Tag Archives: bat removal

Need Wildlife Pest Control? Here’s 4 Wildlife Pests We Know All Too Well.

So, you’ve heard scratching, gnawing, or flapping in the attic and decided you need wildlife pest control. So, what’s next? Well, you’re in the right place because Terminix Canada offers humane wildlife removal that works. This way, intruding wildlife can return to their natural habitat and away from your home – completely harm-free.

Our professional exterminators know everything it takes to remove wildlife pests from your home. To further convince you that you need wildlife pest control, these four pests are liable to attack, maim, and chomp with their germ-ridden mandibles when you least expect. Wildlife pests are athletic, crafty, dangerous, and dirty. All too often, they cause immeasurable damage to our homes and mayhem wherever they go.

Before you contact your nearest Terminix Canada branch, carry on reading to learn more about four of the most infamous rent-free intruders around.

We Regularly Perform Wildlife Pest Control For:

  1. Raccoons
  2. Skunks
  3. Bats
  4. Squirrels

1. Raccoons: The King Of The Concrete Jungle

Ah, the notorious trash panda. We’d revere raccoons’ resourcefulness if they weren’t so reprehensible.

These little annoyances have no problem making themselves comfortable on your property. Equipped with razor-sharp claws, raccoons fear no human and will attack if they feel threatened. Plus, raccoons are one of the leading animal carriers of the rabies virus.

What’s most irritating is their innate ability to cause a ruckus on our property. From inhabiting spaces in our garages and attics, to finding new and inventive ways to root through and destroy our green bins, raccoons are as efficient at being pests as Terminix Canada is at removing them!

The best form of raccoon control is preventing raccoon problems in the first place. By limiting access to food, shelter, and water, this is the best way to raccoon-proof your home. Naturally, these masked intruders are cunning and should you already have a raccoon infestation, hiring Terminix Canada’s humane raccoon removal service is the way to go.

2. Skunks: The Accidental Bullies

We kind of feel bad for skunks. They are harmless creatures in theory. However, in practice, people react to them like they were Jason Voorhees if his weapon of choice was stink spray instead of a machete!

Skunks only spray potential threats, and actually don’t view humans as such. However, they suffer from nearsightedness, and often mistake us for predators. This leads to most skunk spraying incidents.

Skunks’ poor eyesight also causes them to spray our pet dogs, because the stinky pests confuse canines for wolves and foxes. For dog owners, this is its own special kind of nightmare.

Much like raccoons, skunks will forage into our gardens and trash. Considering the damage they inflict on our homes, and the ability to make us smell like unwashed underwear, it’s easy to see why skunks are so detestable.

Best practices of skunk control include installing physical barriers. This will ensure that skunks can’t enter any holes near your property to create a skunk den. Additionally, you should remove any cover skunks could potentially use for harbourage. This includes brush, woodpiles, and shady vegetation.

3. Bats: The Heroes We Don’t Want

Sure, bats do a lot of great things for the environment. They pollinate flowers and disperse fruit seeds for starters. In fact, some plants depend primarily on bats for seed distribution. Additionally, bats feast upon insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides.

Nevertheless, we still loathe these rats-with-wings!

Maybe it’s because they’re hideous, utterly terrifying creatures, potentially carrying rabies and other diseases like histoplasmosis – an infection caused by breathing in spores that grow in bat droppings. Or it could be their proclivity to nest in our attics? All too often, bats enjoy the luxury of consistent temperatures in our attics, spawning more of their offspring until our homes play host to legions of flying threats.

When it comes to bat removal, you should always approach bat-proofing with extreme caution. In other words, you should leave bat control to a professional like Terminix Canada.

Exclusion is always the way to go when dealing with bats. Bats’ food sources are flying insects outside your home. You can’t remove their food or water source, so exclusion or relocation are your only options. Under no circumstances should you ever try to trap and release bats on your own.

4. Squirrels: Small, Yet Formidable Foes

One of the most common attic dwellers, squirrels are remarkable, yet infuriating little creatures. One of the most agile critters around, squirrels can rotate their feet 180 degrees and can run like superheroes at a 90-degree angle.

Boasting infamous sharp teeth that are constantly growing, squirrels can gnaw through roof tiles, wood, and electrical wiring with ease. Not only fast and super nimble, a squirrel’s peripheral vision is just as good as their focal vision too. This means removing them yourself is notoriously difficult.

What you can do however is remove any open diet sources, ensuring that no seeds, nuts, or fruits are within easy reach. This is one of the best preventative methods of squirrel control. Gutter guards can also help prevent squirrels from finding entry points into your home. Lastly, cutting back overhanging limbs is another effective method for keeping squirrels away.

However, if squirrels have already breached your perimeter, and you’re all too familiar with clicks, growls, and screams, it’s time to enlist the professionals.

Trust Terminix Canada For All Your Wildlife Pest Control Needs

Do you have a raccoon, skunk, bat, or squirrel problem? If your home is overrun with a pest or wildlife infestation, Terminix Canada provides humane wildlife pest control services from Halifax to Vancouver. We even offer emergency wildlife control for more pressing wildlife problems.

Not only will we humanely remove any current wildlife from your property, but we’ll take measures to prevent any further infestations. Visit our Branch Locator, find your nearest Terminix Canada branch, and give them a call today.

Are Bats The Best Form Of Mosquito Control?

Everyone loves summer, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t gripe about mosquitos, wishing we had some form of effective mosquito control, while sitting outside enjoying a beautiful summer evening. Whether it’s the sound of them buzzing in your ears that you can’t stand or their itchy bites keeping you up all night, one thing is for sure, no one is a fan of these pesky little buggers.

Additionally, mosquitos can do a lot more damage than just an annoying itch, with some species carrying illnesses like West Nile, Zika and Malaria in various countries. But how do we eradicate a pest that has evolved to over 3,500 known species all over the world?

Humans haven’t been able to find the solution, so is it time we look to our nocturnal flying friend, the bat, to solve the problem for us?

Well, not so fast. Let’s take a deeper dive into bats’ eating habits and their relationship with the well-despised mosquito.  

Do Bats Eat Mosquitoes?

Bats like to feed on mosquitoes and are known for doing so in large quantities, but mosquitoes may not be their favorite insect to snack on. Using bats for mosquito infestations has long been considered by scientists.

However, studies have revealed over the years that bats might not eat enough to help reduce mosquito populations in an area. Several researchers have studied how many mosquitoes a bat can eat during each feeding and what that means for the environment.

Find out what these studies have revealed below.

Are Bats The Best Way To Get Rid Of Mosquitos?

Many people believe that bats can binge on mosquitoes, eating as many as 1,000 per hour. That would lead you to believe that a single bat could eat 12,000 mosquitoes in one night, right? Unfortunately, those rumors are likely stretching the truth. While bats have the capability to eat over 10 mosquitoes in 60 seconds, it has not been observed before.

Many of the rumors flying around stemmed from a 1960’s study where researchers released bats into a confined space with a large number of mosquitoes. The study revealed that the little brown bats ate 10 mosquitoes per minute, but only for a few minutes, meaning they did not maintain this eating pattern for an extended amount of time. Additionally, a bat in a confined space without any other meal options can’t represent what a bat in the wild might do.

Additional Studies On The Link Between Bats & Mosquito Control

Another study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison revealed that bats in the wild eat mosquitoes more frequently than what previous studies had observed by examining the guano of 12 little brown and big brown bats. They found at least one mosquito in all the little brown bat sites and in 60% of the big brown bat sites, meaning little brown bats eat more mosquitoes than big brown bats.

 They also found that bats eat a variety of mosquito species, including those known to carry the West Nile Virus. This could indicate that using bats for mosquito control could help reduce health concerns, but only if they would eat more of them.

However, mosquitoes aren’t the only food source. Mosquitoes make up only a small portion of their diet, which also includes larger insects, such as beetles, moths and other larger insects that make for a more filling meal

Our Best Tips For Mosquito Control

Bats may not be able to solve your mosquito problem, but there are a few things you can do to help reduce populations in your yard, including:

  • Remove any containers with standing water, such as pet bowls, ornamental ponds or old tires, where mosquitoes can breed.
  • Make sure water in plant or flower pots properly drains.
  • Mow tall grass where mosquitoes could be hiding.
  • Change the water in birdbaths and children’s pools once or twice a week. Turn wading pools upside down when not in use.
  • Keep rain gutters unclogged and dry.
  • Drain any puddles, ditches or swampy places around the home.
  • Don’t leave any porch or outdoor lights on that may attract mosquitoes to your home.
  • Consult with your pest control specialist for mosquito control recommendations and treatments.

There are lots of chemical pesticide solutions on the market, but unfortunately these pesticides cause more harm than good. These chemicals are actually more likely to kill mosquito predators than they are to kill mosquitos. This helps mosquitos thrive even more. These predators, such as fish, bats and other insects which have much smaller populations and take longer to reproduce die out due to these harmful chemicals, while mosquitos are gaining resistance, leading to higher quantities and increased toxicity to help eradicate your mosquito problem.

Have A Bat Problem?

While bats may help lower the mosquito population in your immediate area, they can also cause a lot of problems. Don’t let bats make your house their home. If bats have evaded your attic, walls or sheds, trust Terminix Canada to help with bat control. Our humane bat removal can quickly respond to bat infestations and provide bat proofing services.

Our humane bat removal service utilizes industry-leading techniques to successfully remove bats from your property. Backed by over 90 years of wildlife removal experience, we only provide solutions that work.