Effective Wildlife Solutions

Yard and Garden Conflicts with Wild Rabbits

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As it turns out, wild rabbits want the same things in a garden that you do… flowers and veggies! After all the work involved in planting and tending to your garden and landscaping, it can be disheartening to find your precious flowers and vegetables nibbled away by wild rabbits. But conflicts with wild rabbits are not all one-sided. Raking and mowing often disrupts their nests. Cats who are allowed to free-roam catch and kill baby rabbits. When … [Read more...]

Armadillo Natural History

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To the Aztecs, they were ayotochtl, or the turtle-rabbit. To pumas and jaguars, they were an elusive meal. And to the Spanish, they were the “little armored one.” When South and North America were united by the Isthmus of Panama 15 million years ago, armadillos began their long march northwards, becoming one of only four mammals to survive the trek. With the recent, drastic decline in natural predators, in the past 150 years they have … [Read more...]

Armadillos in Your Yard

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Armadillos are amazing animals, although you may wish they were a tad less amazing when it comes to their digging abilities. If you have an armadillo hanging out in your yard, you may be only noticing the less helpful aspects of their presence. But these nocturnal omnivores do some good stuff too - like scarfing up gobs of worms, grubs, and insects and aerating your soil, which will help your plants grow better. It’s also true, though, that in … [Read more...]

Backyard Snakes

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Your heart is pounding, your forehead sweating, every muscle tensing and goose-bump rising; before you can think—before your brain can even conjure the word “snake”—your limbs have frozen in place. Your body is alerting you to what your eyes have seen. As you halt, you finally register a little Garter snake as it slides off through your garden. Thousands of years of vulnerable Homo sapiens struggling to evade snake predation have led to this … [Read more...]

Bear Proof Food Storage Tips

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Bears and people both eat a pretty wide range of things. And, bears seem to have noticed that they like a lot of what we eat, beyond just what you might bring along while Yellowstone camping. If you live in or near bear country, you may encounter a hungry bear in your backyard, especially when young bears first leave their mothers, or when bears of any age are fattening up for the winter. Moms with young may also be in search of food. Remember … [Read more...]

What Works as a Woodpecker Deterrent?

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Woodpeckers are generally pretty popular, and with good reason. They’re attractive birds, they’re fascinating to watch, and they can make one heck of a racket when they drum on the siding of your house. No, wait—that last thing is what gets people so angry at woodpeckers. But, no worries, because if you’re looking for a woodpecker deterrent, or how to get rid of woodpeckers—or, say, how to encourage them to find other things to do—this article … [Read more...]

Simple Ways to Repel Chipmunks

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Few people would try to deny that chipmunks are adorable and fascinating to watch. But whether you see their charm or not, chipmunks do, on occasion, get into a bit of mischief… eating flower bulbs, munching cherry tomatoes in the veggie garden, burrowing under porches or walkways… not to mention hoarding astonishing amounts of seed from birdfeeders. None of these activities are catastrophic, but you may still be thinking about whether there is … [Read more...]

Mole Control

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Until we end our love affair with the perfect lawn, there will be people wanting to find out how to get rid of moles and mole holes. For some, the desire to get rid of moles is as strong as that to have turf fit for the cover of “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. What is a mole, and his hole? Moles are not rodents, but an insectivore that belong to a family of their own. There are seven species that live in North America, with the … [Read more...]

Are Possums Dangerous ?

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You may ask, are possums dangerous? The short answer is no, but they would like you to think so. The truth is that possums are gentle and non-aggressive animals. They are the only marsupial (moms come equipped with a baby pouch) living north of Mexico and roamed the earth along with the dinosaurs. They lead a nomadic life, usually sticking around long enough to eat what they find, then moving on to find more food elsewhere. You say possum, I … [Read more...]

That Bird Has Angel Wing

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When you see it, you may think that the twisted wing on a goose or a duck is injured or broken. But it’s not broken, and it is not an injury; it is a deformity called “angel wing” and there is nothing angelic about it. What is angel wing? Angel wing is a debilitating condition for waterfowl and is directly caused by human feeding. When young, growing birds are fed high carbohydrate foods such as bread and popcorn (which replace the … [Read more...]