to each ankle, as well as a long, flattened tail for steering and balance. Though undeniably cute—and highly efficient as spore and seed dispersers—flying squirrels are not necessarily the … [Read more...]
Helpful Raccoon Facts
Are raccoons on your property impressing you in ways you wish they weren’t? Do they scale your chimney inside and out, for example, or harvest veggies from your garden before you can enjoy them? If so, it’s time to learn more about these resourceful animals, so you can solve and prevent the conflicts they can sometimes cause. We've got the raccoon facts. Raccoons are often blamed for things other animals do—one more reason it’s worth taking … [Read more...]